Daniel Russo (born May 13, 1948 in Paris) is a French character actor, voice actor, comedian and screenwriter.
Although he was born in Paris, he grew up in Marseille. He grew up fond of arts and studied them, painting in particular, and took up theatre lessons to improve his diction, which was severely impeded after his jaw was broken in an accident at age 13. One day, when he was decorating the apartment of director Robert Lamoureux, the latter encouraged him to take up dramatic art lessons at the conservatory, which he did.
He made his film debut as a guard in The Judge and the Assassin. By the start of The '80s he performed on the stage of the Parisian café-theatre des Blancs Manteaux, where his popularity grew. He wound up a regular Bit Character / supporting character actor in the films of Bertrand Tavernier, Étienne Chatiliez and Gérard Oury. He's also had success in a stage duo with comedian Laurent Baffie.
He also took up voice acting. He became the main dubbing voice of Harvey Keitel, and he has also dubbed (less frequently) the likes of Danny DeVito (before Philippe Peythieu took over starting with Batman Returns), Bob Hoskins, John Travolta, and Matt Dillon. French folks who were kids in the late 80s/early 90s may know him best as the first voice of Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He retired from voice acting in the mid-2000s.
He is the older brother of late actress Françoise Pinkwasser.
