David Bateson (born February 9, 1960 in Durban) is a South African actor and voice actor based in Denmark.
He made his acting debut in the 1994 film Prince of Jutland, which also happened to be the acting debut of a certain Andy Serkis, and has done infrequent stints on TV spots and danish shows. However, Bateson is best known for portraying Agent 47, the main protagonist of IO Interactive's Hitman video game series; a bald contract killer with a barcode on his head. His whiskey-voiced narration (not unlike David Hayter in Metal Gear, Michael Ironside in Splinter Cell, or Stephen Russell in Thief) is utilised to great effect in the Hitman games, adding a few nice moments of melancholy and, at times, dry humor to the character. Bateson has gone on record saying he would be happy to continue voicing the character even after he otherwise retires from acting.
Bateson has voiced 47 in every game in the franchise so far, though not without a brief kerfuffle when Square Enix considered replacing him
for the fifth game, Absolution, with William Mapother, but the studio listened to the fan backlash and lack of pre-orders and, to cut a very long story short, they relented. The entire incident would later be referenced in Hitman (2016) as a minor part of "The Icon" mission.
As mentioned, Bateson's voice is also featured in quite a few commercials. Yes, it is indeed him declaring that "A man has fallen into the river in LEGO City!"
Roles of note
- Prince of Jutlan (1994) as Hother
- Help! I'm a Fish (2000) as Commander Shark / General Crab
- Hitman series as Agent 47
- Classic games
- Hitman: Codename 47 (2000)
- Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (2002)
- Hitman: Contracts (2004)
- Hitman: Blood Money (2006)
- Hitman: Absolution (2012)
- World of Assassination Trilogy
- Classic games
- Rembrandt (2003) as Stor Mand
- Borgen (2010-2011), various voice roles
- The Dark Side of Chocolate (2010), provides the documentary's narration.
- Lightmatter (2020) as Virgil
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) as Bowser (Danish dub).
