Voices of the Spaghetti Western – “The Taste of Violence”

 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 “The Taste of Violence”

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

Pedro – Robert Hossein (S) Juan Manuel Soriano, (G) Gert Günther Hoffmann 

Maria Laragana – Giovanna Ralli (S) Elsa Fábregas, (G)             Marion Degler

Tomas – Mario Adorf (S) Arsenio Cprsellas, (G) Mario Adorf

Carlos – Hans H. Neubert (S) Rogelio Hernández, (G) Harry Wüstenhagen

Isa – Dany Jacquet (S) Rosa Guiñón,(G)  Maria Körber

Juan Manuel Soriano (1921 – 1995)

Juan Manuel Soriano Ruiz was born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, on July 21, 1920. He was a Spanish journalist and voice actor who achieved popularity after marrying Núria Llobera Moral with whom he had four children, Juan Manuel, María José, Núria and Izaskun. He began his professional career at Radio Nacional de España, where in 1949 he created the Invisible Theater teaching great actors such as Elsa Fábregas and Constantino Romero who later also jumped to the big screen. At the same time, he adapted to the radio some well-known plays, such as “The War of the Worlds”.

He also made some forays into the television in the early 1960s, with programs such as ‘Who has the Word?’ (1963), ‘Business Card’ (1964), ‘Who's Who?’ (1964-1965) or ‘Who’s Telling the Truth?’ (1965-1966).

Also outstanding was his career as an actor and dubbing director, with participation in more than two hundred films from 1946 until his death. With a prodigious voice, characteristic, with a perfect diction and with an incredible naturalness. It allowed him throughout his career to dub a multitude of actors of the time. As he himself said, the worst actor who he dubbed was Rock Hudson. Years later he retired, but in the mid-80s he returned to the world of dubbing, doubling a multitude of secondaries. In this field, in addition to his dubbing of stars such as Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant, Kirk Douglas, Steve McQueen, William Holden and Richard Widmark.

Juan Manuel Sorriano was married and had four children He died in Barcelon, Spain on October 19, 1995.