From the WAI! vault

 

Little Known Spaghetti Western Actors ~ Alfonso Donati

[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.]

Alfonso Donati is/was an Italian producer, production manager and occasional film actor. Donati was a production manager on three Spaghetti westerns: “Un fiume di dollari” (The Hills Run Red) in 1966, “Il tempo degli avvoltoi” (Last of the Badmen) in 1967, “La vita, a volte, è molto dura, vero Provvidenza?” (They Call Me Providence) in 1972 and “Giubbe rosse” (Red Coat) which he also produced.

As sometimes happens people behind the camera are called upon or as an honor given small roles in front of the camera. So was the case for Alfonso when he appeared in an uncredited role in 1967’s ““Il tempo degli avvoltoi” (Last of the Badmen)” and as mentioned above was a production manager.

DONATI, Alfonso [Italian] – producer, production manager, film actor.

Last of the Badmen – 1967

Spaghetti Western Directors, Screenwriters, Cinematographers

Spaghetti Western Director ~ Franco Giraldi

Franco Giraldi was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his early contributions to the Spaghetti western genre during the 1960s and his later career of literary adaptations that frequently explored the historical, cultural, and personal complexities of the Italian-Slovenian border region around Trieste and Istria. Born on July 11, 1931, in Comeno Gorizia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy and raised in the divided post-war city of Trieste, he began as a film critic for the newspaper L’Unità before transitioning to cinema, where he worked as an assistant director on major productions including Sergio Leone's “A Fistful of Dollars” (1964). He debuted as a director with genre films such as “Sugar Colt” (1966) and the McGregor series (“7 pistole per i McGregor” and “7 donne per i McGregor”), followed by Italian comedies featuring prominent actors.

Giraldi's work later shifted toward more personal and literary projects in both cinema and television, often drawing from regional literature to address themes of identity, memory, and frontier life. Notable among these are the so-called Istrian trilogy, “La rosa rossa” (1973), “Un anno di scuola” (1977), and “La frontiera” (1996), as well as adaptations like “Il Corsaro” and “Le voci”. His documentaries, including “Il Carso” (1960) and others focused on Trieste and the border, further reflect his deep connection to the area's complex history. Giraldi maintained a prolific output across decades, collaborating with figures such as Gillo Pontecorvo, Giuseppe De Santis, and Sergio Corbucci early in his career, and he continued directing until the late 1990s and early 2000s. He died on December 2, 2020, in Trieste from COVID-19 at the age of 89.

Franco Giraldi directed four Spaghetti westerns: “7 pistole per i MacGregor” (7 Guns for the Mac Gregors) in 1965, “Sugar Colt” and “Sette donne per i MacGregor” (Up the MacGregors!) both in 1966 and “Un minute per pregare, un instante per morire” (A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die) in 1967.

GIRALDI, Franco (aka Vincent Eagle, Frank Garfield, Fernand Lion, Frank Prestland [7/11/1931, Comeno, Gorizia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy – 12/2/2020, Trieste, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy (COVID-19)] – director, assistant director, writer, film editor, actor, married to Palmira Petrongari [19??-2009] (2005–2009).

7 Guns for the Mac Gregors – 1965 [as Frank Garfield]

Spaghetti Western Screenwriter ~ Borja Cobeaga

Borja Cobeaga Eguillor was born on July 13, 1977. He is a Spanish screenwriter, film director, and television producer known for his contributions to comedy genres, including blockbuster films and satirical series that often explore Basque and Spanish cultural dynamics.

Cobeaga began his career directing and co-scripting the Basque television comedy ‘Vaya Semanita’ in 2003, establishing his reputation for sharp, regionally flavored humor. His short film “Éramos pocos” (One Too Many) (2005) earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Film, marking an early international recognition. As a screenwriter, he co-authored “Ocho apellidos vascos” (Spanish Affair) (2014) with Diego San José, which became the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in Spain, surpassing €60 million in box office revenue. Directing credits include his feature debut “Pagafantas” (Friend Zone) (2009), earning a Goya Award nomination for Best New Director, and “Negociador” (2014), a tragicomedy about ETA truce negotiations that won the Irizar Basque Film Award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. Later works encompass directing “Fe de etarras” (ETA's Faith) (2017) for Netflix and creating the series ‘No me gusta conducir’ (I Don't Like Driving) (2022) for Movistar+, alongside serving as president of the Spanish audiovisual authors' organization DAMA from 2014 to 2022.

Borja Cobeaga was a co-screenwriter on one Spaghetti western, “Limoncella” with Luis Berdejo and Jorge C.Dorado.

COBEAGA, Borja Borja Cobeaga Eguillor) [7/13/1977, Donostia-San Sebastián, Guipúzcoa, País Vasco, Spain -     ] – producer, director, assistant director, writer, actor, film editor.

Limoncello – 2007 (co)

Spaghetti Western Cinematographer ~ Vjekoslav Kostanjsek

Like several other Kauka employees, Kostanjšek was originally an animator at Zagreb Film after graduating from the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts, more precisely from 1957 to 1963. From 1964 initially working in Italy, he began working for Kauka around 1967. There he was best known for his position as a long-time art director/chief draftsman, which he held from the early 1970s to 1993. His corrective interventions in the works of the various draughtsmen often amounted to worsening and did not remain without controversy. For example, while Florian Julino was allergic to interventions in his works, Massimo Fecchi thinks highly of Kosta, as he encouraged him to apply his own personal style to Fix and Foxy.

For the various Kauka publications, the illustrator realized numerous individual illustrations, including the adventure series Der Tramp, which was published in FF in 1968/69. Especially in the 1970s, he also contributed many cover drawings, for which he often staged the Franco-Belgian licensed heroes; creative were his hidden object motifs, which adorned the Fix and Foxi fun volumes. The most famous cover designed by Kosta is perhaps the one for The Smurfs and The Magic Flute, while the impressive giant fun poster from 1974 (from FF 40/1974) is probably his real masterpiece. However, his style was too static for Fix and Foxi comics, of which there are a few of him.

Vjekoslav Kostanjsek was an animator on one Euro-western “Cowboy Jimmy” with Berislav Fabek, Leo Fabiani, Vladimir Jutrisa, Josip Peciknk and Vjekoslav Radilovic.

KOSTANJSEK, Vjekoslav [6/11/1928, Zagreb, Croatia -     ] – animator, cartoonist.

Cowboy Jimmy – 1957 (co)

Manuel de Teffé and the world of Italo-westerns

Stand

by Cristina Giordano and Daniela Nosari

6/122026

Italian-style westerns, Italo-westerns or spaghetti-westerns: films mistreated for decades by critics, but loved by audiences also in Germany, produced in Rome in the sixties and rediscovered by Tarantino's Hollywood. In "Once Upon a Time in Rome - La Dolce Vita Is Tinged with West", Manuel de Teffé tells the fictionalized story of those years and of his father, protagonist under the name of Anthony Steffen of over 25 Italian westerns. Films, events and concerts celebrate that world now in Düsseldorf.

The cover of "Once upon a time in Rome", image by Tony Stella

But who was Anthony Steffen?

He grew up among the posters of the many western films shot as a protagonist by his father, from "A Long Line of Crosses" to "Django the Bastard", but Manuel de Teffé is a son of that era that does not recognize an artistic validity to this genre. Despite being a very profitable industry, which in the space of a few years produced over 400 films, in fact, the world of Italo-westerns was snubbed for decades by film critics. Anthony Steffen made 27 films as a protagonist between 1964 and 1974.

Manuel de Teffé in unseren StudiosManuel de Teffé in our studios

Manuel de Teffé in our studios

It takes a Quentin Tarantino who at the beginning of the 2000s organizes a review of these films at the Venice Film Festival to relaunch the genre, but also to make our guest change his mind. There, invited to present a film with his father as the protagonist, the director sees Anthony Steffen on screen for the first time and re-evaluates him as an actor. A few years passed from there to the screenplay of a western, but with the move to Germany right at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, the book "Once upon a time in Rome" was born. In the fictionalized story of Antonio de Teffé, a set and refined theater actor, we find out how the actor Anthony Steffen was born, capable of playing ruthless anti-heroes in the desolate frontier towns of the American West.

La dolce vita is tinged with West... in Düsseldorf

The book has already received several awards, including the Sergio Leone prize and, most recently, the "Premio Italofonia Düsseldorf" of the Dante Alighieri Düsseldorf Society, a prize for Italian-language writers abroad, in its first edition. In the book, the Dante Alighieri Society sees "an original look at a fundamental chapter of the imagination of the twentieth century". The award ceremony in March 2026 kicked off the rich festival "La dolce vita si tinge di West", which until June 20 has presented and still presents events, workshops, concerts and of course films to watch or rediscover.

The Dante Alighieri Society Festival Düsseldorf

Festival vom Verien Dante Alighieri DüsseldorfThe Dante Alighieri Society Festival Düsseldorf

The next appointments are on the evening of Saturday 13 June at the headquarters of the Dante Alighieri society in Düsseldorf with the presentation of the book and scenic readings as well as clips of the films, attended by Manuel de Teffé, the president of the Dante Alighieri Beatrice Santini, and the well-known actor Giorgio Colangeli. On Sunday, June 14, we would like to point out the conference on the music of Ennio Morricone, on Thursday, June 18 the film "Django the bastard" at the Kino Black Box and the final concert with music by Ennio Morricone on Saturday, June 20 at the Stadtmuseum in Düsseldorf. The festival was organized with numerous partners, including the Italia Altrove association and the Heinrich Heine Universität.

Who Are Those Singers & Musicians? ~ Scott Walker

 

Scott Walker was an American-British singer-songwriter, composer, and record producer known for his commanding baritone voice and his remarkable career arc from 1960s pop success with the Walker Brothers to groundbreaking avant-garde and experimental music in his later years.

Born Noel Scott Engel in Hamilton, Ohio, on January 9, 1943, he began his career recording teen-oriented material under the name Scotty Engel before forming the Walker Brothers with John Walker (John Maus) and Gary Walker (Gary Leeds) in the early 1960s. The group relocated to the United Kingdom in 1965, where they achieved significant commercial success with dramatic, orchestrated ballads such as Make It Easy on Yourself and The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore), establishing Walker as a prominent figure in the British pop scene of the era. After the group's initial dissolution in 1967, he embarked on a solo career that initially blended lush orchestral arrangements with introspective, often melancholic lyrics influenced by Jacques Brel, yielding popular albums including Scott (1967), Scott 2 (1968), Scott 3 (1969), and the all-original Scott 4 (1969).

Following commercial setbacks and a period of relative withdrawal, including a Walker Brothers reunion that produced the notable single No Regrets, Walker returned in 1984 with the transitional Climate of Hunter. His work grew increasingly experimental and uncompromising from the 1990s onward, marked by albums such as Tilt (1995), The Drift (2006), Bish Bosch (2012), and the collaboration Soused (2014) with Sunn O))), which featured dense, abrasive soundscapes and abstract themes that earned him widespread critical acclaim as a visionary in art rock and avant-garde music. He also composed film scores for works including “Pola X” (1999), “The Childhood of a Leader” (2016) and “Vox Lux” (2018), and his influence extended to artists such as David

Walker died from cancer in London, England on March 25, 2019. He was 76 years old.

WALKER, Scott (Noel Scott Engel) [1/9/1943, Hamilton, Ohio, U.S.A. – 3/25/2019, London, England, U.K. (cancer)] – producer, composer, songwriter, singer, musician, cousin of actress Georgia Engel (Georgia Bright Engel) [1948-2019], married actress Mette Teglbjaerg [1946-    ] (1973-1976) father of Nicola Lee (Lee Engel) [1974-    ], member of the “The Walker Brothers” [1964-1967, 1975-1978],

Cemetery Without Crosses – 1968 [sings: “A Rope and a Colt”]

Special Birthdays

Marquard Bohm (actor) would have been 85 today but died in in 2006.

Leopoldo Villasenot (cinematographer) is 85 today.

Spaghetti Western Trivia ~ Two German versions of “God Forgives… I Don’t!”

 

In Germany, “God Forgives… I Don’t!” was dubbed and released twice. The first German dub (1967) retained the more serious and brutal tone of the original version, while the second dub done for the re-release (1981) was significantly more comedic in nature, because the Bud Spencer / Terrence Hill Trinity parodies were immensely successful in German cinemas. The distributor also cut many violent scenes from the re-release to make it more palpable for a younger audience.