Voices of the Spaghetti Wester - “Don’t Wait Django Shoot”

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 “Don’t Wait Django…Shoot”

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

Django Foster - Sean Todd (G) Rainer Brandt

Barrica - Pedro Sanchez (G) Martin Hirthe

Mary Foster - Rada Rassimov (G) Renate Küster

Hondo - Vincenzo Musolino (G) Edgar Ott

Don Alvarez - Gino Buzzanca (G) Konrad Wagner

Undertaker - Franco Pesce (G) Knut Hartwig

Knut Hartwig  (1891-1977)

Knut Hartwig was born in Münster, Germany on September 16, 1891. He began his acting career in the theatre, where he also found work again and again – for example at the Oldenburg State Theatre and, after the end of the war, at the theatre club in the British Centre Berlin.

In addition, he was a busy actor in German sound film since his debut in the film “Ich für dich – Du für mich” in the role of a settler and his participation as a landowner in the 1934 film “Glückspilze”. Hartwig appeared almost exclusively in supporting roles but was present as a character actor in numerous major film productions of the time. He starred in comedies such as “Paradise of the Bachelors”, crime films such as “Dr. Crippen on Board”, historical films such as “The Great King”, the Zarah Leander film dramas “The Way to the Open and Then”. In 1944, Hartwig was on the list of the God-gifted of the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. After the end of the war, Hartwig was able to continue this career seamlessly. He was seen in “Ehe im Schatten” (Marriage in the Shadow), which deals with the Nazi past and the fate of the actor Joachim Gottschalk, in “Dr. Semmelweis – Retter der Mütter” and alongside Heinz Rühmann in “Der Jugendrichter” (The Juvenile Judge).

Hartwig became familiar to a wide audience not as an actor, but as a speaker. He was heard in numerous radio productions (including as "von Borcke" in a SFB production by Effi Briest) and worked extensively in film dubbing from 1948 until the end of his life. His voice sounded brittle and worn out over the years, so that he was often used for sick and old characters. He lent his voice to John Carradine “Ghost Party”, Jack MacGowran “Doctor Zhivago”, John McIntire “Elmer Gantry”, Alan Napier “36 Hours”, Gig Young “The Three Musketeers” and also many cartoon characters such as "Mr. Sexton" (John Fiedler) in Disney's Robin Hood and most recently in 1976 to the "Venerable" (Gérard Hernandez) in Asterix conquers Rome.

Knut Hartwig died on February 12, 1977, at the age of 85.