Voices of the Spaghetti Western – “Death Walks in Laredo”

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 “Death Walks in Laredo”

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

Whity Selby – Thomas Hunter (G) Christian Brückner, (F) Jacques Thébault

Lester Kato – James Shigeta (G) Joachim Kemmer, (F) Serge Lhorca

Etienne Devereaux - Nadir Moretti (G) Michael Chevalier, (F) Bernard Woringer

Julius Cesar Fuller - Enrico Maria Salerno (G) Heinz Petruo, (F) Georges Aminel

Debbie Smith - Gianna Serra (G) Barbara Ratthey, (F) ?

Joachim Kemmer  (1939 – 2000)

Joachim Kemmer was born in Brandeburg, Germany on September 12, 1939. He grew up in Berlin. After graduating from school, he completed an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk. Since this profession did not appeal to him, he then attended the drama school "Der Kreis" (Fritz Kirchhoff School) in Berlin, inspired by a friend, and also took singing lessons in Berlin and Vienna with Franz Schuch-Tovini. In addition, he completed dance training at the Mary Wigman Studio in Berlin.

In addition to his career in theater and films which began in 1964, Kemmer was extensively active in dubbing from 1966 onwards and lent his distinctive, rough voice to Humphrey Bogart, among others, in the new dubbing of his films (including Casablanca), which were made from the 1960s onwards. In addition, he dubbed internationally known acting colleagues such as Willem Dafoe, Marty Feldman, among others such as Richard Gere, Elliott Gould, Anthony Hopkins, Harvey Keitel, Dean Martin and Al Pacino. In addition, he dubbed internationally known acting colleagues such as Richard Pryor, Per Anhalter, Jeff Bridges, Douglas Adams and John Cassavetes among others.

Kemmer also lent his voice to some characters in the more modern Disney films. Among them the Horned King in “Taran and the Magic Cauldron”, Jafar in “Aladdin”, Ratcliffe in “Pocahontas” and Rafiki in “The Lion King”. The songs’ Sei hier Gast’, which Kemmer sang in the role of the candlestick Lumière in “Beauty and the Beast”, and ‘Unter dem Meer’, for which Kemmer lent his voice to the crab Sebastian from “The Little Mermaid” (old dubbing), became evergreens. He also appeared as Rasputin in the 20th Century Fox animated film “Anastasia” from 1997.

Joachim Kemmer died in Vienna, Austria on April 26, 2000. He was 60 years old.