Voices of the Spaghetti Western – “Djurado”

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 “Djurado”

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

Djurado / Jim Golden Poker - Montgomery Clark (I) Renato Izzo

Barbara Donovan – Scilla Gabel (I) ?

Tommy's Wife Dorianne - Mary Jordan (I) ?

Ducaine the Tucan – Luis Induni (I) Sergio Rossi

Don José Rafael – Goyo Lebrero (I) Pino Colizzi

Marshal Ray Daller - Isarco Ravaioli (I) Giorgio Piazza

Mitzy – Margaret Lee (I) Mirella Pace

Giorgio Piazza  (1925 – 2010)

Giorgio Piazza was born in in Rome on July 16, 1925. After graduating from the National Academy of Dramatic Art, he worked in various companies including that of Tino Carraro. In the early fifties he joined Vittorio Gassman's company, with whom he remained for a long period; At the same time, he began his dubbing career at CDC, later became president of CID, and then returned to SEFIT-CDC. In his long career, he worked on the dubbing of a large number of foreign actors, including William Holden, James Mason, Ray Milland, Dirk Bogarde, Michel Piccoli, Henry Fonda, and also Italians.

Gifted with a timbre of voice similar to that of Gualtiero De Angelis, he was James Stewart's regular dubber, in the eighties Piazza was responsible for the redubbing of the films “The Glenn Miller Story” (1954), “Rear Window” (1954) and “The Woman Who Lived Twice” (1958). In the 1970s, he began his career as a dubbing director, curating, among others, the Italian versions of “Silverado” (1985), “Dances with Wolves” (1990), “Waterworld” (1996), “Godzilla” and some television series including ‘The Octopus 4’ and ‘The Octopus 5 - The Heart of the Problem’. His activity as a film actor was limited to a few films, but he was very prolific as a dubbing director, from the beginning of the seventies until the beginning of the 2000s. He died in Rome on July 3, 2010, of an aneurysm, just 13 days before his 85th birthday.