Tributes to French actor Michel Duchaussoy, voice of Brando in The Godfather

Tributes have been pouring in following the death on Monday night of French actor Michel Duchaussoy at the age of 73.

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Duchaussoy first made his name as a theatre actor and worked for many years in the Comédie Française, where he began his career in 1964 after leaving the Conservatoire.

He acted in many great French classic plays including Molière, Marivaux, Corneille and Ionesco and in 2003 he received the prestigious Molière award as best supporting actor, for his performance in Phèdre.

In 1967 he got his first break in films with a role in Alain Jessua’s “Jeu de massacre”.

Louis Malle chose him to appear in “Vie privée” and « Milou en mai » and he also featured in three Claude Chabrol films « La femme infidèle », « Que la bête meure” and also “La rupture”.

His deep voice was a good match for Marlon Brando’s in the dubbed version of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather”, and he was widely praised for his performance in “L’Ennemi public numero 1”, directed by Jean-François Richet, where he played Jacques Mesrine’s father.

More recently, in 2010 he starred alongside Sophie Marceau in Yann Samuell's "L'age de raison."

“He had a great sense of humour and was always laughing. And that’s a lesson for many of us, that he did not take himself too seriously”, said the director Patrice Leconte today. He added “This form, not of modesty but this form of calm talented discretion, it utterly charmed me.”

Director Patrice Chéreau spoke of a “magnificent” actor, who was “someone of great strength, of great inner truth”…“secretive, solitary, whom I loved a lot”

And a communiqué from the French president’s office said that France had lost “an immense actor, one of the most popular, an actor who, over the years stamped himself on the public imagination.”