Information
Full name: Maurice Nasillski
Birth: July 7, 1913, in Algiers, Algeria
Death: January 6, 2003 in Paris, France
Job on Snow White:
Voice of Bashful in the second French version
Debut
Maurice Nasillski was born on July 7, 1913 in Algiers, Algeria, then a French colony. He is the voice of Bashful in the second French dubbing of Snow White.
It seems he made his debut at the Théâtre Marigny in “Margot” with Yvonne Printemps and Pierre Fresnay, which premiered on November 26, 1935. He played a lord “with the best sincerity in the world”, according to L’écho de Paris. He followed this up in April 1936 with George Feydeau’s “Feu la mère de Madame” with Jacques Deschamps. In the summer, he went to Vichy to play the young Fontanges in Bichon. In the summer of 1937, he reprised the role of Vicomte Doudou, created by Jean Tissier, in “La fessée” at the Théâtre de Paris. Back at Marigny in December 1938, he played a politician in “Le nez de Cléopâtre”, directed by Jacques Baumer. On January 1, he is one of the winners of the Radio-37 auditions and takes part in the 7.35pm program. In February, the Théâtre de la Michodière offers a revival of the successful operetta “Trois Valses” with Yvonne Printemps and Pierre Fresnay, in which Maurice plays a small role.
In Movies
Perhaps it was because of his origins that Sacha Guitry first gave him a small role as a Persian merchant in 1937’s The Pearls of the Crown. He followed this up with Maurice Cammage’s Bouquets from Nicholas alongside Noël-Noël in 1938. His next role, in 1939’s Night in December, was not released in France until 1941, and Maurice made no further films during the war.
Word War 2
Maurice was mobilized to Toulon, where he and other young actors staged Molière’s “Le Misanthrope”. During the occupation, he played Courteline’s “Les Boulingrin” with Jean Témerson in April 1941. On May 21, on the radio, he played “Les sept mensonges de l’Impératrice ou ça c’est du cinéma!”, a fantasy by André Lang with Simone Renant as Rita Hayworth, and Maurice as the director. Little more is known about his activities at the time, but his Jewish origins inevitably forced him to stop working.
After the War
He returned to the Théâtre des Mathurins in 1946 in “Divines paroles”. And he landed a few small film roles, sometimes credited. These included Jean Cocteau’s The Eagle with Two Heads in 1947 and Henri Jeanson’s Lady Paname in which he played the moralist Chacaton, which earned the film a lawsuit from a real personality of that name. But Maurice was not a young actor anymore, and never came close to the top of the bill. So he became a recurring supporting actor on screen, on stage and in dubbing.
Dubbing
After the war, he was asked to dub Flower, the little skunk in Bambi. A shy character that foreshadowed his future role in Snow White. In Dumbo, he also dubbed the distracted stork who delivers the famous elephant to his mother. He is the voice of the scarecrow played by Ray Bolger in the classic The Wizard of Oz. He also became a recurring voice for Danny Kaye, as in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty in 1947. In the summer of 1962, he was asked to dub Bashful in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He also recorded the role of the vulture Ziggy in The Jungle Book and additional voices in Tintin and the Lake of Sharks. It’s worth noting that he actively participated in the radio dramas for the Tintin albums as early as 1959.
End of career
He also made a name for himself in The Cow and I, playing one of Fernandel’s companions at the start of the film. In the 1950s, he also took to the small screen, appearing in several episodes of the courthouse show En votre âme et conscience. He also appeared in the series Vidocq and Les rois maudits. Most of his time, however, was spent at the radio and in the theater, where he performed under the direction of Yves Robert, Robert Hossein and Raymond Rouleau until the 1980s.
He died on January 6, 2003 in the ninth arrondissement of Paris.
