lit a candle 1d agoTheatre was life, palpitation, immediate happiness. That's what he said about it in 2008. Didn't sound like someone who'd ever stop meaning it, and he didn't.
Their story
Michel Paulin was born on 24 September 1933 in Nantes, in what was then the Loire-Inférieure (now Loire-Atlantique), France. He grew into one of those French performers whose face remained relatively private while his voice entered millions of homes. For children of the 1980s he was the unseen guide who…
Michel Paulin was born on 24 September 1933 in Nantes, in what was then the Loire-Inférieure (now Loire-Atlantique), France. He grew into one of those French performers whose face remained relatively private while his voice entered millions of homes. For children of the 1980s he was the unseen guide who opened every episode of the Franco-Japanese animated adventure Les Mystérieuses Cités d'or. For cinema and television audiences he was, at various times, the French sound of Jack Nicholson, Ted Shackelford, Sam Waterston and many others. He was not the business executive of the same name later associated with OVHcloud and SFR. That is a different Michel Paulin. This page is the actor and voice actor.
His path began in provincial boarding school in Anjou. In a March 2008 interview published by RS Doublage, Paulin recalled being an internal student who saw his parents only every three months. Escape came first through imagination, then through school plays. The first time he stood on stage he felt, he said, in harmony with the audience and with himself, and decided to continue after college.
He came to Paris from the provinces and entered the Centre Dramatique de la rue Blanche (later ENSATT), studying for a year with Berthe Bovy. IdRef also notes entry to the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Techniques de Paris in 1951. Early work at the Théâtre de la Huchette included Gloriana sera vengée under Jean Vernier, in a young company that also featured Jean-Pierre Mocky and a young Jean-Paul Belmondo holding a halberd. After military service in Algeria, he spent three years at the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique, graduating in the class of 1961. There he worked alongside Comédie-Française sociétaires such as Fernand Ledoux, Jean Yonnel, Julien Berteau and Jean Marchat.
Stage credits across the 1960s and 1970s ranged through Camus (Caligula, the poet), Corneille (Cinna, Horace), Shakespeare (Macbeth as Malcolm; Hamlet as Horatio), Giraudoux, Anouilh, Molière (Les Femmes savantes as Clitandre) and Sartre (Huis Clos, which he also directed, playing Garcin). Between 1976 and 1996 he was a regular presence at the Montreux summer festival in Switzerland in productions directed by Théo Jehanne, including Feydeau, Anouilh and Jean Poiret's La Cage aux Folles.
On screen he appeared in television anthologies and series including Les Cinq Dernières Minutes (episode Les Mailles du filet, 1970), Pierre Cardinal's Les Fossés de Vincennes (1972), Georges Franju's L'Homme sans visage (1975) and later Le Triplé gagnant (1992). Film credits include Willy Rozier's Dany la ravageuse (1973) and Franju's Nuits rouges (1973/1974), in which he played Inspector Florent.
Dubbing, which he entered after Algeria through a friend's aunt who was a chief editor at Gennevilliers studios, became his durable public signature. He dubbed Jack Nicholson in La Mort tragique de Leland Drum (1966), Chinatown (1974) and Profession: reporter (1975). He was a habitual French voice for Ted Shackelford (Gary Ewing in Dallas, Côte Ouest / Knots Landing, and later Les Feux de l'amour), Sam Waterston (notably Jack McCoy in New York, police judiciaire and related Law & Order titles, plus The Newsroom and Grace et Frankie), James Fox, Edward Fox, Jerry Hardin, Jeffrey Tambor, Ray Wise, Mike Farrell and others. Animation and games credits include the opening narration (and, per Planète Jeunesse, the character Ketcha) in Les Mystérieuses Cités d'or, Pixa in Les Maîtres du Temps, roles in Rémi sans famille, Archer (Ron Cadillac), and game work including The Witcher (Jacques d'Aldersberg) and later The Elder Scrolls Online.
The Mystérieuses prologue, written by Jean Chalopin and first heard when the series reached French screens in 1983 after a 1982 Japanese launch, condensed a generation's appetite for adventure into roughly thirty seconds. French broadcast began on Antenne 2 on 28 September 1983. Paulin's reading of the sixteenth-century ships leaving Europe, of underground worlds and Andean paths, and of the Soleil souverain guiding steps toward the Cities of Gold, became inseparable from Jacques Cardona's theme song in French popular memory. The clip still circulates on video platforms. French Wikipedia also notes a Psy4 de la Rime album excerpt that uses his voice, a late pop echo of the same timbre. The album title is not repeated here beyond that Wikipedia note.
He was married to actress Frédérique Villedent (1938-2020). The couple appeared together on stage, including in Roger Colas's 1972 Avignon production of Goupi mains rouges (he as Goupi Monsieur; she as Goupi Muguet), documented by Archives du spectacle. Children, if any, were not named in the major obituaries surveyed. Outside the booth he spoke of fly fishing on wild rivers, of meals and wine with friends, and of a lasting love of Greece and the Greek language. In the same 2008 interview he compared theatre, which he called life and an exchange renewed each night, with cinema already in the can. He also argued for preserving the wild river landscapes where he fished.
Paulin died on 3 September 2026 at the age of 92, days before what would have been his ninety-third birthday on 24 September. His family announced the death. AFP journalist Jean-François Guyot posted the news on X on 4 September 2026. French regional titles of the EBRA group (Le Républicain Lorrain, Le Progrès, Le Dauphiné) published that day. BFMTV, Télé-Loisirs, Voici and others followed, including broader coverage dated 7 September. The Guyot post said 93. The dates used here, 24 September 1933 to 3 September 2026, give 92. Cause of death was not made public. Place of death and resting place were not stated in the regional and national coverage surveyed. English Wikipedia listed him among deaths on 3 September 2026. Surveyed obituaries and Wikipedia stubs do not list major national decorations. None are invented here.
Biography adapted from FR/EN Wikipedia; RS Doublage Mar 2008; Le Dauphine, Republicain Lorrain, BFMTV, Voici, Sep 2026; IdRef..
In their own words
“Eh bien... J'étais interne dans un collège en Anjou et je ne revenais chez mes parents que tous les trois mois... en me retrouvant pour la première fois sur la scène je me suis senti tout de suite en harmonie avec le public, et avec moi-même, et j'ai décidé que je continuerais après le collège.”
Michel Paulin explaining how he knew he would become an actor. RS Doublage interview with Reynald, March 2008.
“Oui, bien sûr, le théâtre c'est la vie, c'est la palpitation, c'est le bonheur immédiat, l'échange avec le public... au cinéma 'on a joué'... au théâtre 'on joue', c'est 'à faire', et chaque soir c'est nouveau.”
Michel Paulin comparing theatre and cinema. RS Doublage interview with Reynald, March 2008.
“En Algérie, un de mes camarades avait une tante chef-monteuse aux studios de Gennevilliers. Quand je suis rentré, j'ai fait sa connaissance... Et j'ai eu la chance de débuter comme ça, en doublant de jeunes acteurs italiens, anglais...”
Michel Paulin on how he entered dubbing after military service in Algeria. RS Doublage interview with Reynald, March 2008.
“Le XVIe siècle. Des quatre coins de l'Europe, de gigantesques voiliers partent à la conquête du Nouveau Monde... Qui n'a jamais souhaité voir le Soleil souverain guider ses pas, au cœur du pays Inca, vers la richesse et l'histoire des Mystérieuses Cités d'or ?”
Opening narration he performed for Les Mystérieuses Cités d'or. Text by Jean Chalopin, not written by Paulin. Quoted in Le Dauphiné and Le Républicain Lorrain obituaries and in Mystérieuses series documentation.
“James Fox, Edward Fox, David Selby, Sam Waterston, c'est un privilège de les doubler dans des rôles différents. Mais il s'agit de rester modeste, de ne pas les trahir...”
Michel Paulin on recurring dubbing partners, and on staying faithful to the original actor. RS Doublage interview with Reynald, March 2008.
Photos
2Black-and-white publicity portrait of French actor and voice actor Michel Paulin, watermarked www.rsdoublage.com. This is the dubbing actor, not the OVHcloud or SFR executive of the same name.
by People Forever
Le Dauphiné tribute graphic of actor Michel Paulin (same RS Doublage portrait) with a Mystérieuses Cités d'or city illustration, labelled Michel PAULIN. Not the telecom executive.
by People Forever
Same. Heard he was still working right up until last year. Real pro.