Voices of the Spaghetti Western ~ “El Rojo”

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 “El Rojo”

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

Donald 'El Rojo' Sorensen – Richard Harrison (I) Pino Locchi, (G) Claus Wilcke

Consuelo – Nieves Navarro (I) Rita Savignone, (G) Helga Trümper

Lasky – Piero Lulli (I) Sergio Graziani, (G) Harald Wolff

Navarro – Mirko Ellis (I) ?, (G) Christian Marschall

José Garibaldi - José Jaspe (I) Luigi Pavese, (G) Erik Jelde

Ortega – Andrea Aurelli (I) Andrea Aureli, (G) Benno Hoffmann

Wallace – Franco Ressel (I) Daniele Tedeschi, (G) Paul Bürks

Claus Wilcke  (1939 - )

Claus Wilcke was born in Bremen, Germany on August 12, 1939. After training as an actor, Wilcke received his first stage engagement from Albert Lippert at the Theater Bremen, which lasted four years. This was followed by theatre positions at the Staatstheater Oldenburg, at the stages of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, at the Münchner Kammerspiele, at the Grenzlandtheater Aachen, at the Kleine Komödie Hamburg, at the Theater Die Komödie in Frankfurt am Main and at the ETA Hoffmann Theater in Bamberg.

In 1958, Wilcke made his film debut in Alfred Vohrer's feature film “Meine 99 Bräute”. In the following years he played small roles in productions such as Via Mala (with Gert Fröbe) and “Freddy und der Millionär” (with Freddy Quinn). He achieved nationwide fame through the film adaptation of the dime novel about the daring and daredevil millionaire Percy Stuart, first published in 1913. Wilcke played the lead role from 1969 to 1972 in a total of 52 episodes of the television series of the same name.

In addition, since 1959 he has lent his distinctive voice to internationally known actors as a dubbing actor. He dubbed Warren Beatty, George Hamilton, Rutger Hauer, Michael Landon, Elvis Presley, Omar Sharif and William Shatner.

In 2007, he appeared in a Maggi Sonntagssuppe commercial. From 2011 to 2012, he starred in the television series ‘Verbotene Liebe’. In 2012, he made a brief guest appearance on Iron Sky.

Wilcke married for the fifth time in 2018. His children Nicolas Böll and Alexandra Wilcke are also active in the acting profession.