Sunday, July 19, 2026
Little Known Spaghetti Western Actors ~ Ann Collin
[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.]
Ann Collin was born Ann Reid on February 9, 1943, in Batavia, New York. She was an American singer, composer, and actress known for her contributions to Italian Spaghetti Western film soundtracks during the 1960s and 1970s. She provided vocals and sometimes compositions to notable soundtracks in the genre.
Collin's career extended beyond film into music performance, composition, and education, including teaching at Genesee Community College from 1996 to 2013 and receiving the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activity in 2004, demonstrating versatility across stage, screen, and academia.
Collin died on October 20, 2016, in Buffalo, New York she was 73.
Ann Collin appeared in one Spaghetti western, “Si può fare... amigo” (It Can be Done... Amigo!) as the Sonny’s saloon girl in green dress in 1972.
COLLIN, Ann (aka Ann Reid Collin) (Ann M. Reid)
[2/9/1943, Batavia, New York, U.S.A. –10/20/2016, Buffalo, New York, U.S.A.
(leukemia)] composer, songwriter, singer, musician (keyboards), actress,
married to intelligence officer, author Richard Oliver Collin (1962-19??)
mother of engineer Oliver Richard Collin [1963- ].
It Can be Done... Amigo! – 1972 (saloon girl in green
dress)
Spaghetti Western Directors, Screenwriters, Cinematographers
Spaghetti Western Director ~ Joë Hamman
Joë Hamman was the grandson of the Belgian painter Edouard Hamman (1819-1888), his Belgian-Dutch father is one of the best experts in paintings and his grandmother was a maid of Empress Eugenie's company. He rubs shoulders in his childhood with many writers (Dumas son, Maupassant, Feydeau). He studied in London and Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. It is thus that he will become a remarkable watercolor artist illustrating including Balzac, Perrault, Edgar Poe, The Satyricon, The Tales of a Thousand and One Nights ...
At 21, on a business trip with his father to the United States, he meets his idol William Frederic “Buffalo Bill” Cody. He rides with him in the plains of Nebraska and meets the Indians and cowboys who will exert a boundless fascination on him. He began riding on a Montana ranch and during this long stay, young Joe entered the Pine Ridge Sioux Game Reserve in Dakota and met the Indian leader Red Cloud. Back in France, he started writing scripts and drawing the characters. He becomes a director, screenwriter, actor, and stuntman.
Few people know that westerns were shot in France at the same time as the Americans, in the 1910s in the Camargue, and Joe Hamman was the protagonist. He started in 1906 with a short movie, “Cowboy”, which was a huge public success. The company Eclipse then ordered the series “Arizona Bill”. With Jean Durand, Gaston Roudès and others. It met such great success that he will shoot an impressive number of films (nearly 200) on for companies such as Lux, Eclipse, Eclair, Pathé.
In 1921, he created "The Films Joe Hamman". His film career will continue with Henri Fescourt, Jean de Baroncelli, (Mireille), the Ciné-Romans series (Rouletabille), etc. These drawings by Joe Hamman will complete a background already rich in the career of this great filmmaker. In fact, in 1946, Henri Langlois and Musidora agreed with the Cinémathèque française in the framework of the Commission for Historical Research to collect his memories. His testimony is preciously preserved in the archives as well as posters, a cowboy costume, a manuscript script and many films including “Hanging at Jefferson City” (1911), “Calino Wants to be Cowboy” (1911) and “The Monts en flamme” (1931).
In 1962, he publishes his memories in a book prefaced by Jean Cocteau, From Far West to Montmartre, edited by the French Publishers.
Hamman died in Dieppe, Seine-Maritime, France on June 30, 1974 at the age of 90.
Joë Hamman directed eleven Euro-westerns: “Cow-boy” (Cowboy in 1907, “Un cow-boy a Paris” (A Cowboy in Paris) in 1908, “Les aventures de Buffalo Bill” (The Adventures of Buffalo Bill) and “Un drame au Far West” (A Drama in the Far West) both in 1909, “Les aventures d’Arizona Bill” (The Adventures of Buffalo Bill) with Jean Durand and Gaston Roudès 1911-1913, “Les diables rouges” (The Red Devils) and “L’oiseau de proie” both in 1911, “Les mystere de la banquet d’el city” (The Mystery of the Elk City Bank) and “La ville souterraine” (The Subterranean City), “210 contre 213” (210 vs 213) all in 1913 and “Le coeur d’un pere” in 1914.
HAMMAN, Joë (Jean Paul Arthur
Hamman) [10/26/1883, Paris,
Île-de-France, France – 6/30/1974, Dieppe, Seine-Maritime, France] – production
manager, director, assistant director, writer, stuntman, film actor, grandson
of the Belgian painter Edouard Hamman [1819-1888], married to actress Vesta
Harold (19??-19??).
Cowboy – 1907
A Cowboy in Paris -
1908
The Adventures of
Buffalo Bill – 1909
A Drama in the Far
West – 1909
Les aventures
d’Arizona Bill – 1911-1913 (co)
Les diables rouges –
1911
L’oiseau de proie –
1911
Les mystere de la
banquet d’el city - 1913
The Subterranean
City – 1913
210 contre 213 -
1913
Le coeur d’un pere
-1914
Spaghetti Western Screenwriter ~ Alex Cox
Alexander B. H. Cox was born in Bebington, Merseyside, England, a on December 15, 1954, and is an English film director, screenwriter, occasional actor, non-fiction author, and broadcaster, best known for his early cult classics “Repo Man” (1984) and “Sid and Nancy” (1986).
Cox's films are characterized by an anarchic punk aesthetic, anti-authoritarian themes, and a rejection of conventional Hollywood narratives, often blending satire, genre elements, and historical revisionism. After initial commercial success with “Repo Man”—a punk-infused sci-fi comedy that won the Grand Prize at the Sundance Film Festival—and the biopic “Sid and Nancy”, which earned Gary Oldman a BAFTA nomination for portraying Sid Vicious, Cox's career pivoted following the critical but box-office flop “Walker” (1987), an anti-imperialist take on the 19th-century filibuster William Walker that alienated studios and prompted his self-exile to independent and international productions.
Subsequent works like “Highway Patrolman” (1991), filmed in Mexico and praised for its gritty portrayal of corruption, reflect Cox's shift to low-budget filmmaking outside the U.S., where he has directed, written, and acted in projects emphasizing outsider perspectives and critiques of power structures. Despite mainstream marginalization—attributed by Cox himself to his uncompromising style and refusal to conform—his influence endures in indie cinema, with recent reflections underscoring a deliberate farewell to Hollywood's commercial constraints.
Cox is married to Tod Davies, an American writer, producer, publisher, and founder of Exterminating Angel Press. The couple has collaborated professionally on several projects, including script revisions for films such as “Three Businessmen” (1998), where Davies contributed uncredited work alongside Cox. They reside in Colestin, Oregon, a rural area near the California border, where they have lived for over several decades.
Alex Cox wrote screenplays for four Euro-westerns: “The Black Hills” in 1976, “Once Upon a Time...” in 2005, “Eventos en el campo” in 2022 and “Dead Souls” with Gianni Garko in 2024.
COX, Alex (Alexander B.H. Cox) [12/15/1954, Bebington, Merseyside, England, U.K. - ] – producer, director, assistant
director, author, writer, songwriter, cameraman, film editor, married to
producer, actress Tod Davies [1955- ]
(2000- ).
The Black Hills -
1976
Once Upon a Time...
– 2005
Eventos en el campo
– 2022
Dead Souls – 2024
(co)
Spaghetti Western Cinematographer ~ Charles Magnusson
Charles Magnusson was a Swedish film producer and studio executive known for his leadership in shaping the Golden Age of Swedish silent cinema during the early 20th century. Widely regarded as the "grand old man" of Swedish film production, he played a central role in elevating Swedish cinema to international prominence through strategic vision and key artistic decisions.
Born on January 26, 1878, in Gothenburg, Sweden, Magnusson initially worked as a professional photographer and newsreel cameraman starting in the early 1900s, capturing significant events and operating cinemas before transitioning to film production. In 1908, he became managing director of AB Svenska Biografteatern (Svenska Bio), where he relocated the company to Stockholm in 1911, constructed studios on Lidingö, and recruited exceptional talents including cinematographer Julius Jaenzon and directors Victor Sjöström and Mauritz Stiller, whose works became cornerstones of Swedish film history.
Under his guidance, Svenska Bio produced acclaimed silent films such as “A Man There Was” (1917), “The Outlaw and His Wife” (1918), “Sons of Ingmar” (1919), and “The Phantom Carriage” (1921). In 1919, he orchestrated the merger of Svenska Bio with Skandia to form Svensk Filmindustri (SF), expanding production facilities and establishing international offices. He continued in his executive role until 1928, leaving a lasting legacy on Swedish cinema through his administrative skill, artistic intuition, and forward-thinking approach.
He also served as cinematographer and producer on early short films and actualities, including “Resa Stockholm-Göteborg genom Göta och Trollhätte kanaler” (1908), “Göta elf-katastrofen” (1908), “Krigsbilder från Bohuslän” (1907), and “Bilder från Fryksdalen” (Gösta Berlings land) (1907).
Magnusson died on January 18, 1948, in Stockholm week prior to turning 70.
Charles Magnusson was a cinematographer on two Euro-westerns: “Cowboy John dans le Rôle du Garçon de Course de la Modiste” and “Cowboy John Postule pour un emploi à l'émission de Variétés” both in 1912.
MAGNUSSON, Charles (Charles
Fredrik Magnusson) [1/26/1878, Gothenburg, Västra Götalands län, Sweden
– 1/18/1948, Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden] – producer, director, writer,
co-founded Svenska Biografteatern AB [1906-1919].
Cowboy John dans le
Rôle du Garçon de Course de la Modiste – 1912
Cowboy John Postule
pour un emploi à l'émission de Variétés - 1912
Who Are Those Singers & Musicians? ~ Tony Wendall
Tony Wendell is/was a professional singer and session vocalist who frequently collaborated with the legendary Italian composer and jazz musician Piero Umiliani. They worked together extensively on Piero Umiliani's 1960s and 1970s film soundtracks and lounge music projects, helping to blur the lines between European jazz and pop music.
Wendell provided smooth, lounge-style vocals on a variety of Piero Umiliani's projects, perfectly capturing the mid-century European cinematic and easy-listening aesthetic.
His origin and any other information remain a mystery.
WENDALL, Tony –
singer.
The Road to Fort Alamo - 1964 [Sings: “The Road to Fort Alamo”]
Special Birthdays
Robert Woods (singer, actor) is 90 today.
Hedy Sontag (actress) would have been 85 but died
in 2023.
Saturday, July 18, 2026
RIP Brenda Fricker
Irish actress Brenda Fricker, who became the first Irish
actress to win an Oscar for her turn opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in 1989’s “My
Left Foot” and captured hearts as the Pigeon Lady in 1992’s “Home Alone 2,”
died on Thursday in Dublin. She was 81. Born in Dublin, Ireland on February 17,
1945, to language teacher Bina Murphy and Desmond Frederick Fricker, a
journalist for the Irish Times. Before becoming an actor, she initially wanted
to be a journalist, and worked for the Irish Times as an assistant to the
paper’s art editor. Her first film appearance was when she was 19, in a small
uncredited part in the 1964 drama “Of Human Bondage.” She also had a minor
appearance in the Irish soap opera “Tolka Row” that year. In addition to her
film work, Fricker also had a long career on stage, acting in productions for
the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Court Theatre and the Geffen Playhouse.
Fricker appeared in one Euro-western “Painted Angels” as Annie Ryan in 1998.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
