Voices of the Spaghetti Western ~ “Yankee”

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 “Yankee”

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

Yankee - Philippe Leroy (I) Sergio Graziani, (S) Arsenio Corsellas, (G) Eckart Dux

Grande Concho – Adolfo Celi (I) Renato Turi, (S) Alfonso Santigosa, (G) Alf Marholm

Filosofo – Jacques Herlin (I) ?, (S) Antonio Gómez de Vicente, (G) Alois-Maria Giani

Luiz - Tomás Torres (I) Aldo Giuffrè, (S) Dionisio Macías, (G) Alois-Maria Giani

Consalvo - Paco Sanz (I) Gianni Bonagura, (S) José Maria Santos, (G) Wolfgang Spier

Rosita – Mirella Martin (I) Rita Savagnone, (S) María Luisa Solá, (G) Eva Ingeborg Scholz

Eckart Dux  (1926 – 2024)

Eckart Hermann „Ecki“ Dux was the son of the chief insurance inspector Eugen Dux. As a 17-year-old, he was drafted by the Wehrmacht, and after the end of the Second World War he caught up on his high school diploma. His first marriage was to the actress Gisela Peltzer [1926- ]. From 1970 he was married to the film editor Marlies Dux [1945- . This marriage produced a son. Dux lived in Dannenbüttel, where he died on April 9, 2024, at the age of 97.

From 1948 onwards, Dux was extensively active in dubbing and, together with Jürgen Thormann, was one of the longest-serving German voice actors in his old age. In the 1950s and 1960s he was the standard voice of Audie Murphy, from 1957 to 1991 the standard voice of Anthony Perkins, whom he voiced in the classic “Psycho”, among others. Dux also dubbed such well-known actors as Van Johnson, Steve Martin, Fred Astaire and the actor George Peppard in the action series ‘The A-Team’. From 2001 to 2007, he lent his voice to actor Jerry Stiller in the role of eccentric father-in-law Arthur Spooner in the sitcom ‘King of Queens’. After the death of Joachim Höppner in 2006, Dux took over the dubbing of Ian McKellen (Gandalf) in Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy (2012–2014). He also had this role in the films “The Lego Movie” (2014) and “The Lego Movie 2” (2019). In the series ‘Designated Survivor’ (2016–2019), he dubbed Geoff Pierson in the role of former president Cornelius Moss in 16 episodes. He can also be heard in the animated film “The Boss Baby”. In the animated series “Santa Claus & Co.KG”, which has been broadcast every year at Christmas time on Super RTL since 1997, he took on the role of Santa Claus.

Eckart Dux has also worked as a radio play narrator, for example as Flitze Feuerzahn in the radio play series of the same name von Europa (1984 to 1987), as Conni's grandfather in the radio plays for the children's book series ‘Meine Freundin Conni’, as narrator in the Maritim production ‘Edgar Wallace’ (from 2004) and in the audio book series Darkside Park (2009) by Ivar Leon Menger. In 2001, Dux voiced the audiobook of Blanker Unsinn by Steve Martin. He took on guest roles in several episodes of the detective series ‘Die drei ???’ (first in 1984 in the episode ‘Die drei ??? und der Höhlenmensch’) and ‘TKKG’ (first in 1984 in the episode ‘Wer raubte das Millionenpferd?’). From 2010, Dux regularly took on roles in Titania Medien's horror cabinet series.

Dux lived in Dannenbüttel, where he died on April 9, 2024, at the age of 97.