Benoit Rousseau the acclaimed voice actor, who was responsible for dubbing Duffman, Grandpa Simpson and Mr Burns amongst others, in the French Canadian version of the long running animated sitcom The Simpsons, has died at the age of 66. His death was confimed in an obitutuary announcement in Montreal, which also gave details of his upcoming funeral. No cause of death has been issued although it was previously reported the star had been battling cancer.

The Union des Artistes also shared the news on Instagram,posting an image of the star alongside a tribute. "We learned with sadness the death of actor, stuntman, set director, adaptor and musician Benoit Rousseau. Known by the general public for dubbing the voices of Nicolas Cage and Dwayne Johnson among others in cinema, and more especially in Quebec of the voices of Mr. Burns and Abraham Simpson in The Simpsons series, on which he worked for over 30 years. Our deepest thoughts go out to his relatives, family and his colleagues," they wrote.

Alongside his work on The Simpsons, which he had been invovled with for over 30 years, he also enjoyed a long career voicing the French Canadian version of Disney productions including 1995's Toy Story and 1999's Toy Story 2.

He also appeared in 2003's Finding Nemo, 2004's The Incredibles and its sequel in 2018 The Incredibles 2 to name just a few.

He also voiced many blockbuster live action movies when they were released in the territory including 2017's Thor: Ragnarok, and 2018's Ant-Man and the Wasp.

He attained a whole new fanbase in 2007 when he dubbed the character of Tom Banachek in Transformers

, and in 2009 he returned to the franchise voicing Jetfire in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Tributes flooded in for the star as news of his death became public. One person commented on Instagram: "That's sad, he was really nice, my sympathies to his whole family."

Another simply added: "Goodbye sir, thank you for all your work over the years." A third chimed in: "Oh nooo I loved his work. Sympathies to the whole family."

He is survived by his wife, Johanne Léveillé, the Rousseau and Léveillé families, and many friends.