TEHRAN – The Iranian voice actor Mehdi Arian-nejad who gave the voice to the Aardvark in “The Ant and the Aardvark” series and many other characters in the world animated movies died of heart failure at his home in Tehran on Friday. He was 79.

He began his career in voice acting in 1962. 

Inspector Clouseau, a fictional character in Blake Edwards’s farcical “The Pink Panther” series, was also voiced by Arian-nejad.

He also lent his voice to characters in “Lucky Luke”, a Western comic series created by Belgian cartoonist Morris in 1946.

Characters in Ali Hatami’s TV series “Hezar Dastan” and Nasser Taqvai’s comedy series “My Uncle Napoleon” were also among his credits.

Photo: Voice actor Mehdi Arian-nejad in an undated photo

MMS/YAW