The National Theatre in Warsaw announced his death on August 15. Gamers know him as the Polish voice of Regis in Blood and Wine. Polish audiences also heard him as Thanos.
Jan Frycz has died at 72.
The National Theatre in Warsaw, where he performed for years, announced that he died on August 15 at his family home, with his family present.
He had a career of nearly 200 roles across theatre, film, television, and radio drama.
Jan Frycz’s roles in games and film
For players, one role stands above the rest.
Frycz voiced Emiel Regis in the Polish version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and its Blood and Wine expansion. Regis is the barber-surgeon and higher vampire who becomes one of Geralt’s closest friends, and the scenes between them are among the most quoted in the game.
Polish players have spent a decade unable to imagine anyone else in the part.
He also dubbed Thanos in the Polish releases of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, along with work in The Jungle Book and Finding Nemo.
So the same voice was Regis and Thanos, which is a strange and rather wonderful thing to be true of one actor.
A career across Polish theatre and film
Frycz was born in Kraków on May 15, 1954 and graduated from the Ludwik Solski State Drama School there in 1978.
He worked at the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre and the National Old Theatre in Kraków, the Polish Theatre in Warsaw, and the National Theatre, which he joined first in 1982 and returned to in 2006.
On screen he played Józef Piłsudski in Legiony, the gangster Dario in Blinded by the Lights, and Ignacy Jan Paderewski in The Hispanic. He was nominated seven times for Polish Film Awards and won three.
He was working until the end
Frycz kept performing while ill.
In May he received an Acting Award at the 66th Kalisz Theatre Meetings for his role in Jan Klata’s Polish Thermopylae. Only last week, he began rehearsals for The Oresteia under director Luk Perceval.
Jan Englert, who worked alongside him for 46 years, told Polish news agency PAP that Frycz had been ill for a long time and that the news still came as a shock.
“He seemed immortal,” Englert said. “As long as viewers remember his roles, he will live on.”
Regis, in the game, is a man who has outlived nearly everyone he ever knew and keeps showing up for his friends anyway. Frycz found something in that.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Poland Daily (August 17, 2026), the National Theatre’s announcement, the Oresteia rehearsals, and the Kalisz award
CD-Action (August 17, 2026), the Witcher 3 role and the significance of Regis to Polish players
Interia Gry (August 17, 2026), the dubbing credits including Thanos and the August 15 date