Voices of the Spaghetti Western – “2 Sergeants of General Custer”

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 Sergeants of General Custer”

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

Franco La Pera – Franco Franchi (I) Franco Franchi, (S) Miguel Ángel Valdivieso, (G) Gerd Duwner

Ciccio La Pera – Ciccio Ingrassia (I) Ciccio Ingrassia, (S) Joaquín Díaz, (G) Gerd Martienzen

Beth Smith – Margaret Lee (I) Rita Savagnone, (S) María Luisa Solá, (G) ?

Baby O’Connor – Moira Orfei (I) Rosetta Calavetta, (S) Enriqueta Linares, (G) ?

Sergeant Fidhouse – Fernando Sancho (I) Luigi Pavese, (S) Fernando Sancho, (G) Wolfgang Hess

Colonel – Ernesto Calindri (I) Ernesto Calindri, (S) Rogelio Hernández, (G) ?

Cochise – Franco Giacobini (I) Renato Turi, (S) José Maria Santos, (G) Wolf Martienzen

Miguel Ángel Valdivieso  (1926 – 1988)

Miguel Ángel Valdivieso Montesinos was born on January 10, 1926 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. He started in the world of dubbing at a very young age, at the end of the 1930s, giving his voice to many of the great child and youth stars of the moment, such as Freddie Bartholomew, Mickey Rooney and Roddy McDowall. At this time, he met María Dolores Gispert Guart [1934-2018], who also specialized in children's roles, they later married. In 1950 he joined the team of Juan Manuel Soriano's Invisible Theatre for Radio Nacional de España in Barcelona. Valdivieso thus developed a radio career parallel to dubbing, specializing in sports broadcasts and also in comedy programs.

Valdivieso is especially remembered in Spain for his dubbing of two comedy stars, Jerry Lewis and Woody Allen, to whom he regularly lent his voice until his death from lung cancer. He is also remembered for voicing the Star Wars protocol android C3PO in the original trilogy and in the animated series “Star Wars: Droids”. Unfortunately, the last episode was not dubbed due to Valdivieso's death. Likewise, among other appearances in renowned films, he lent his voice to Donald O'Connor in “Singin' in the Rain”, John Derek in “The Ten Commandments”, Ricky Nelson in “Rio Bravo”, Curt Bois in “Casablanca” and Edward James Olmos in “Blade Runner”.

Miguel Ángel Valdivieso died in Barcelona on April 15, 1988. He was 62.