.Westerns...All'Italiana!: March 2026

From the WAI! vault

Little Known Spaghetti Western actors ~ Guido De Salvi

[These daily posts will cover little known actors or people that have appeared in more recent films and TV series. Various degrees of information that I was able to find will be given and anything that you can add would be appreciated.]

Guido De Salvi was an Italian character actor. His career was largely focused on Italian television and film productions during that era. He appeared in five films between 1966 and 1975 Guido De Salvi (died 2002) was an Italian actor active from the 1960s to the 1970s, best known for roles in television miniseries and spaghetti westerns. He appeared in” Passport for a Corpse” (1962), “A come Andromeda” (1972) as Major Quadring, “Ringo's Big Night” (1966), and “I racconti di Padre Brown” (1970).

Guido was also active as a voice actor and dubber and is best remembered as the Italian voice of Alan Alda in M*A*S*H"

Although no date of his birth is available it is known he died in 2002.

Guido De Salvi’s only Spaghetti western was as Silver City Sheriff Jim Ford “La grande notte di Ringo” (Ringo’s Big Night) in 1965.

De SALVI, Guido [19??, Italy – 2002, Italy] – film, TV, voice actor.

Ringo’s Big Night – 1965 (Silver City Sheriff Jim Ford)

Spaghetti Western Directors, Screenwriters, Cinematographers

Spaghetti Western Director ~ John Byrd

Paolo Moffa was born in Rome, Italy on December 16, 1915, he was an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter known for his extensive contributions to Italian cinema as a producer of genre films and for directing a limited number of features across several decades.

Moffa began his career in the film industry during the 1930s as a script supervisor and assistant director, working on productions directed by prominent figures such as Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini. He later expanded into production management and executive producing roles, becoming particularly active in the 1950s and 1960s with Italian genre cinema, including peplum epics, adventure films, and spaghetti westerns. He also directed seven films between 1943 and 1982, including “The Island Princess” (1954) and “All'ultimo sangue” (1968), and served as producer on notable titles such as “The Last Days of Pompeii” (1959), “Goliath and the Vampires” (1961), and “I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death” (1969). In addition to his work as a second unit director until 1958, he contributed as a film editor and documentarist and founded the production company Società Ambrosiana Cinematografica.

Moffa remained active in various capacities until the early 1980s, leaving a legacy tied to the commercial and international output of postwar Italian film production. He died on February 26, 2005, in Nice, France at the age of 89.

Using the alias John Byrd, he directed on Spaghetti western “All'ultimo sangue” (Bury Them Deep) in 1968

BYRD, John (aka P. Moffa, Paul Mough) (Paolo Moffa) [12/16/1915, Rome, Lazio, Italy – 2/26/2005, Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France] – producer, production manager, assistant director, director, writer, founded Società Ambrosiana Cinematografica Producciones.

Bury Them Deep – 1968

Spaghetti Western Screenwriter ~ Enzo Battaglia

Gaudenzio ‘Enzo’ Battaglia was born in Ragusa, Sicily, Italy on October 28, 1935. Enzo Battaglia was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his early features exploring contemporary social themes and his later work in commercial genre cinema. He graduated in directing from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, where he studied alongside Marco Bellocchio and Liliana Cavani, and served as an assistant director to Pietro Germi. His debut film, ''Gli arcangeli'' (1963), offered a bold examination of love and friendship among young people in modern society, marking him as a precocious talent despite some stylistic limitations.

Battaglia's second feature, ''Idoli controluce'' (1965), a drama that achieved limited commercial success, represented one of his most artistically ambitious efforts before economic pressures shifted him toward low-budget genre projects, including comedies and crime films such as ''Play-Boy'' (1967), ''Addio Alexandra'' (1969), and ''Fermi tutti! È una rapina'' (1975). Often characterized as a "regista maledetto" for his unfulfilled potential and early death on June 20,1987 in Catania, Sicily, at age 51, Battaglia's career has undergone rediscovery by Italian film critics. In 2009, the Costaiblea Filmfestival and the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia – Cineteca Nazionale presented a nearly complete retrospective of his work alongside a monographic volume to re-evaluate his contributions to Italian cinema

Enzo Battaglia co-wrote the screenplay for one Spaghetti western “Dos cruces en Danger Pass” (Two Crosses at Danger Pass) in 1967 with Eduardo Manzanos Brochero.

BATTAGLIA, Enzo (Gaudenzio Battaglia) [10/28/1935, Ragusa, Sicily, Italy – 7/20/1987, Catania, Sicily, Italy] – director, assistant director, writer, film editor, married to ? father of photographer Pief Weyman, Alexandra Battaglia Mayer, grandfather of actor Sascha Weyman.

Two Crosses at Danger Pass – 1967 (co)

Spaghetti Western Cinematographer ~ Luigi Filippo Carta

Luigi Filippo Carta was a cameraman on seventy films between 1949 and 1980 and a director of photography on the second unit on 1962’s “Il segno di Zorro” (The Sign of Zorro) starring Sean Flynn.

CARTA, Luigi Filippo [Italian] – cinematographer.

The Sign of Zorro – 1962 (co)

Spaghetti Western Sets ~ Cabana Brandy

This small ranch house was an addition to the main ranch “Gringo”, it was small old wooden cabin, with its rather ramshackle appearance near a fake well.

It was used in the film “Brandy” as the main cabin in several scenes, but for the rest of the film appears only in passing and used to fill a scene. It was also used in “Welcome Padre Murray” in 1962. “Cabalgando hacia la Muerte (1962) “Gunfight at Red Sands” (1963), “La tumba del pistolero” (1964)

This set is no record that it was destroyed in any film, so it is likely that it was removed when the main ranch house was burned.

Who Are Those Singers & Musicians? ~ Paolo Tomelleri

Paolo Tomelleri was born in Vicenza, Veneto, Italy on June 13, 1938. He is an Italian saxophonist, clarinetist and conductor.

He began as self-taught, becoming passionate about jazz from a young age; he then moved to Milan, where he came into contact with Bruno De Filippi, with whom he performed in some formations (for example the Windy City Stompers) in Milanese clubs such as Santa Tecla.

In 1959 he joined the Cavalieri, with Enzo Jannacci on piano, Gian Franco Reverberi on vibraphone, Luigi Tenco on sax and Nando de Luca on keyboards, and with this group he participated in many Dischi Ricordi releases, including many records by I Due Corsari, Giorgio Gaber and Tenco himself.

He then played in many other formations, including Ghigo and the Goghi, the group that accompanied Ghigo Agosti in the first half of the 1960s. He became known in Italy as Mr. Clarinet.

In time Paolo led his own bands and orchestras. He’s noted for his solo work in the 1961-1970 Italian western cartoon series ‘Unca Dunca’ from 1961-1970.

TOMELLERI, Paolo [6/13/1938, Vicenza, Veneto, Italy - ] – composer, conductor, musician (clarinet, saxophone).

Unca Dunca (TV) – 1961-1970 (co)