Jean Piat (September 24, 1924 - September 18, 2018) was a French actor, writer and voice actor.
He played classics of the French repertoire (Molière plays, Victor Hugo's Ruy Blas, Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac and many others) at the Comédie-Française, the prestigious state-owned French theatre institution, from 1947 to 1972, and in other troupes afterwards. He portrayed Antonio Salieri in the first French performance of Amadeus, most notably. On TV, he was most famous for playing Count Robert III of Artois in the 1972 miniseries Les Rois Maudits (The Accursed Kings), based off the novel series written by Maurice Druon.
To younger generations however, he was better known for his deep, smooth, either wicked or authoritative voice and perfect diction in relatively few but always memorable French dubbings such as Thomas E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia (and two other films of Peter O'Toole), Scar in The Lion King, Claude Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. He did the singing as well for both Scar and Frollo.
He also narrated the 1976 dubbing (second version) of Fantasia and the Cinéscénie show of the French history-themed park Le Puy du Fou.
Selected acting roles:
- Napoléon (1955 film) as Junot
- Lagardère (1967 miniseries) as Henri de Lagardère
- The Accursed Kings (1972 miniseries) as Count Robert III of Artois
- Ruy Blas (1972 TV film) as Don César de Bazan
