By Johan Melle
January 15, 2024
Did you think that all the English dubbers in Rome were
Americans or Brits? Well, think again! There were actually surprisingly many
dubbers who were not native English speakers, and one of the most memorable of
them all was Uti Hof (1936-2022), a sultry-voiced German actress who made a
career out of dubbing seductive European temptresses and femme fatales in a
long line of Eurospy, giallo and WW2 actioners in the 1960s and early 1970s.
You may not have heard the name before, but anyone with an interest in these
kinds of films will for sure know Uti’s voice. Just check out the video below
for a selection of some of her most memorable dubbing roles:
Uti was born in Germany on 11 March 1936 and grew up there with her parents and several siblings, including her twin brother Goetz. Like so many other young girls, she dreamed of being an actress, and in the early 1960s, Uti moved to Rome to try her luck in the blossoming Italian film industry of those days. There she found work in some photo-novels, and also landed uncredited bit parts in various Italian films such as the peplum adventure Ursus and the comedy Bellezze sulla spiaggia (both 1961).
Around the same time, Uti became romantically involved
with the American decathlete and Olympic gold medalist Bob Mathias, who had
just embarked on a short-loved movie career in Italy by starring in the peplum
film The Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete (1960). The relationship was to
prove short-lived, but resulted in the birth of what was to be Uti’s only
child: her beloved son Reiner.
Uti’s involvement with English language dubbing looks to have started sometime in the mid 1960s, and was no doubt case a result of her excellent command of English. She did, however, speak with a light but distinctive German accent, which one might think would prove to be a bit of a stumbling block. Instead, Uti turned it into an advantage, for this was the time of Italian James Bond knockoffs and WW2 adventures, and in these types of film there was always some European seductress or femme fatale requiring a German, Scandinavian or similar cadence. Uti’s husky German accent was perfect for such characters, and she soon found herself dubbing some of the era’s sexiest stars such as Helga Liné and Rosalba Neri.
And once the giallo craze got going by the end of the 1960s, Uti was again in great demand to dub similar characters in these films. Her arguably finest effort was as the voice of Susan Scott in the two gialli The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion (1970) and Death Walks on High Heels (1971), in which Uti’s sultry accent fitted Scott’s sexually alluring persona to perfection.
Uti’s most famous dubbing performance, however, was actually not of an actress, but that of the eponymous title character of the famous Italian cartoon television shorts Calimero (1971). Calimero was a hapless black chicken wearing half of his egg shell still on his head, and the shorts (running about five minutes each) typically had the character trying to do a good deed, only for it to backfire and end with him uttering the now famous catchphrase “It’s an injustice, it is!”
This much-loved children’s series was exported all over the world and has since become a cult classic. Unfortunately, most of the English dubbed versions are rare and difficult to get hold of, but a few are floating around on the net and are well worth watching for the chance of hearing an almost completely unrecognizable Uti voicing the character in an adorably child-like voice.
“Uti Hof was perfect as Calimero with her cute little accent. The producer loved it – Signor Palermo from Milano, or vice versa,” recalled Roger Browne, who wrote and directed the English version of Calimero.
The character would also become very near and dear to Uti herself, and in a Facebook post about Calimero from 2017, she commented: “You know this has a more important meaning for me because I was chosen to be the voice of Calimero in English! And I had more fun and choice memories with him than with any other character!!!”
Below is a short little video with a couple of clips from the English version of Calimero, with Uti speaking the famous catchphrase “It’s an injustice, it is!”
In addition to dubbing voices, Uti also did much work as
a sync assistant – making sure all the dubbers started and finished at the
right time and got the length and rhythm of their lines down correctly. Dubbing
actor Rodd Dana got to know Uti well, both as a dubbing actress and sync
assistant, and said of her: “Uti and I worked together with great frequency.
She was very bright and popular among many directors, and as a foreign-born
actress, had a wonderful grasp on American and British voice capabilities.”
Around 1973, Uti left decided to bid farewell to Rome. She relocated to the US, and in 1975 she became media director of Brigham Young University’s motion picture department in Provo, Utah. While there, she made a 15-minute instructional puppet film production called Fable (1979), designed to teach teachers, school administrators and college students majoring in education that students have individual needs and talents which should be recognized and dealt with on an individual basis. Long since forgotten, the production was finally restored and screened at the BYU Library auditorium in September 2022.
Information about Uti’s later life is harder to come by, but Rodd Dana recalled a chance encounter with her many years after their dubbing days in Rome: “In fate, about 20 years ago, I spoke with her in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she had met and married an American documentary maker, and having joined the Mormon Church, was active in political affairs.”
A more humorous anecdote was shared by Roger Browne, who recalled that “Uti later moved to Utah and married a Mormon. She wrote back to our office secretary Chris Selheim, who misunderstood and told everybody that Uti married ‘a moron’”.
Sadly, Uti Hof passed away on 19 November 2022 at the age of 86. She was survived by her husband Jay Blanchard, her son Reiner and numerous stepchildren and grandchildren. According to her obituary, Uti was widely known for her kindness, cooking and community service. She was fond of saying “You have two hands. One to help yourself, the other to help others,” and she lived by this principle, knitting hundreds of sweaters and beanie hats for the homeless, as well as cooking delicious dinners for friends, neighbors, family, and those in need.
After decades of anonymity, I am proud to finally have identified the woman behind the beautiful German voice of Fono Roma, and I sincerely hope this will lead to many more movie fans to discover and enjoy the many terrific dubbing performances performed by Uti Hof throughout her years in Rome.
English dubbing filmography:
[Spaghetti westerns are highlighted]
- Operation Atlantis (1965) - voice of Rosie (Cristina Gajoni)
- Operation Poker (1965) - voice of Helga (José Greci)
- Password: Kill Agent Gordon (1965) - voice of Karin (Helga Liné)
- Secret Agent Fireball (1965) - voice of German Agent (Carla Calò)
- Spy Hunt in Vienna (1965) - voice of Irene Broder (Daliah Lavi)
- SuperSeven Calling Cairo (1965) - voice of Faddja Hasan (Rosalba Neri)
- The Two Crazy Secret Agents (1965) - voice of Marlene (Gloria Paul)
- The Beckett Affair (1966) - voice of Nadia (Carla Calò)
- Borman (1966) as Colonel Iman (Moa Tahi)
- Death Pays in Dollars (1966) - voice of Greta (Cristina Gajoni)
- Hunter of the Unknown (1966) - voice of Josefa (Luz Marquez)
- Killer’s Carnival (1966) - voice of Monique Carrar (Johanna Matz)
- Killers Are Challenged (1966) - voice of Velka (Susy Andersen)
- M.M.M. 83 (1966) - voice of Jeannette (Silvia Solar)
- Man on the Spying Trapeze (1966) - voice of Fawzia (Kai Fischer)
- Our Man in Casablanca (1966) - voice of Ingrid von Hauffen (Thea Fleming)
- The Spy Who Loved Flowers (1966) - voice of Mai Ling (Yoko Tani)
- A Ticket to Die (1966) - voice of Frieda (Halina Zalewska)
- 28 Minutes for Three Million Dollars (1967) - voice of Rita (Conny Caracciolo)
- Handle with Care (1967) - voice of Spider Woman (Lea Lander)
- Million Dollar Countdown (1967) - voice of Fiamma (Josiane Gibert)
- The One-Eyed Soldiers (1967) - voice of Gava Berens (Luciana Paluzzi)
- Tiffany Memorandum (1967) - voice of Nadia (Loredana Nusciak)
- Yongary, Monster From the Deep (1967) - voice of Ona (Moon Kang)
- Fuller Report (1968) - voice of Esther (Sarah Ross)
- Stuntman (1968) - voice of Gloria Hall (Marisa Mell)
- Suicide Commandos (1968) - voice of Frau Vonberg (Vira Silenti)
- 36 Hours of Hell (1969) - voice of Ingrid Nilsson (Pamela Tudor)
- Five for Hell (1969) - voice of Helga (Margaret Lee)
- Fourth Wall (1969) - voice of Helen (Alicia Brandet)
- The Legion of No Return (1969) - voice of Kristina (Rosanna Yanni)
- Naked Violence (1969) - voice of Miss Aranovich (Gabriella D'Olive)
- The Unnaturals (1969) - voice of Hertha (Marianne Leibl)
- Churchill’s Leopards (1970) - voice of Marlene Schulmann (Helga Liné)
- Death Occurred Last Night (1970) - voice of Interrogated Woman (unidentified actress)
- The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion (1970) - voice of Dominique (Susan Scott)
- The Blonde in the Blue Movie (1971) - voice of Margrete (Elizabeth Turner)
- Brother Outlaw (1971) - voice of Jane (Sophia Kammara)
- The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail (1971) - voice of Cleo Dupont (Anita Strindberg)
- Death Walks on High Heels (1971) - voice of Nicole Rochard (Susan Scott)
- The Designated Victim (1971) - voice of Christina Müller (Alessandra Cardini)
- The Double (1971) - voice of Marie (Marilù Tolo)
- Heroes Without Glory (1971) - voice of Liesl (Rossella Como)
- Savage Guns (1971) – voice of Suzy (Matilde Antonelli)
- Gunman of One Hundred Crosses (1971) - voice of Jenny (Monica Miguel)
- Sergeant Klems (1971) - voice of Frieda Klems (Luciana Paluzzi)
- Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971) - voice of Jessica (Ingrid Thulin)
- Web of Deception (1971) - voice of Jacqueline Maurice (Elena Nathanail)
- The Big Bust-Out (1972) - voice of Inga (Nuccia Cardinali)
- The Crimes of the Black Cat (1972) - voice of Helga Schurn (Annabella Incontrera)
- Cry Out in Terror (1972) - voice of Verushka Wuttenberg (Claudie Lange)
- The Eye in the Labyrinth (1972) - voice of Gerda Hoffmann (Alida Valli)
- The Redheaded Corpse (1972) - voice of Patty (Erika Blanc)
- Tropic of Cancer (1972) - voice of Grace Wright (Anita Strindberg)
- What Have You Done to Solange? (1972) - voice of Herta Rosseni (Karin Baal)
- The Amazons (1973) - voice of Cynara (Almut Berg)
- Battle of the Amazons (1973) - voice of Sinade (Solvi Stubing)
- The Devil’s Wedding Night (1973) - voice of Countess Dolingen de Vries (Rosalba Neri)
- Women in Cell Block 7 (1973) - voice of Prisoner (Gabriella Giorgelli)
Animation dubbing:
- Calimero (1971) (TV shorts series) - voice of Calimero
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