Voices of the Spaghetti Western~ “A Stranger in Sacramento”

 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 “A Stranger in Sacramento”

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

Mike Jordan - Mickey Hargitay (S) Félix Acaso, (G) Gert Günther Hoffmann

Chris – Aldo Berti (S) Salvador Arias, (G) Michael Chevalier

Sheriff Joe – Giulio Marchetti (S) Salvador Arias, (G) Curt Ackermann

Rosie – Florencia Silvero (S) Maite Santamarina, (G) Lola Luigi

Rona Barnett – Barbara Frey (S) Lola Cervantes, (G) Marianne Lutz

Barnett – Luciano Benetti (S) José María Cordero, (G) Curt Ackermann

Salvador Arias  (1918 – 2010)

Salvador Arias was born in Madrid, Spain in 1918. His life was an example of passion, tireless work and commitment both to his profession and his principles. In his youth, his love of literature led him to the Residencia de Estudiantes, where he befriended members Generazione of 27. He was part of the Alliance of Antifascist Intellectuals and the Guerrillas del Teatro, directed by Rafael Alberti and María Teresa León, who discovered his true vocation, interpretation, and he began working in theater. After the war, Franco's obligation to translate and dub films into Spanish led to the development of an industry in which Salvador has developed his craft with absolute mastery. He voiced thousands of characters and directed the dubbing of hundreds of historical films such as Citizen Kane (for which he developed a relationship of friendship and mutual admiration with Orson Welles) and directed the studies Arcofón. Later he founded his own school in which they trained generations of voice actors, which today are now teachers, instructing mainly interpretation ("A an actor cannot be voiced without you yourself being a good actor" preached Salvador), but also in humanism, passion and commitment.

Salvador Arias died in Badajoz, Badajoz, Extemadura, Spain on November 22, 2010, at the age of 92.