Voices of the Spaghetti Western ~ “Pecos Cleans Up”

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 “Pecos Cleans Up”

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

Pecos Martinez – Robert Woods (I) Renato Izzo, (S) José Manuel Oliva, (G) Jürgen Thormann, (F) Alain Nobis

El Supremo – Erno Crisa (I) Giorgio Piazza, (S) Rafa Ordóñez Arrieta, (G) Konrad Wagner, F) Gabriel Cattand

Dona Ramona – Luciana Gilli (I) Luciana Gilli, (S) Greta Ruiz, (G) ?, (F) Jane Val

Dago – Pedro Sanchez (I) Roberto Bertea, (S) Boris Sanz, (G) Alexander Welbat, (F) Claude Bertrand

Tom 'Frenchie' Villa – Carlo Gaddi (I) Giacomo Piperno, (S) Gabriel Pareja, (G) Thomas Danneberg, (F) Michel Barbey

Pinto – Umberto Raho (I) Nino Dal Fabbro, (S) Josep Manel Casany, (G) Dieter Hallervorden, (F) ?

Jürgen Thormann  (1928 – 2024)

Jürgen Thormann was born in Rostock, Mecklenburg, Germany on February 12, 1928. He was a German actor, director, voice actor and radio play and audio book narrator.

He is best known as the German voice of actor Michael Caine, whom he dubbed almost without exception from 1996 onwards. He also lent his voice to actors such as Ian McKellen (especially in the X-Men series), Peter O'Toole, Jean Rochefort, Peter Sellers (including A Corpse for Dessert) and Earl Boen (Terminator 2 and 3). He was also the voice of Batman's butler Alfred Pennyworth in many films and computer games.

Thormann began his career as a stage actor and played first at the Ernst Barlach Theater, later at the Theater Bonn, Theater Bremen and the Schauspielhaus Bochum. In addition, from 1962 until its closure in 1993, he could be seen on the stage of the Schillertheater in Berlin, where he performed both classical and modern material. In the German-language premiere of Beethoven's Tenth in December 1987, he portrayed the family man alongside Peter Ustinov, who appeared as Beethoven. In 1969, he received the honor of Berlin State Actor. He also appeared in numerous television films and series, e.g. in Jakob und Adele or from 1996 to 1999 as Police President Siedhoff in the RTL series SK-Babies.

Thormann was also active as a dubbing actor. He was cast for the first time in 1968 for Michael Caine in “The Death Trap”, and from the mid-1990s Caine was voiced by Thormann without exception. In addition, he often dubbed Max von Sydow, John Hurt, Peter O'Toole, Jean Rochefort, Ian McKellen, Roy Scheider.

Married to actress Uta Sax [1937- ], Thormann died in Berlin, Germany on November 21, 2024. He was 96.