Voices of the Spaghetti Westerns ~ “Heroes of the West”

 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 “Heroes of the West”

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

Mike – Walter Chiari (S) Felix Acaso

Colorado – Raimondo Vianello (S) Eduardo Calvo

Margaret – Silvia Solar (S) Carmen Morando

Barbara – Diana Lorys (S) Mercedes Mireya

Felix Acaso  (1919 – 2007)

Felix Acaso was born in Madrid, Spain on August 18, 1919. In 1946 he decided to leave his job in a bank to devote himself to voice dubbing. Advised by Fernando Rey, he was subjected to a test in the studios of Fono España, owned by the Italian Hugo Donarelli, a test that, despite the difficulty and his inexperience, he overcame. From that year until his retirement in 2000 (with the hiatus of a long stay in Mexico between 1949 and 1954), he lent his voice to all the important actors of the golden age of Hollywood. Some of the actors he dubbed were Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, Charles Chaplin, Joseph Cotten, Robert Culp, John Gielgud, Stewart Granger, Rock Hudson, Karl Malden, David Niven, Tyrone Power, James Stewart and Max von Sydow . It is almost impossible to list all the actors he dubbed, since he dubbed all of the "stars" of classic cinema, except Clark Gable.

In 1954, he formed the studio of Fono España and became a dubbing director which he would follow for decades until his death on July 11, 2007, in Madrid a month short of his 88^th birthday.