Voices of the Spaghetti Western ~ “A Hole in the Forehead”

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 “A Hole in the Forehead”

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

Billy Blood - Anthony Ghidra (I) Sergio Rossi, (G) Christian Marschall

General Munguya – Robert Hundar (I) Mario Bardella, (G) Wolf Ackva

Miguel - Gianni Brezza (I) Giacomo Piperno, (G) Tommi Piper

Tedder - Giorgio Gargiullo (I) Geoffrey Copleston, (G) Manfred Schott

Tommi Piper  [1941 -     ]

Thomas Piper was born on March 19, 1941, in Berlin, Germany. He is a German actor, voice actor and singer. Piper's distinctive voice in particular shaped German television history for several decades. In the 1960s, he voiced the role of Little Joe in the TV series ‘Bonanza’. In the late 1980s, Piper lent his voice to the alien Alf in the sitcom of the same name, and he was the voice of the mongrel dog Willy Wuff in five feature films. He was also Nick Nolte's spokesman. In the second half of the 1970s, he was also the singer of the Krautrock band Amon Düül II.

As the son of the actor and television announcer Heinz Piper [1908-1972], Thomas Piper took part in radio plays of the NWDR as early as 1952 and stood in front of the camera for the first time three years later. From 1959 to 1961 he studied commercial graphics at the Master School for Fashion in Hamburg but then continued to act. In the late 1960s and 1970s, Piper recorded several records.

After the Second World War, Piper rarely worked for cinema productions such as Josef von Báky's drama “The Man Who Sold Himself” and for television productions; He had guest roles in the series ‘Cliff Dexter’, ‘The Brides of My Sons’ and ‘The Journalist’.

Piper played increasingly on Hamburg stages (Thalia Theater, Theater im Zimmer) and on the radio (including as a speaker of the NDR series Saturday Nightclub).

However, he became known to a wide audience as a presenter of television programs. On May 1, 1956, Piper presented the first German preliminary round of the ‘Grand Prix Eurovision’ from the large broadcasting hall of the NWDR in Cologne. Whether this broadcast took place is disputed. He also hosted the ‘Perry Como Show’.

In addition, Piper lent his voice as a voice actor to Geoffrey Keen, Walter Rilla and Patrick Macnee, among others.