TEHRAN – Changiz Jalilvand, the Iranian voice actor who lent his voice to Marlon Brando and Paul Newman in many acclaimed movies dubbed for Persian audiences, died of COVID-19 in a Tehran hospital on Sunday. 

He tested positive and was hospitalized on Friday, his close friend Abbas Yari, who is an editor of the Film Monthly magazine, said after announcing the death of the artist on his Instagram. 

The 80-year-old voice actor began his artistic career with theater along with Abolhassan Tahami, who is also famous for his long career in voice acting.

He left the country after the Islamic Revolution and lived in America for about 20 years, however, he returned home and began his voice acting career in 1999.
 
He had also acted in several films and TV series. 

Jalilvand had voiced Burt Lancaster, Richard Burton, Bruce Willis and Ed Harris, as well as some Iranian actors including Behruz Vosuqi, Mohammad-Ali Fardin and Nasser Malak-Motiei.

He also lent his voice to most of the characters played by Jamshid Mashayekhi in the movies and TV series.

He had also narrated a Persian translation of the Holy Quran on a CD to promote the reading of the Holy Book, which was released in 2009.

The early version of the CD, entitled “The Miracle” lacked a Persian translation.

The new version contains the recitation of Saad al-Ghamdi from Saudi Arabia and a Persian translation, which was narrated by Jalilvand. 

Some parts of the translation have also been read by Fariba Ramezanpur, another Iranian dubber.

Photo: Changiz Jalilvand in an undated photo.

RM/MMS/YAW