The gaming industry has lost two iconic characters – one of them has to be someone that most of us have heard if we played on console two decades ago.

The first person is Paul Haddad, who voiced Leon S. Kennedy in the original Resident Evil 2. Haddad gave a significant personality to the rookie cop (whose first day of the job wasn’t ordinary – he found Raccoon City overrun by the zombies…). Reports say that the fifty-six-year-old voice actor’s cause of death was throat cancer. Haddad’s passing away (which happened on April 16) was confirmed by Invader Studios – recently, he worked on Daymare 1998 with this team. „Paul Haddad, our dear friend and an icon among the RE community, has passed away recently. We’ve been truly honoured to have the chance to meet and work with such a great man and a brilliant professional that he was. Rest in Peace Paul… You will live forever in our hearts,” the studio wrote.

Haddad worked on more than just games. His voice was heard in multiple medium formats, including television. For example, we could hear him in Babar, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros 3., MacGyver, or X-Men: The Animated Series.

Two condolences have to be mentioned. The first one comes from Nick Apostolides, who essentially was Haddad’s successor, as he voiced Leon in Resident Evil 2 Remake. He made a full video when he heard the unfortunate news:

The other one is short and to the point. It comes from Hideki Kamiya, who was the director of Resident Evil 2. He took a photo of a PlayStation Vita running Resident Evil 2, and the caption reads „The time I spent with you will be forever cherished.”

 

The time I spent with you will be forever cherished. pic.twitter.com/qwSkM0helw

— 神谷英樹 Hideki Kamiya (@PG_kamiya) April 17, 2020

The other voice actor that passed away is Filipe Duarte, who died at the age of 46 in a heart attack. The Portuguese voice actor gave his voice to Deacon St. John in the PlayStation 4-exclusive Days Gone. Several Bend Studio employees (this team worked on Days Gone) have shared their condolences, and even PlayStation’s Portuguese Twitter account has posted about the sad news:

Os heróis são para sempre.
Obrigado, Filipe Duarte ? pic.twitter.com/81fHtn9x5I

— PlayStation Portugal (@PlayStationPT) April 17, 2020

Duarte had significant experience, as he performed in theatres, television, films, and even video games. The Portuguese community might know him from soap operas, but recently he worked on films (Variações: Guardian Angel, Mosquito, and Nothing Ever Happened, which is now in post-production). In 2015, he also got the Portuguese Golden Globe for his role in The Invisible Life, a TV series.

What a sad week – in one week, three voice actors have passed away (the third one was discussed on Tuesday – Rick May was defeated by the coronavirus…). May they rest in peace.

Source: DualShockers, Twitter