Voices of the Spaghetti Westerns ~ “Zorro the Avenger”

 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 “Zorro the Avenger”

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

 

Don José de la Torre - El Zorro – Frank Latimore (S) Ángel María Baltanás, (G) Helmo Kindermann, (F) ?

Maria Aguilar - María Luz Galicia (S) María Luz Galicia, (G) ?, (F) ?

Juan Aguilar – Raphael Romero Marchent (S) Raphael Romero Marchent, (F) ?

General Clarence – Howard Vernon (S) José Guardiola, (G) Alf Marholm, (F) Howard Vernon

Irene – Maria Silva (S) María del Puy, (G) Marianne Mosa, (F) ?

Charlie – Paul Piaget (S) Jesús Puente, (G) Michael Chevalier, (F) ?

 

Alf Marholm  (1918 – 2006)

Alf Marholm was born Alfons Stoffels in Oberhausen, Ruhr, Germany on May 31, 1918. He went to school in his native town and made his stage debut there in 1938 at theStadttheater. His best-known role was later that of administrative director Mühlmannin the ZDF TV series ‘Die Schwarzwaldklinik’ (1985–1989). Marholm's career as an actor and voice actor began in 1952 with the film “Postlagerd Turteltaube”. For many years he was the German voice of Count Zahlon on ‘Sesame Street’.

Many of his films and television series are already considered classics, such as “The Death Ship” (1959), the Edgar Wallace films “The Red Circle” (1960) and “The Gang of Terror” (1960), the “Durbridge Street Sweep The Scarf” (1962), the Simmel film “The Stuff Dreams Are Made of” (1972), the Wilkie Collins miniseries ‘The Woman in White’ (1971), the ZDF four-parter ‘Die merkwürdige Lebensgeschichte des Friedrich Freiherrn von der Trenck’ (1972) and the miniseries ‘Die Powenzbande’ (1973). In 1981 he starred in the film “Prussian Night”.

Almost more famous, however, was the distinctive voice of Alf Marholm, which he voiced as Guy Trejeanas Louis XIII. in “The Three Musketeers” (1961), Ivor Dean in the role of Long John Silver in the adventure four-parter ‘Treasure Island’ (1966),Robert Morleyin “The Killer Ship” (1971), Leo McKernas Bill MacGuirein “The Day the Earth Caught Fire” (1961) and Howard Da Silva, Bernard Blier, Brian Aherne, Michel Simon and other international actors. He was also heard in numerous radio plays, such as in some Paul Temple radio plays, which were produced by the NWDR and later the WDR.

Alf Marholm died on February 24 2006 at the age of 87 in Waldbreitbach, Neuwied, Germany.