Voices of the Spaghetti Western ~ “Arizona Returns”

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 “Arizona Returns”

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

Arizona Colt – Anthony Steffen (It) Sergio Graziani, (S) Simón Ramírez, (G) Klaus Kindler

Sheila – Marcella Michelangeli (It) Marcella Michelangeli, (S) Maite Santamarina, (G) Ute Marin

Keene – Aldo Sambrell (It) Carlo Alighiero, (S) José Martínez Blanco, (G) Michael Chevalier

Paloma Moreno – Rosalba Neri (It) Rosalba Neri, (S) Lola Cervantes, (G) Renate Küster

Double Whiskey – Roberto Camardiel (It) Carlo Romano, (S) Salvador Arias, (G) Gerd Duwner

Biggle – Raf Baldassarre (It) Luciano De Ambrosis, (S) José Ángel Juanes, (G) Christian Brückner

Simón Ramírez  [1932-1995]

Simón Ramírez Fernández was born in Alcázar de San Juan, Ciudad Real, Spain on August 27, 1932. He started in his profession through radio, debuting in 1954 with the dub of Byron Haskin’s War of the Worlds. He is best known for dubbing Sean Connery in the first five James Bond films. Among his extensive acting dubbing career, he also lent his deep and velvety voice to Dennis Weaver in Duel and Robert De Niro in Sergio Leone's great classic Once Upon a Time in America , Robert Redford in The Great Gatsby, Richard Attenborough in The Great Gatsby and James Stewart in Anatomy of a Murder, among the other actors he dubbed were Henry Fonda, Kirk Douglas, Paul Newman, Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck, Peter Sellers, Tony Curtis, Cary Grant and William Holden

Ramírez was also a film actor on various occasions, appearing in Spanish film titles from the 1960s, such as Historias de la Televisión and Tres de la Cruz Roja, and ogether with José Luis López Vázquez in Mas bonita que ni. He also starred in animated series like Los trotamúsicos, dubbing the evil Chef, and in Sesame Street doubling the Evil Chef Blas.

He was married to Marta Ariza and was the father of two children Marta Ramírez Ariza and Javier San Sebastián. Simón Ramírez died in Madrid, Spain on October 25, 1995, at the age of 63, following a heart attack. With his disappearance, Spain lost one of the great and most versatile voices of dubbing.