Voices of the Spaghetti Western – “The Magnificent Texan”

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 “The Magnificent Texan”

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

Manuel Lopez – Glenn Saxon (I) Luciano Melani, (S) Simón Ramírez, (G) Michael Brennicke

Blackie Stark – Massimo Serato (I) Massimo Serato, (S) Ángel María Baltanás, (G) Michael Eder

Evelyn Wilkins – Barbara Loy (I) ?, (Barbara Loy), (S) María Luisa Rubio, (G) Marion Hartmann

Judge Wilkins – Beni Deus (E) Geoffrey Copleston, (I) Emilio Cigoli, (S) Joaquín Vidriales, (G) Gernot Duda

Carmen – Gloria Osuna (I) Gloria Osuna, (S) Ana María Saizar, (G) ?

Estella – Fulvia Franco (I) Gabriella Genta, (S) ?, (G) ?

Chico – Nerio Bernardi (I) Roberto Bertea, (S) ?. (G) Walter Reichelt

Simón Ramírez  (1932-1995)

Simón Ramírez Fernández was born in (Alcázar de San Juan, Ciudad Real, Spain on August 27, 1932. He began in the profession through radio, debuting in 1954 with the dubbing of Byron Haskin's ‘War of the Worlds’. He is best known for dubbing Sean Connery in the first 5 James Bond films and in Super Heist in “Manhattan”. Among his extensive career as a voice actor, he also lent his deep and velvety voice to Dennis Weaver and classic thriller “Duel”, by newcomer Steven Spielberg, to Robert De Niro in the great Sergio Leone's classic “Once Upon a Time in America”, Robert Redford in “The Great Gatsby”, Richard Attenborough in “The Great Escape” and James Stewart in “Anatomy of a Murder”, Among many other actors such as Henry Fonda, Kirk Douglas, Paul Newman, Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck, Peter Sellers, Tony Curtis, Cary Grant, William Holden, etc.

Simon was married to Marta Ariza and had two children: Marta Ramírez Ariza and Javier San Sebastián.

Ramirez died in Madrid on October 25, 1995, at the age of 63, as a result of a sudden heart attack. With his death he was one of the great and most versatile voices of dubbing in Spain.