Voices of the Spaghetti Western – “Two Mafiamen in the Far 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 “Two Mafiamen in the Far West”

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

Franco Capone – Franco Franchi (I) Franco Franchi, (S) Jesús Puente

Ciccio Capone – Ciccio Ingrassia (I) Ciccio Ingrassia, (S) Valeriano Andrés

Ramirez – Aldo Tieri (I) Aldo Tieri, (S) Antolin Garcia

Betty Blanc - Hélène Chanel (I) Rita Savagnone, (S) Celia Honrubia

Rio – Fernando Sancho (I) Luigi Pavese, (S) Vicente Bañó

Mary Simpson – Ana Casares (I) ?, (S) Mari Pe Castro

 

Valeriano Andrés  (1922 – 2005)

Valeriano Andrés Pascual was born in Madrid, Spain on July 1, 1922. He began his acting career at Teatro Español Universitario (TEU) while studying Agricultural Expertise, a career that he would end up abandoning to devote himself fully to acting.

He debuted professionally in 1943 and from that moment on began a fruitful artistic career, mainly in the theater and in comic roles. Throughout his career he was part of various companies, such as Paco Martínez Soria or Francisco Morán. Especially remembered was his interpretation of “The Mayor of Zalamea”. He was also part of the cast that premiered the play “Medea” (1952), by Jean Anouilh and “El proceso del arzobispo Carranza” (1964), by Joaquín Calvo Sotelo and worked in comedies such as “Su amante esposa” (1966), by Jacinto Benavente and “No entiendo a mi marido” (1968), by Alan Ayckbourn, both with Isabel Garcés. He also took part in the cast of actors of Radio Nacional de España.

Andrés  made his film debut in 1946 with the film “Consulté a Mister Brown”, by Pío Ballesteros and appeared on television during the early days of Spanish television broadcasting. He played dozens of characters in series such as ‘Primera fila, Estudio 1’, ‘Novela’, in addition to co-starring in the series ‘Cuarto de estar’ (1963), ‘Historias de mi barrio’ (1964), ‘El último café’ (1971-1972) and ‘La mansion de los Plaff’ (1979-1980).

Valeriano began his dubbing career in the early 1950s dubbing himself in Spanish films with synchronized sound. In that same decade, with the help of Hugo Donarelli, he would debut in dubbing foreign actors, mostly secondary roles, an activity to which he would dedicate himself intermittently for decades. Some of his most outstanding roles were the dubbing of John Steinbeck in “Four Pages of Life”, José Ferrer in “Lawrence of Arabia” and, highlighting above all, the dubbing of Fred Gwynne in TV’s ‘The Munsters’.

Valeriano Andrés died on April 21, 2005, in Madrid, Spain at the age of 82.