Voices of the Spaghetti Western: Buckaroo: “The Winchester Does Not Forgive”

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 “Buckaroo: The Winchester Does Not Forgive”

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

Buckaroo – Dean Reed (I) Massimo Turci, (G) Christian Brückner

Annie McKenzie – Monika Brugger (I) Rita Savagnone, (G) Monika Brugger

Lash – Livio Lorenzon (I) Renato Turi, (G) Hans Wiegner

Johnny McKenzie – Ugo Sasso (I) Bruno Persa, (G) Klaus W. Krause

Miguel Monteiro – Omero Gargano (I) Arturo Dominici, (G) ?

Sandy – Jean Louis (I) Cesare Barbetti, (G) ?

 

Hans Wiegner  (1909 – 1984)

Hans Wiegner was born Charlottenburg, Germany on February 20, 1909. He worked as an actor at various Berlin theatres after World War II. In 1946 he starred alongside O. E. Hasse at the Hebbel Theater in a production of “Wir sind noch einmal davonkamen” and in 1947 alongside Bettina Moissi at the Volksbühne in a production of “Eurydice”. His other stage stations included the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, the Tribune and the Schiller Theater.

In addition, he occasionally appeared in television plays such as “Elizabeth of England” with Elisabeth Flickenschildt in the title role and alongside Karin Hübner in “The Fairy”, directed by Peter Beauvais.

The focus of his work, however, was his work as a voice actor and dubber. Wiegner appeared in numerous radio play productions and in the cabaret RIAS radio program ‘Die Rückblende’. When the flashback was also broadcast on the ARD program under the direction of Hans Rosenthal, Wiegner was part of the team.

Wiegner's voice was known to a wide audience, especially from his hundreds of dubbing roles. Here he lent his voice to edgy types, gangsters and robbers. For example, he voiced Forrest Tucker in “Chisum” with John Wayne in the lead role. He dubbed Ben Johnson (The Undefeated), Lee Marvin (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance), George Kennedy (Charade), Robert Mitchum (The Death List) and Keenan Wynn (Play Me the Song of Death), among others, but also in a rare comic role of Bud Abbott from the comedy duo Abbott and Costello.

The actor died in Germany on May 21, 1984.