José Lavat (September 28, 1948 - May 15, 2018) was an outstanding and talented Mexican voice actor, theater, television and announcer with a 51-year career.
He was the recurring voice of Robert De Niro, Harrison Ford, Michael Caine, Anthony Hopkins, Ian McKellen, Al Pacino, Christopher Lee, Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman. In the anime he was known for being the narrator of all the series in the Dragon Ball franchise (with the exception of the first 60 episodes of Dragon Ball and the last 55 episodes. from Dragon Ball GT), as well as being the narrator of Slam Dunk.
He also highlighted his work as the voice of Captain Georg Von Trapp in the famous musical film The Sound of Music, dubbing the character in the two dubbing versions of the film plus in its version anime.
He was the announcer for the Cinemax Latinoamérica channel and also for the Imagen 90.5 FM radio station in Mexico, in addition to being the institutional voice of Radio Concierto in Chile since 2000, work for which he became well known in that country during the four stages through which that went on the radio in the first decade of the millennium, making itself present with the slogans: "The radio of today", "Concert present in your memory", "The voice of the 80s"' ' and more recently "Concert, 88.5, only great songs".[1]
Biography
Early years
He was born in Mexico City on September 28, 1948. Brother of the actress Queta Lavat, María Elena Lavat and the actor Jorge Lavat.
He studied until high school level. His height of 1.90 m, a great presence and an outstanding voice, made him chosen for the starring roles in the plays in his high school, which is why his interest in theater was born, leaving his studies in International Relations.
In 1967 he was invited by his brother, the actor Jorge Lavat to try his hand at dubbing. Both Jorge and their sister, Queta, had entered the entertainment world with great success, both very talented and respected actors, and had also ventured into dubbing. José's first experience in this specialty was in an episode of Lost in Space playing a robot, an experience that almost made him turn away completely, since after working hard to make 14 repetitions, the director and owner of the company, Lic. Ortigosa told him: "Too bad, you have a good voice but you need to go to an acting academy for about three years." José retired from dubbing to continue his career in theater. At the insistence of his brother Jorge Lavat, a few months later he returned to dubbing again, he did some tests for the series Adam-12 where he took the role of Jim Reed (played by Kent McCord).
Career in dubbing and voiceover
In a few months José achieved a dizzying development in this specialty, becoming one of the pillars of Cinematographic Interamericana. His first great dubbing, as he stated, was in an adventure series called "The Adventures of Bronson" (Then Came Bronson) in which he dubbed Michael Parks. This was his first one-hour series.
In addition to joining voice acting, taking advantage of his great facility for languages, he also dedicated himself to translation for dubbing.
By then, dubbing undergoes a transformation in technical aspects: the incorporation of video, which makes it faster. José became the first video dubbing director with Brazilian telenovelas such as The Good Loved and The Successor; and some English miniseries such as Those Above and Below and Yo, Claudio.
After 12 years directing, his career took a different turn: he joined commercial broadcasting with great success. Although José had never abandoned dubbing, the great demand for his voice in commercial advertisements, audiovisuals, internal videos and presidential campaigns forced him to stop translating first, then directing and to reduce his participation as a dubbing actor.
In addition to being one of the dubbing actors and one of the most recognized announcers in all of Latin America, José had time to work on some television programs, such as "Single Dad", "Canasta de Cuentos Mexicanos" among others.
Since the 80s and also in the 90s he was the narrator of the advertising of the automobile range of the Ford Motor Company of Mexico, making popular the phrase "Ford, automotive excellence".
Among the experiences that José remembered with great pleasure was the invitation by Deutshe Welle to be the host of the 16-episode series "The Century of Surgeons", which gave him the opportunity to travel to Europe for the first time. He was also the official voice of MVS Radio's Stereorey Radio Network from 1998 to 2002.
José also participated in the debut feature of former announcer Olallo Rubio And you, how much do you cost? as a voice-over alongside José María "Chema" Armesto.
Personal life
He was married to the actress Cristina Camargo, later he married the actress Gisela Casillas, until his death.
Death
Lavat died on May 15, 2018, at the age of 69 due to kidney failure. The news of his death became a trend on social networks, and many of his colleagues also gave their condolences on the networks, among them: Mario Castañeda, voice of Goku, Eduardo Garza , voice of Krillin and current director of the Dragon Ball franchise, and Ricardo Brust, voice of Cell, Mr. Satan and Broly, among many others.
In addition, many actors outside the franchise such as actor Mario Díaz Mercado and Argentine actor Javier Gómez, who has said he is a great admirer of José, showed their condolences on social networks.
That same day Carlos Segundo was conducting a broadcast for Channel 5 on Facebook Live receiving the news of Lavat's death live, visibly shocked after receiving the news he continued with the broadcast making a profile of the race de Lavat as well as some of his contemporaries; Segundo continued conducting the broadcast until the end since he himself said in it that "the show must continue."
Later his character, The Narrator, was transferred to the also actor and announcer Rubén Moya.