Voices of the Spaghetti Western “Return of the Seven”

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 “Return of the Seven”

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

Chris – Yul Brynner (E) Yul Brynner, (S) Ángel María Baltanás, (G) Heinz Giese, (F) Georges Aminel

Vin Tanner – Robert Fuller (E) Robert Fuller, (S) Jesús Nieto, (G) Lutz Moik, (F) Denis Savignat

Chico – Julián Mateos (E) ?, (S) Julián Mateos, (G) Claus Jurichs, (F) Serge Lhorca

Frank – Claude Akins (E) Claude Akins, (S) Joaquín Vidriales, (G) Heinz Petruo, (F) André Valmy

Colbee – Warren Oates (E) Warren Oates (S) Carlos Revilla, (G) ?, (F) Jacques Thébault

Luis Emilio Delgado - Virgilio Texeira (S) Luis Carrillo, (G) Rainer Brandt, (F) Roger Rudel

Lorca - Emilio Fernández (E) Emilio Fernández (S) Francisco Sánchez, (G) Konrad Wagner,

(F) Henry Djanik

Manuel De Norte – Jordan Christopher (E) Jordan Christopher, (S) José María del Río, (G) ?,

(F) ?

Heinz Giese  (1919 – 2010)

Heinz Giese was born on June 5, 1919 in Stettin, Poland. After graduating from high school, he attended the drama school of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, and in 1939 he made his debut at the Stadttheater Fürth. He played at the Städtische Bühnen Nürnberg from 1940 to 1945. At the end of the Second World War, he became a prisoner of war. After his release in 1947, he went to the Stadttheater Erfurt. From 1950 he played in the theaters in Berlin.

Beginning in 1952 Giese appeared in films and television. Initially in small roles, such as in the war film “The 20th of July” (1955). Giese became a sought-after supporting and character actor in the ambitious documentaries and theatre adaptations of the 1960s and 1970s after several Shakespeare film adaptations for television, including as a witness in “The Investigation of Peter Weiss”. His sonorous voice, coupled with his upright, serious appearance predestined him for striking supporting roles, and numerous television appearances followed until 1983. After 1983, he only worked as a dubbing actor.

Heinz Giese had been active in the dubbing industry from 1947 until the mid-1990s, he could be heard in almost 500 different film roles, for example for Yul Brynner in “The Magnificent Seven” and “Taras Bulba”, as the standard voice of George Nader until 1958, for George Kennedy in “The Dirty Dozen” or for Arthur Kennedy in “Lawrence of Arabia”. In the mid-1970s Giese shifted the focus of his work to TV series dubbing; viewers know him as the German voice of Howard Keel in his leading role as Clayton Farlow in the cult series ‘Dallas’. He also voiced Kevin McCarthy in ‘The Colbys’ and many other well-known actors in ‘Matlock’, ‘Hotel’, ‘Love Boat’, ‘The Waltons’, ‘Hawaii 5-0’ and especially ‘Bonanza’. He also voiced Raymond Burr as ‘Perry Mason’ in the first dubbing of the series from the19 60s, as well as standard in the TV movies of the 1980s and 1990s.

He is remembered by generations of radio play fans as the foolish, but no less know-it-all and slightly corrupt mayor of Neustadt.

Heinz was married to the actress Ingeborg Wellmann [1924-2015], who occasionally acted at his side on television and in the aforementioned radio plays. Heinz Giese died on October 19, 2010, at the age of 91.