Voices of the Spaghetti Western– “The Stranger Returns”

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 Stranger Returns”

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

The Stranger – Tony Anthony (I) Emilio Cigoli, (G) Michael Chevalier

En Plein – Dan Vadis (I) Virgilio Gazzolo, (G) Herbert Stass

Good Jim – Daniele Vargas (I) Michele Malaspina, (G) Werner Lieven

Lieutenant Stafford – Ettore Manni (I) Giancarlo Maestri, (G) Claus Biederstaedt

The Preacher - Marco Guglielmi (I) Marco Guglielmi, (G) Horst Niendorf

Michele Malaspina  (1908 – 1979)

Michele Malaspina was born on August 16, 1908, in Bolzaneto, Genoa, Liguria, Italy. He was an Italian actor and voice actor. He was the son of two shopkeepers, and since childhood Malaspina had a passion for theater and was an actor in a company of amateur actors. At 18 years old, he entered the stage company of Alfredo Sainati, and from then on he was part of the major stage companies of the time, notably the ones held by Emma Gramatica, Ermete Zacconi, Dina Galli, Ruggero Ruggeri and Camillo Pilotto. He made his film debut in the early 1930s, and during his long career he was mainly cast in supporting roles, being often used for playing high society characters. He worked for a long time at EIAR as an actor of radio-plays and was also active as a dubber. Malaspina died in Rome, on January 13, 1979, at the age of 70.