Voices of the Spaghetti Western – “Dynamite Jack”

 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 be 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 “Dynamite Jack”

 

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

Dynamite Jack – Feranndel (F) Fernandel, (G) Klaus W. Krause

Dolores – Eleonora Vargas (F) ?, (G) Gisela Reißmann

Sheriff Scotty – Lucien Raimbourg (F) Lucien Raimbourg, (G) Erik Jelde

Sergeant Bob – Jess Hahn (F) Jess Hahn, (G) Alwin Joachim Meyer

Pegeen O’Brien – Adrienne Corri (F) ?, (G) Dagmar Altrichter

Klaus W. Krause  (1903 – 1981)

Krause was born as Willy Hermann Krause on May 2, 1903 in Berlin, Germany. In 1927 the District Court of Berlin-Neukölln gave him permission to use the first name Klaus. Krause received his artistic training at the Reichersche Hochschule for Dramatic Art. He first appeared as a theater actor in his hometown, at the Stadttheater in Koblenz and at the Schauspielhaus in Bremen. From 1933 to 1943 he was engaged at the National Theater in Mannheim. His last engagement before the end of the war took him to the Bavarian State Theater in Munich, directed by Alexander Golling . The first theater engagements after 1945 brought KrauseCologne to the Municipal Theater (1946-1947) and again to Munich to the Young Theater (1947-1948). From 1949 he also took part in small supporting roles in cinema and television productions.

However, he was mainly active as a voice actor. From the late 1950s he spoke particularly frequently of Jean Gabin, including in “Baldwin, the Night Ghost” (1968), “The Clan of Sicilians” (1969), “The Cat” (1971) and “The End of the Line Scaffold” (1973). He also dubbed Fernandel several times, e.g. “B. Reverend Don Camillo” (1961). He lent his voice to Gregory Peck in “The Wilderness Calls” (1947) and “Moby Dick” (1956). Other actors he dubbed were William Powell, Thomas Mitchell, Edward G. Robinson and Boris Karloff. In the field of animation, he voiced the Miraculix in “Asterix the Gaul” (1967) and “Asterix and Cleopatra” (1968) as well as Butler Edgar in “The Aristocats” (1970).

He was also used as a speaker in many radio plays, for example in 1959 in ‘Paul Temple and the Conrad Case’, the only Paul Temple radio play that was produced by Bavarian Radio. Krause also took part in Dickie Dick Dickens and a radio play version of ‘I Often Think of Piroschka’.

Klaus W. Krause died sometime in 1981 place unknown.