Spaghetti Western Voices “The Sign of Zorro”

 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 Sign of Zorro”

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

 

Don Ramón Martínez y Rayol/Slavatore/Zorro – Sean Flynn (S) Francisco Valladares, (G)

    Thomas Braut, (F) Pierre Vaneck

José – Folco Lulli (S) Vicente Bañó, (G) Klaus W. Krause, (F) Serge Nadaud

Señora Gutiérrez – Gaby André (S) Celia Honrubia, (G) ?, (F) : Nadine Alari

General Rodrigo Gutiérrez – Armando Calvo (S) Armando Calvo, (G) Alf Marholm, (F)

     Claude Bertrand

Manuela – Danielle de Metz (S) Josefina De Luna, (G) Ursula Herwig, (F) Claude Chantal

Don Luis – Mino D’Oro (S) Joaquín Vidriales (G) Wimm Schroers, (F) : Fernand Fabre

Captain Martin/Lieutenant Martino – Mario Petri (S) José Guardiola, (G) Helmo

     Kindermann (F) Jacques Deschamps

Thomas Braut  (1930 - 1979)

Thomas Ulrich Braut was born in Berlin, Germany on May 22, 1930. He was the son of actress Frigga Braut and attended the Düsseldorf acting school under Gustaf Gründgens from 1949 to 1951 where he also took piano and singing lessons. In 1949 he made his stage debut as a chorus messenger in “Die Braut von Messina” at the Grenzland theater in Monschau. Further stage companies were in Düsseldorf, Osnabrück, Cologne, Munich, Zurich, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Berlin. He was not only active as an actor, but also as a director.

From 1957 he has appearances in film and television productions. He played in Frank Wisbar's war film “Haie und kleine Fische”, in the Heinz Erhardt comedy “Vater, Mutter und neun Kinder”, crime novels such as “Stahlnetz” and in television series such as ‘Derrick’, ‘Das Kriminalmuseum, Notarztwagen 7’, ‘Der Alte’ and ‘Auf Achse’.

Since 1953 Braut began his extensive career as a dubbing actor and lent his voice to internationally known acting colleagues such as Alan Bates, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Richard Burton, Johnny Cash, James Coburn, James Drury, Gene Hackman, Dennis Hopper, Ben Gazzara, Toshirō Mifune, Cameron Mitchell, Renato Salvatori and William Shatner.

Braut was married to fellow actress Ursula Herwig [1935–1977] until her death; the couple had one daughter. His cousin Ingrid Braut [1926–2001] was also an actress. After Thomas Braut had already suffered two heart attacks he succumbed to a third attack on December 13, 1979, at the age of 49