Spaghetti Western Voices – “3 Swords 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 “3 Swords of Zorro”

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

Don Diego Ortiz/Zorro – Guy Stockwell (I) Renzo Palmer, (S) Simón Ramírez, (G) Thomas Eckelmann, (F) Roger Rudel

Governor Dan Manuel – Antonio Prieto (I) Rolf Tasna, (S) Antonio Prieto, (G) Klaus W. Krause, (F) Pierre Gay

Maria – Mikela Wood (I) Adriana De Roberto, (S) Matilde Conesa, (G) Dagmar Altrichter, (F) Claire Guibert

Colonel Juan Ortiz/Martinez – Franco Fantasia (I) Michele Malaspina, (S) Vicente Bañó, (G) Heinz Petruo, (F) Jean Michaud

Virginia de Santa Ana – Gloria Milland (I) ?, (S) Mari Angeles Herranz, (G) Margot Leonard, (F) Nicole Favart

Padre Geronimo – John McDouglas (I) ?, (S) Juan Córdoba. (G) Curt Ackermann, (F) Jean-Henri Chambois

Roger Rudel  (1921 – 2008)

Roger Valentin Fernand Joseph Rudelle was born on December 14, 1921, in Montpellier, Hérault, France. Although an actor, singer, and songwriter who started his career in 1940, he specialized in voice dubbing starting in 1947. He was the French voice of such actors as Kirk Douglas, Frank Sinatra, Tyrone Power, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Richard Widmark, Robert Duvall, Henry Silva and Robert Vaughn. In 1973 he started a new career as a stage director. By the end of the 1980s Roger slowed his career down but was still pulled back to dubbing the occasional film. He died in Le Pecq, Yvelines, France on July 19, 2008, at the age of 86.