Voices of the Spaghetti Westerns ~ “Gentleman Killer”

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.

Today we’ll cover “Gentleman Killer”

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

Anthony Steffen – (I) Anthony Steffen, (S) Arsenio Corsellas, (G) Gert Günther Hoffmann (F)

Eduardo Fajardo – (I) ?, (S) Felipe Peña, (G) Arnold Marquis

Silvia Solar – (I) ?, (S) Maria Luisa Sola, (G) Renate Küster

Anna Orso – (I) ?, (S) Rosario Cavallé, (G) Dagmar Altrichter

Mariano Vidal Molina – (I) ?, (S) Rogelio Hernández, (G) Herbert Stass

Gert Günther Hoffmann [1929-1997]

Gert Günther Hoffmann was born on February 21, 1929 in Berlin-Lnkwitz, Germany.

He completed an apprenticeship as a businessman, then switched to Berlin radio as a speaker . In addition to Rudolf Platte and Gytta Schubert, he appeared in the Berlin Hebbel Theater in the comedy “Das Geld liegt auf der Bank”. In 1951 he got a film role in “Das Bankett der Schmuggler”. Hoffmann could not get big roles in theater and film, therefore, he shifted his professional focus to the dubbing films.

He most often lent his distinctive voice to actors such as Sean Connery, William Shatner, Michel Piccoli, Lex Barker, Paul Newman and Rock Hudson. He was also the narrative voice in the animated series “The Pink Panther” And narrator and voice of the main character in the film classic “Moby Dick” (1956)

Moving from West Berlin to Munich in1970 gave his career as an actor a new boost. For eleven years he took over the role of Chief Criminal Officer Matofski in the ARD crime series ‘Sonderdezernat K1’. In 1972 he played in ‘SR-Fernsehspiel Tod im Studio’ and 1976 feature film “Der starke Ferdinand” in a major role. Gert Günther Hoffmann died in 1997 after a long illness at the age of 68.