Daniel Beretta (December 24, 1946 — March 23, 2024) was a French voice actor, stage and screen actor, Singer-Songwriter and comedian. Fittingly for a man whose name matches a gun manufacturer, he was most famous for his suave and badass voice acting.
One day in 1988, he was asked by his talent agent to imitate a Russian accent on the phone. He didn't really know how to do it, but obliged, and heard something on the other side — "He got the job!". It was none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger, who loved his voice and personally chose him for the French dub of Red Heat. Beretta then voiced the Austrian-American actor in most of his roles from then on, to the point French audiences just Couldn't Un-Hear It (especially in the Terminator franchise starting with Judgment Day), also adding new one-liners and puns that don't necessarily match Arnie's original ones but render better for French audiences. Unlike most of the well known French voice actors, he didn't regularly dubbed any other actor with perhaps the exception of Rutger Hauer, and even there it was far from covering as much filmography as it was the case for Arnie.
French video game-inclined folks also know him as the dubber of some other badass roles: Duke Nukem in the eponymous series, Sam Fisher in the Splinter Cell series, XIII, and Conan in Age of Conan (sort of making up for the fact that he didn't get to voice him in the Schwarzenegger films, Richard Darbois did). He has also dubbed a number of Disney characters, the most famous being Lumière in Beauty and the Beast (he even kept the Maurice Chevalier Accent at that). Like the aforementioned Richard Darbois, he also voiced many film trailers from The '90s to 2021 (Kaamelott: Premier Volet was his last) with Don LaFontaine-esque narrations.
While he was most famous for his voice acting work, he started his career as a Chanson Singer-Songwriter, having given several concerts at the Olympia and Bobino concert halls and written several songs for the likes of Mireille Mathieu and Nino Ferrer. He also notably adapted and performed songs for the French version of Jesus Christ Superstar as well as the stage adaptation of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Having trained as a musician also allowed him to do singing in his animation dubs (such as Lumière's music numbers in Beauty and the Beast, again).
He was also the announcer for the French radio RFM from 2000 to 2008. His daughter, Barbara Beretta, is also a professional voice actress. He quietly retired for health reasons in the early 2020s, Thierry Hancisse started replacing him for Schwarzenegger's roles starting with FUBAR. Beretta passed away on March 23, 2024 at age 77, one month and ten days after the French voice actor of Sylvester Stallone, Alain Dorval.
- Red Heat: Ivan Danko
- Total Recall: Douglas "Doug" Quaid / Hauser
- Terminator: note
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day: The T-800 "Uncle Bob"
- Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines: The T-850
- Terminator Genisys: The T-800 "Pops" and the 1984 T-800
- Terminator: Dark Fate and Mortal Kombat 11: The T-800 "Carl"
- Kindergarten Cop: Detective John Kimble
- Last Action Hero: Jack Slater and Arnold Schwarzenegger
- True Lies: Harry Tasker
- Junior: Dr. Alexander "Alex" Hesse
- Eraser: US Marshal John "The Eraser" Kruger
- Jingle All the Way: Howard Langston
- Batman & Robin: Victor Fries / Mr. Freeze
- End of Days: Jericho Cane
- The 6th Day: Adam Gibson
- Collateral Damage: Gordy Brewer
- The Rundown: Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Around the World in 80 Days (2004): Prince Hapi
- The Expendables: Trent "Trench" Mauser
- The Last Stand: Sheriff Ray Owens
- Escape Plan: Swan Rottmayer
- Sabotage: John "Breacher" Warthon
- Maggie: Wade Vogel
- Killing Gunther: Robert "Gunther" Bendik
- Viy 2: Journey to China: James Hook
Live-Action Films
- Analyze This: Primo Sidon
- Resident Evil (2002): Narrator
- Space Jam: Mr. Swackhammer
Video Games
- Age of Conan: Conan
- Splinter Cell series: Samuel Leo "Sam" Fisher
- XIII: XIII
Western Animation
- Beauty and the Beast: Lumière
- Donkey Kong Country: King K. Rool and Krusha (Season 2)
- Hercules: The Animated Series: Cresus
- Il était une fois... les explorateurs: Le Gros and Le Teigneux
- The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Mayor of Halloween Town
- The Simpsons Movie: President Arnold Schwarzenegger
- The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper: Fatso
Anime
Tropes & Trivia in his roles:
- The Pete Best: He wasn't the first to dub Schwarzenegger in French (Philippe Bellay, Richard Darbois and Pascal Renwick came before him), but he remains by far the most popular and prolific.
