Voices of the Spaghetti Western ~ ”15 Scaffolds for a Killer”

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 “15 Scaffolds for a Killer”

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

Billy Mack – Craig Hill (I) Gigi Proietti, (S) Jose Guardiola, (G) Klaus Kindler

Sandy Cassel – George Martin (I) Virginio Gazzolo, (S) Antolin Garcia, (G) Horst Naumann

Barbara Ferguson – Susy Andersen (I) Gabriella Genta, (S) Celia Honrubia, (G) Heidi Treutler

Bud Lee – Aldo Sambrell (I) Virgilio Gazzolo, (S) Luis Maria Lasala, (G)            Wolfgang Hess

Clark Benett - Tomás Blanco (I) Roberto Villa, (S) Joaquin Escola, (G) Leo Bardischewski

Benny - Jose Manuel Martin (I) Stefano Sibaldi, (S) Vicente Bano, (G) Bruno W. Pantel

Virginio Gazzolo  (1936 -    )

Born Virgilio Gazzolo on September 7, 1936, in Rome. He is an Italian actor. Son of Lauro and younger half-brother of Nando [1928-2015], after abandoning his medical studies, he made his debut in the theater in 1960 and began his career acting in the title role in Dalton Trumbo's “The Greatest Thief of the City” at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan, directed by Gianfranco De Bosio. Subsequently, together with Antonio Calenda, Vittorio Sindoni and emerging actors of those years (Leo de Berardinis, Piera Degli Esposti, Gigi Proietti) he helped to found the first historic Roman theatrical "cellar" (Il Teatro dei 101) preferring avant-garde works and authors, such as Fernando Arrabal, Harold Pinter, Corrado Augias and Giorgio Manganelli. Immediately after the experience of the 101 he returned to the official theater interpreting a text by Samuel Beckett, Tutti quelli che cadono, protagonist together with Paola Borboni, directed by Beppe Menegatti at the Teatro Stabile in Florence and at the Teatro Odeon in Milan.

In 1969, with Edmonda Aldini, Francesca Benedetti and others, he was one of the founders, in Modena, of the cooperative of artists Comunità Teatrale Emilia Romagna, where he worked with directors, such as Castri, Cobelli, Guicciardini and Marcucci. He continued his career playing roles with other great directors, such as Missiroli, Trionfo, Sequi, Pagliaro, Tiezzi, Garella, Mezzadri, De Chiara, Parodi, Emiliani, Maraini. On television, he played the role of U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1975 miniseries ‘War at the Peace Table’. In 1972, Roberto Rossellini cast him as Leon Battista Alberti in the television miniseries ‘The Age of Cosimo de' Medici’.

He was a voice actor for SAS in the sixties. In 1967 he played John Osborne's “Luther,” directed by Menegatti, which earned him the San Genesio award for best leading actor.