Fernando
‘Nando’ Gazzolo was born on October 16, 1928 in Savona, Liguria Italy. The son
of actor and voice actor Lauro Gazzolo [1900-1970] and radio announcer Aida
Ottaviani Piccolo, older brother of actor Virgilio Gazzolo [1936- ] and father
of actor Matthew Gazzolo [1962- ], after his working on radio as a young man he
debuted in the theater in 1948, with Antonio Gandusio and achieves success in “Antony
and Cleopatra” staged by Renzo Ricci in 1951. In 1954 he played the role of Horace plays in “Hamlet”, staged by Gassman and Squarzina at the Italian Art Theatre. In addition to the theater, from the mid-1950s he begins working as a voice dubber and then began a brilliant career in television. With television he obtains wide popularity tying his face and his extraordinary voice to the interpretation of numerous dramas such as “Capitan Fracassa” in 1958, “The Citadel” in 1964 and “Vanity Fair” in 1967, directed by Anton Giulio Majano .
His feature film debut was in 1961 with the historical film “Constantine the Great”, followed by other film roles. He resume his intense work in film dubbing lending his voice to prestigious performers including David Niven, Michael Caine, Frank Sinatra, Yul Brynner, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Donald Sutherland, Laurence Olivier, Clint Eastwood and many others. In 1963 he was the narrator of “Il mulino del Po”, scripted for television by Sandro Bolchi and the same year took part in the musical revue “Un disco per l'estate”. Nando appeared in 2 Euro-westerns: “The Hills Run Red” as Ken Seagall and “Django Shoots First” as Ken Kluster both in 1966. He has also dubbed at least 9 Euro-westerns from “A Fistful of Dollars” (1964) and “For a Few Dollars More” (1965) as the Italian voice of Gian Maria Volonte, “Once Upon a Time in the West” (1968) the Italian voice of Henry Fonda, “The Price of Power” (1969) the Italian voice of Benito Stefanelli and “The Genius” (1975) the Italian voice of Patrick McGoohan.
In 1968 he was the star of the hit television series on Italian Sherlock Holmes. In 1971 in ‘Buddenbrooks’ written by Thomas Mann, directed by Edmo Fenoglio; During the same period, and for several years, he is featured in TV commercials for Carousel. In the 1980s Gazzolo participate as a storyteller on ‘Storytelling’, a collection of fairy tales for children read by the best Italian actors and voice actors.
Along with his work in television he has continued to act on stage in a theater repertoire of mostly classics, directed by filmmakers such as Walter Pagliaro, Mario Ferrero, Dario Fo, Orazio Costa, Gabriele Lavia, Giorgio Albertazzi and Sandro Sequi. Among the memorable theatrical productions is the 1976 play by Dario Fo “Chi ruba un piede è fortunato in amore”.
Since 2002 he’s been working on the publication of a series of CDs containing a wide selection of prose and poetry. Among his most recent works in the theater, “On Golden Pond” by Ernest Thompson in 2003, “Servo di scena” by Ronald Harwood in 2006 and “The Benevolent Curmudgeon” in 2007.
Today we celebrate Nando Gazzolo’s 85th birthday.
I had the impression that Mr. Gazzolo also did the English dub for Volonte in the first two "Dollar" films by Leone?
ReplyDeleteI'm not aware of that. Bernie Grant was the English language voice of Gian Maria Volonte on the U.S.A. release of Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More.
ReplyDelete