Spaghetti Western Voices – “Behind the Mask 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 “Behind the Mask of Zorro”

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

Patricio/Alfonso/Zorro - Tony Russel (S) Simón Ramírez, (G) Rainer Brandt

Don Antonio - José Maria Seoane (S) José Maria Seoane, (G) Friedrich Schoenfelder

Governor - José Maria Seoana (S) José Maria Seoana, (G) Friedrich Schoenfelder

General Esteban Garcia - Robert Paoletti (S) Vicente Bañó, (G) ?

Captain Gomez - Jesús Puente (S) Jesús Puente, (G) Arnold Marquis

Captain of the guards - Joaquín Pamplona (S) Joaquín Pamplona, (G) ?

José Maria Seoane  (1913 – 1989)

José María Seoane Buján was born in Vigo, Galicia, Spain on September 13, 1913. He was a member of the Martín Códax Group of Vigo, in which he developed an active acting work and became a stage director. He participated with stage director Luis Escobar in the play “El hospital de los locos” in the 1940s. In the following years he became the leading actor of the Teatros Español and María Guerrero de Madrid, in which he had the opportunity to interpret great classics such as “Cyrano de Bergerac”, “La vida es sueño”, “Othello” and, on several occasions, he headed the cast of “Don Juan Tenorio”, of José Zorrilla with his wife Rosita Yarza.

He debuted on the big screen with the film “Porque te vi llorar” (1941) by Juan de Orduña, which would be followed by more than 40 titles until his last appearance in “La guerrilla” (1972), by Rafael Gil.

Seoane was married to actress Rosita Yarza [1922-1996] and the couple had two sons Alfonso and José María. He died of kidney failure July 7, 1988, in Madrid.