RIP Roger Browne

 

American film, TV actor, voice director and dubber Roger Browne died after a short illness on October 11. He was 94. I received an e-mail this morning (14) from his daughter Kelsey saying he died peacefully surrounded by loved ones. Roger Rogers Browne Jr. was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on April 13, 1930. He enrolled in pilot training while serving in the U.S. Air Force, flying the AT-6 trainer aircraft. Browne completed 64 hours of training, including 20 hours of solo flight but was unable to finish due to airsickness and related symptoms of Manifestations of Apprehension (MOA). While studying acting and getting bit roles he supported himself as a physical therapist. One of his clients was going to Rome and asked Roger if he would come with him to carry on his work. As the 1960 Summer Olympics were under way, Roger eagerly accepted the offer. He remained in Europe where he was discovered and offered a role in the Jayne Mansfield film “It Happened in Athens”. Browne was then asked to appear as Mars in “Vulcan, Son of Give” and repeated his role in the film “Mars, God of War”. With the decline of the sword and sandal genre Browne moved into the Eurospy genre. Roger lived in Rome from 1960 to 1980 and made films throughout Europe. He had roles in more than 30 films and television shows and dubbed more than 800 films and productions. He served as the president of the Associazione dei doppiatori di lingua inglese - (ELDA). Roger worked with Franco Nero, Sophia Loren, Luciano Salce, Anthony Quinn, Vittorio Gassman, Ernest Borgnine, Rita Tushingham, Richard Lester, the Taviani Brothers, Yoko Tani, Gordon Mitchell, Charlie Fawcett, and Jayne Mansfield. He was best known for his role in “Argoman the Fantastic Superman” (also known as “The Incredible Paris Incident” and “Come rubare la corona d'Inghilterra”), 1967. He also appeared as himself in the Fine Brothers Elders React series. Roger told me he was to appear in a Spaghetti western called “Machado”, in 1967 but it fell through. It was eventually made with Gianni Medici [Revenge for Revenge, September 1968]. Roger was also the English voice to Terence Hill in “They Call Me Trinity” (1970), “Trinity is STILL My Name” (1971), “Man of the East” (1972), “My Name is Nobody” (1973) and “The Genius” (1975). How many other English voices he did for Spaghetti westerns we’ll never know.