Little Known Spaghetti Western Actors ~ Allan Edwall

[These daily posts will cover little known actors or people that have appeared in more recent films and TV series. Various degrees of information that I was able to find will be given and anything that you can add would be appreciated.]

Johan Allan Edvall was a Swedish actor, director, author, composer, and singer renowned for his prolific career spanning theater, film, television, and music. Born into a working-class family in Rödön, Jämtland,on August 25, 1924. with a father active in trade unions and communism, Edwall trained at Stockholm's drama school from 1949 to 1952 and graduated from the Royal Dramatic Theatre's Acting School.

He amassed over 400 roles across various media, directed films, and contributed as a songwriter and performer on records.

Internationally, Edwall gained recognition for supporting roles in Ingmar Bergman's films, including “The Virgin Spring” (1960), “Through a Glass Darkly” (1961), “Fanny and Alexander” (1982), and “The Sacrifice” (1986).

Domestically, he earned acclaim for portraying Anton Svensson in “Emil and the Piglet” (1973), securing the Guldbagge Award for Best Actor in 1974, and appeared in adaptations like “The Brothers Lionheart” (1977) and “Ronia, the Robber's Daughter” (1984).

Edwall succumbed to prostate cancer in Stockholm on February 7, 1997, at age 72, leaving a legacy as one of Sweden's most versatile and beloved performers in stage and screen.

Allan Edwall appeared in two Euro-westerns: He appeared as Danjel in both “Utvandrarna” (The Emigrants) in 1970 and the sequel “Nybyggarna” (The New Land) in 1972.

EDWALL, Allan (aka Allan Edvall) (Johan Allan Edvall) [8/25/1924, Rödön, Jämtlands län, Sweden – 2/7/1997, Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden (prostate cancer)] – director, writer, songwriter, theater, film, TV actor, songwriter, singer, married to Berit Linnéa Larsson [1925-    2000] (1947-1952) father of Jan Mikael Edwall [1948-2016], married to director, actress Britt Elin Edwall (Britt Elin Halvarsson) [1935-2025] (1957-1965) father of cinematographer, photographer Mattias Edwall [1958-    ], playwright musician Måns Edwall [1960-    ], actress Malin Edwall [1961-    ].

The Emigrants – 1970 (Danjel)

The New Land – 1972 (Danjel)

Spaghetti Western Directors, Screenwriters, Cinematographers

Spaghetti Western Director ~ Luciano Lelli

 

Luciano Lelli was an alias used by Luciano Sacripanti, an Italian assistant director and production manager known for his extensive work on international film and television productions, particularly those filmed in Italy during the mid-to-late 20th century. He contributed to numerous high-profile projects as first assistant director or second unit director, including the fantasy epics “Krull” (1983) and “Ladyhawke” (1985), where he oversaw Italian units. His career also encompassed early roles in unit management on major Hollywood productions shot in Italy, such as “Quo Vadis” (1951) and “War and Peace” (1956).

Born on December 29, 1927, in Rome, Lazio, Italy, Sacripanti entered the film industry in the early 1950s and built a long career focused on logistical and directorial support for both feature films and television. He accumulated dozens of assistant director credits on diverse projects, ranging from adventure films like “Clash of the Titans” (1981) to television miniseries such as ‘Noble House’ (1988) and ‘The Son of Sandokan’ (1998). He occasionally took on writing duties, including for “Bang Bang Kid” (1967), and held production management positions on several productions.

Sacripanti was married to Carole Murdoch and Winifred Richardson.  He died on March 20, 2000, in Rome, Lazio, Italy, after a career that bridged Italy's postwar cinema boom with the era of large-scale international co-productions filmed there.

As Luciano Lelli he co-directed one Spaghetti western, “Bang, Bang” (The Bang Bang Kid) with Stanley Prager and Giorgio Gentili in 1967.

LELLI, Luciano (aka Lucky Mildon, Lucky Sacripanti) (Luciano Sacripanti) [12/29/1927, Rome, Lazio, Italy – 3/20/2000, Rome, Lazio, Italy] – production manager, director, assistant director, writer, actor, brother of assistant director Mauro Sacripanti [1934-2015], married to Winifred Richardson (1956-19??), married to Carole Murdoch (1962-1980).

The Bang-Bang Kid – 1967 (co)

 

Spaghetti Western Screenwriter ~ Werner Ebert

German sources credit Werner Ebert as a co-writer on one film and that was the Spaghetti western, “Aventuras del Oeste” (7 Hours of Gunfire) with Jose Romero Marchent and Pino Passalaqua in 1965.

No other information is available on him.

EBERT, Werner [German] – writer.

7 Hours of Gunfire – 1965 (co)

 

Spaghetti Western Cinematographer ~ Elio Polacchi

Elio Polacchi is/was an Italian cameraman and cinematographer. He worked behind the scenes as a cameraman on seventy-nine films between 1950 and 1981. He also worked as a cinematographer on three films between 1961 and 1973.

Polacchi was an Italian assistant cameraman, camera operator and director of photography, active in cinema from the first half of the forties at least until the seventies. The personal documentation on him is extremely scarce, while his professional career can be reconstructed with some precision thanks to film credits and above all to a long personal testimony released in 1999, when he declared that he was 74 years old and had already retired from the business for some time.

Polacchi recalled that he had started working in cinema in 1942, participating in a film directed by Mario Soldati. However, he did not indicate the title of the work, so it is preferable not to identify it arbitrarily. The second film of his career was “Il fanciullo del West”, directed by Giorgio Ferroni and starring Erminio Macario. This first phase was typical of the technical apprenticeship in the photography department, with camera assistance tasks.

Elio Polacchi was a co-cinematographer on one Spaghetti western, “La sceriffa” (The Sheriff) with Sergio Pesce in 1959. As a cameraman Elio worked on five westerns: “Una signora dell’ovest” (Lady of the West) in 1942, “Lo sceriffo che non spara” (The Sheriff Won’t Shoot) in 1965, “Un minuto per pregare, un istante per morire” (A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die) in 1967, “Un buco in fronte” (Hole in the Forehead) in 1968 and “Il mio nome è Nessuno” (My Name is Sobody) in 1973.

During the early fifties he progressively acquired greater professional autonomy. In 1952 he worked as a cameraman on La leggenda del Piave, while in 1953 he was a camera operator on Un giorno in pretura, directed by Steno, with photography by Marco Scarpelli. The film, built through several court cases, brought together performers such as Peppino De Filippo, Alberto Sordi, Silvana Pampanini, Walter Chiari and a young Sophia Loren.

POLACCHI, Elio [1925, Italy - ?] – cameraman, cinematographer.

The Lady of the West – 1942 [cameraman]

The Sheriff – 1959 (co) [cinematographer]

The Sheriff Won't Shoot – 1965 [cameraman]

A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die – 1967 [cameraman]

Hole in the Forehead – 1968 [cameraman]

My Name is Nobody - 1973 [cameraman]

“Dance to the Death”

 

A Dance to the Death – English title

 

A 2025 British short film production [8:32 Films (London)]

Producers: Eva Onsrud, Alexander Simkin

Director: Alexander Simkin

Story: Alexander Simkin

Screenplay: Alexander Simkin

Cinematography: Ashley Rees [color]

Music: Marcin Mazurek

Running time: 14 minutes

 

Cast:

Jack Parr, Aron Von Andrian, Alexander Simkin, Cecile Sinclair

 

Story: In 1880, somewhere in the West, a sheriff chasing two bank robbers stops a carriage with three ladies, but all is not as it seems.

 

Voices of the Spaghetti western “Zorro the Fox”

As we know most of the Euro-westerns were co-productions from Italy, Spain, Germany and France which incorporated British and American actors to gain a worldwide audience. The films were shot silent and then dubbed into the various languages where they were sold for distribution. That means Italian, Spanish, German, French and English voice actors were hired to dub the films. Even actors from the countries where the film was to be shown were often dubbed by voice actors for various reasons such as the actors were already busy making another film, they wanted to be paid additional salaries for dubbing their voices, the actor’s voice didn’t fit the character they were playing, accidents to the actors and in some cases even death before the film could be dubbed.

I’ll list a Euro-western and the (I) Italian, (S) Spanish, (G) German and (F) French, (E) English voices that I can find and once in a while a bio on a specific voice actor as in Europe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today we’ll cover “Zorro the Fox”

[(I) Italian, (S) Spanish, (G) German, (F) French, (E) English:

Don Diego di Alcantara/Zorro – George Ardisson (I) Luciano Melani, (S) Manolo García, (G) Erich Räuker

Don Pedro – Giacomo Rossi Stuart (I) Michele Kalamera, (S) José Guardiola, (G) Christian Rode

John Gardner – Paolo Todisco (I) Rino Bolognesi, (S) Javier Dotú, (G) Bodo Wolf

Sergeant Gomez - Pedro Sanchez (I) Carlo Croccolo, (S) José Martínez Blanco, (G) Horst Lampe

 

 

 

 

Erich Räuker  (1953 -    )

Erich Räuker was born on June 25, 1953. He is a German musician, voice actor and radio play and audiobook speaker. He synchronizes performers of several series, for example Richard Dean Anderson in ‘Stargate’, Robert Duncan McNeill in ‘Star Trek: Spaceship Voyager’, Hugh Bonneville in ‘Downton Abbey’, Carlo Rota in ‘24’, Patrick Warburton in ‘Kim Possible’, Naoya Uchida in ‘Death Note Anime’, Yuji Mikimoto in : ‘Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2’, Nathaniel Parker ‘Neon Genesis Evangelionin’ Merlin Synchronized version), Hidekatsu Shibata in ‘Fullmetal Alchemist’ (Anime) and ‘Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood’, Hideyuki Hori in ‘Dragonball Z’, Katsuyuki Konishi in ‘Dragonball Z Kai’ and Shinpachi Tsuji in ‘Edens Zero’. He is also featured in films such as “The Seventh Papyrus Roll” and “The House of Damnation”. As a bass player he played until 1981 with the Berlin rock band Bleibtreu Revue and before with Ulla Meinecke. He was also a long-time member of the Rocktheater Reineke Fuchs.

Räuker lives and works in Großbeeren near Berlin. He is the father of Oscar Räuker, who also serves as a voice actor. He is the operator of Weltenton, a manufacturing publisher of music and audiobooks. Räuker is a sponsoring member of various non-profit organizations such as Amnesty, Greenpeace and Foodwatch.

Special Birthdays

 Anita Ekberg (actress) would have been 95 today but died in 2015.

Little Known Spaghetti Western Actors ~ Benjamin Edney

 [These daily posts will cover little known actors or people that have appeared in more recent films and TV series. Various degrees of information that I was able to find will be given and anything that you can add would be appreciated.]

 Mark Benjamin Edney was born in the United Kingdom sometime in 1961. He is the adopted son of actress Sylvia Sims. As Benjamin Edney he appeared in only two films. One being “Brief Encounter” a television movie in 1974 and the other being his only Spaghetti western “La marca de Cain” (The Desperados!) as Pauly Galt in 1969. He played the son of his real-life mother.

Later he moved to Hong Kong and became a teacher.

EDNEY, Benjamin (Mark Benjamin Edney) [1961, U.K. -     ] – child film actor, adopted son of actress Sylvia Syms (Sylvia May Laura Syms) [1934-2023], brother of actress, singer Beatie Edney (Beatrice Beatie Edney) [1962-    ].

The Desperados! – 1969 (Pauly Galt)

Spaghetti Western Directors, Screenwriters, Cinematographers

Spaghetti Western Director ~ J.L.V. Leigh 

John Louis Victor Leigh (frequently credited as J.L.V. Leigh) was a British silent-era actor and director best known for co-directing “The First Men in the Moon” (1919), which is widely considered the first full-length science fiction feature film ever made. Adapted from the famous 1901 H.G. Wells novel, the movie was co-directed alongside Bruce Gordon and produced by British Gaumont. Unfortunately, the historic film is currently deemed lost and remains featured on the British Film Institute's

Leigh appeared as an actor in five films between 1913 and 1917 and directed twenty films between 1915 and 1919.

J.L.V. Leigh directed one silent Euro-western, “The Cowboy Village” in 1915.

LEIGH, J.L.V. (aka Jack L.V. Leigh) (John Louis Victor Leigh) [18??, U.K. – 19??] – director, actor.

The Cowboy Village – 1915

 

Spaghetti Western Screenwriter ~ Günter Ebert

Günter Ebert was a German writer, journalist, and literary critic known for his work in the German Democratic Republic as a critic and author, as well as his contributions to screenwriting in European genre cinema during the late 1960s and 1980s. Born on February 19, 1925 in Meerane, Germany, he became active as a freelance literary critic in the GDR starting in 1952, contributing to publications such as Sonntag, ndl, and Weltbühne, while also studying at the Literature Institute Johannes R. Becher in 1957–58. Ebert authored works including the non-fiction book Ansichten zur Entwicklung der epischen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur in der DDR von 1945 bis 1975 (1976) and established himself as an expert on GDR crime fiction and children's literature. He later wrote screenplays for numerous films, often under pseudonyms such as Fritz Ebert or Gunter Eber, including the spaghetti western “Compañeros” (1970), the exploitation film “Sadomania” (1981), and others like “Hellhole Women” (1981) and “Don't Turn the Other Cheek!” (aka Long Live Your Death 1971). His diverse career spanned literary criticism, journalism, and scriptwriting across both socialist East German culture and international commercial cinema. He died on July 17 2006 in Berlin, Germany.

Ebert's output reflected the cultural and political context of divided Germany, combining ideological literary engagement in the East with practical work in genre filmmaking.

Günter Ebert co-wrote one Spaghetti western, “Vamos a matar, companeros!” (Companeros!) with Sergio Corbucci, Massimo De Rita and Dino Maiuri. He also supplied German dialogue for two other Spaghetti westerns: “Viva la muerte... tua!” (Long Live Your Death) in 1971 And “La vita, a volte, è molto dura, vero Provvidenza?” (They Call Me Providence) in 1972.

EBERT, Günter (aka Gunter Eber, Fritz Ebert, Gerhard Elsenkirchen) [2/19/1925, Meerane, Saxony, Germany – 7/17/2006, Berlin, Berlin, Germany] – writer.

Companeros! – 1970 (co) [as Fritz Ebert]

Long Live Your Death – 1971 [as Gunter Eber] [German dialogue]

They Call Me Providence – 1972 [German dialogue]

 

Spaghetti Western Animator ~ Břetislav Pojar

Břetislav Pojar was a Czech animator, puppeteer, and film director renowned for his masterful work in puppet animation and his creation of innovative, often wordless short films that blended sophisticated humor with humanistic, social, and political commentary.

Born on October 7, 1923 in Sušice, Czechoslovakia, Pojar began his career in animation during the 1940s at the Bratři v triku studio in Prague before becoming a close collaborator with Jiří Trnka, contributing as a key animator to landmark puppet films such as “The Emperor’s Nightingale”, “Story of the Bass Cello”, and “Old Czech Legends”. He made his directorial debut in 1951 with the puppet short “Gingerbread House” and earned early acclaim for pieces like “A Drop Too Much” and “The Lion and the Song”, the latter winning the top prize at the inaugural Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 1960.

In the mid-1960s, Pojar emigrated to Canada, where he produced several internationally recognized shorts for the National Film Board of Canada, including “To See or Not to See” and “Balablok”, celebrated for their allegorical depth and visual ingenuity. He later returned to the Czech Republic and served as the founding head of the animation department at FAMU (Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts) in Prague from 1990 onward, while continuing to direct, including contributions to the 2006 anthology film “Fimfárum 2”.

Pojar received numerous accolades throughout his career, including awards at major festivals such as Annecy, Berlin, and Cannes, and was honored late in life with a special prize from the Czech Ministry of Culture for his contributions to cinema. He remained active in animation until his death on October 12, 2012, in Prague at the age of 89, leaving a lasting legacy as one of the foremost figures in Czech and international puppet animation.

Břetislav Pojar was a co-animator on one Euro-western, “Arie Prerie” (Song of the Prairie) with Bohuslav Šrámek, Zdeněk Hrabě, Stanislav Látal and Jan Karpaš in 1949.

 POJAR, Břetislav [10/7/1923, Susice, Czechoslovakia – 10/12/2012, Prague, Czech Republic] – director, writer, animator, film editor, SFX, awarded lifetime achievement from Czech Ministry of Culture.

Song of the Prairie – 1949 (co)