English Voice Dubber Stephen Garrett

Dubbed in Rome

By Johan Melle

December 4, 2023

Stephen Garrett was one of the all-time great character voices of the English dubbing scene in Rome. He was one of the real old-timers whose dubbing credits date back all the way to at least the early 1950s, and this, combined with his premature death in the mid 1960s, unfortunately means that a great deal of his work has most likely been lost to the sands of time. For fans of Italian cinema of the early 1960s, though, Stephen’s delightfully gruff and imposing voice should still be instantly recognizable. He lent his fantastic voice to countless colorful villains from that era and was especially active in peplum and swashbuckler films, often dubbing the likes of Andrea Aureli and Livio Lorenzon. Check out the video below for samples of a few of his most memorable dubbing roles:

As with so many of the dubbing old-timers of Rome, there’s very little information available about Stephen, and it has not been possible to determine where he was from or when and why he originally ended up in Rome. The earliest films in which I’ve found Stephen’s voice are from 1956; however, the BFI database credits him with speaking the English commentary for an obscure French documentary film named Animals of Paris from 1951, and thus establishing that he was doing voice work since at least the early 1950s. He may well have started out even earlier, too, but given the overall unavailability of English language dubs of Italian films pre-Hercules (1958), this is impossible to determine.

[Stephen Garrett (second from the right) with fellow 1950s dubbers Bill Kiehl, Nina Rootes, George Higgins III and Michael Billingsley in 1959. Picture taken from Nina Rootes' book Adventures in the Movie Biz (2013) in which the picture caption describes him only as "Steve, a fine actor".]

What little information I have about managed to find about Stephen’s life comes from the few surviving dubbers whose careers go far enough back to remember him.

Dubbing actor Rodd Dana remembered his old colleague with much fondness, stating: “Steve Garrett was a Mel Welles-sounding, gruff/elderly character voice. He was the master of those kinds of voices, however died early in my time... I think in 1963-64. A truly kind, wonderful and loving human being. Had lived in Rome for decades. Incredible intellectual giant, I recall.”

Dubbing actor Roger Browne also shared some memories: “Steve Garrett was one of late fifties ELDA dubbers and I really didn’t get going until 1961. Nice fellow, but a rather bearded, unkempt schlub. I think he was a writer, possibly of adaptations, and might have done dialogue coaching for films. I recall hearing him speak of a conversation he had with Sophia Loren where he was using an accent for no reason and didn’t know how to stop it.”

As Roger Browne recalled, Stephen was indeed a writer of dubbing scripts, and the opening titles of the peplum adventure Romulus and the Sabines (1961) credits him and Frank Gregory with writing the English version.

Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules (1961) is another film which credits Stephen Garrett and Frank Gregory with writing the English version, with Stephen also receiving a credit for directing the dubbing. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to say how much directing he may or may not have done since the credits usually do not cite the dubbing directors and/or writers…

What we do know, though, is that Stephen was a very prolific character actor dubber all through the Italian peplum era. His marvelously deep and gruff voice made him a favorite for dubbing heavies, and he had a particularly memorable evil laugh that always stands out. Two much-loved Italian character actors that he dubbed particularly often were Livio Lorenzon and Andrea Aureli, and his voice fitted them both like a hand in a glove. Check out the two videos below for some examples of Stephen dubbing Lorenzon and Aureli:

But while he dubbed a great number of villains, Stephen could also do a warmer and more grandfatherly kind of voice that made him much in demand as a narrator. The most famous example was as the narrator of the original Mondo Cane (1962), but he also narrated several other mondo documentaries, and here is a video featuring a few examples:

Like many other dubbing actors, Stephen also did a bit of acting in front of the camera. In the mid 1950s, he did a few guest starring roles on Conrad Nagel Theater and The Three Musketeers, two syndicated American TV series shot in Rome and which are now impossible to find, as well as minor roles in some Hollywood productions shot on location in Rome, such as War and Peace (1956). His largest on-screen role by far, though, was as the slimy King Petra, the main antagonist of Hercules and the Princess of Troy (1965), a Rome-lensed television pilot starring Gordon Scott as Hercules, which was unfortunately never picked up for a series.

Sadly, Hercules and the Princess of Troy would prove to be one of the last things Stephen worked on as his career was cut tragically short soon afterwards. Exactly what happened to him is unclear, but an article about the dubbing scene in Rome published in Variety in May 1971 called “Rome’s Inner-Colony of Those Trained in Sound-Track Dubs”, written by dubbing actress and adaptor Ruth Carter, states that “of the early arrivals who are no longer on the dubbing scene, one of the most brilliant and gifted voices of them all, Steve Garrett, was lost to the dubbing community by death.”

No date of death is mentioned, but I’ve not been able to find Stephen’s voice in anything after 1965, so we can only assume he must have died around that time. A real tragedy as he did not look particularly old in his on-screen appearance in Hercules and the Princess of Troy. His premature passing also meant that he never got to play a part in the spaghetti western boom. Had he been around for that and the subsequent giallo and Eurocrime waves that followed, it’s likely that Stephen’s fantastic voice would have become one of the most iconic and beloved among fans of Italian cinema. Instead, he and his work has become almost completely forgotten, but hopefully, this post can bring some long overdue recognition to the great work done by this extraordinarily talented dubber!

As always, the dubbing filmographies are a work in progress. Since so much of Stephen’s voice work was done in the 1950s and is unlikely to ever resurface, his filmography will never be even close to complete. Nevertheless, the 68 voice roles I’ve managed to find so far gives a good indication of just how prolific he was during 1960-65, and I’m hopeful that with time, I’ll manage to add some additional titles to his dubbing filmography.

English dubbing western filmography:

The Shadow of Zorro (1962) - voice of Fencing Master (Guillermo Mendez)

Samson and the Slave Queen (1963) - voice of Rabek (Andrea Aureli)

The Three Swords of Zorro (1963) - voice of Don Manuel Paredes (Antonio Prieto)

Behind the Mask of Zorro (1964) - voice of Don Esteban Garcia (Roberto Paoletti)

Gunmen of the Rio Grande (1964) - voice of Burt (Beni Deus)

The Last Gun (1964) - voice of Jess Lindahl (Livio Lorenzon)

Lost Treasure of the Aztecs (1964) - voice of Beaver (Antonio Gradoli)