Voices of the Euro-western ~ Fistful of Dollars

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 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 these actors are as well-known as the actors they voiced.

We’ll start off with “A Fistful of Dollars”

Clint Eastwood – (I) Enrico Maria Salerno, (S) Jesús Nieto, (G) Klaus Kindler, (F) Jacques Deschamps, (E) Clint Eastwood

John Wells (Gin Maria Volonte) – (I) Nando Gazzolo, (S) Carlos Revilla, (G) Reiner Brandt,  (F) Claude Joseph, (E) Bernard Grant

José Calvo – (I) Luigi Pavese, (S) Francisco Sánchez, (G) Hans Hinrich, (F) Jean Martinelli, (E) Jack Curtis

Margarita Lozano – (I) Anna Miserocchi, (S) MariÁngeles Herranz, (G) ?, (F) Paule Emanuele, (E) Anna Miserocchi

Marianne Koch – (I) Rita Svagnone, (S) Ana María Saizar, (G) Marianne Koch, (F) ?, (E) Joyce Gordon

Benny Reeves (Benito Stefanelli) – (I) Sergio Graziani, (S) ?, (G) Wolfgang Hess, (F) ?, (E) ?

Wolfgang Lukschy – (I) Giorgio Capecchi, (S) Benjamin Domingo, (G) Wolfgang Lukschy, (F) Yves Furet, (E) Bernard Grant

Antonio Prieto – (I) Mario Pisu, (S) Joaquín Vidriales, (G) Klaus W. Krause, (F) Gérard Férat, (E) George Gonneau

Sieghardt Rupp – (I) Bruno Persa, (S) Francisco Arenzana, (G) Sieghardt Rupp, (F) Jacques Balutin, (E) Bernard Grant

Josef Egger – (I) Lauro Gazzolo, (S) Manuel De Juan, (G) Josef Egger, (F) ?, (E) Robert Dryden 

Richard Stuyvesant (Mario Brega) – (I) Rento Turi, (S) Rafael Calvo Revilla, (G) Werner Lieven, (F) Claude Bertrand, (E) Ray Owens

BERNARD GRANT [1920 – 2004]

Bernard Grant was born in The Bronx, New York City, New York October 10, 1920. As a youth he came to acting through church groups. He then attended New York City College while acting for neighborhood theaters. He belonged to a comedy trio that performed at nightclubs and then became a radio announcer at WPAT-AM in New York and studied acting at the American Theater Wing. He served for three years in the United States Army during World War II, entertaining troops and reaching the rank of staff sergeant. In 1947 Bernie started appearing in radio dramas, sometimes as many as four a day. He often played two people in the same show, one with a high voice and one with a low voice.  In the early 1950's he made the transition to television, appearing in shows like ''Kraft Theater'' and ''Omnibus.'' Later he became a soap opera star, for two decades, Mr. Grant was a fixture of daytime dramas on television, most notably as the mellow Dr. Paul Fletcher in ''The Guiding Light'' for 13 years and as Steve Burke, a more brusque type, in ''One Life to Live'' during the 1970's. An acting career that included radio, summer stock and Broadway, Mr. Grant got steady work speaking for stars in foreign films translated into English. He was the voice of Marcello Mastroianni, Yves Montand and Jean Gabin, among many others, and was the English-language heavy voice for all of Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns.

Bernard was married to actress and voice dubber Joyce Gordon [1919-2020] who voiced Marianne Koch’s Marisol in “A Fistful of Dollars”. The couple had two children Mark and Melissa.

Bernard Grant died in Manhattan, New York City, New York on June 30, 2004.