Voices of the Spaghetti Western – “Legend of a Gunfighter”

 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 “Legend of a Gunfighter”

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

Chris Harper – Thomas Fristsch (G) Thomas Fritsch

Richard Bradley – Gustav Knuth (G) Gustav Knuth

Meg Bradley – Judith Dornys (G) Judith Dornys

Ann Bradley - Heidemarie Hatheyer (G) Heidemarie Hatheyer

Linda - Ingrid van Bergen (G) Ingrid van Bergen

Al Nutting - Ron Randell (G) Michael Chevalier

Thomas Fritsch  (1944 – 2021)

Thomas Fritsch was born in Dresden, Saxony, Germany January 16, 1944. He was a German actor, voice actor and Schlager singer. The son of the actor Willy Fritsch [1901-1973] became known first through leading roles in several movies and for some time as a teenage idol, later he was especially seen in numerous series roles.

Besides his activities at the theater and on television Fritsch also worked as a dubbing actor. He dubbed Russell Crowe, Jeremy Irons, Charles Shaughnessy and Edward James Olmos.

He also appeared in the German versions of a number of well-known Disney animated films, including Scar in “The Lion King” and Niels (Nigel) in “Finding Nemo”. He voiced the cartoon character of Russell Crowe in the South Park episode ‘The Russell Crowe Show’. He also appeared in the role of Diego in “Ice Age”, “Ice Age 2”, “Ice Age 3”, “Ice Age 4”. In the HBO series Game of Thrones, he dubbed James Faulkner in the role of Randyll Tarly. In the animated adaptation of Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver, he voiced the role of Lukas. In the two live-action films by Jim Button, the feature films “Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver” from 2018 and “Jim Button and the Wild 13” from 2020, he lent his voice to the narrator – his last works as a narrator.

Fritsch died in Berlin, Germany on April 21, 2021.