Voices of the Spaghetti Western - “Once Upon a Time in the West”

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.

Today we’ll cover “Once Upon a Time in the West”

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

Jill McBain – Claudia Cardinale (E) Joyce Gordon, (I) Rita Savagnone, S) Josefina De Luna, (G) Beate Hasenau, (F) Michèle Bardollet

Harmonica – Charles Bronson (E) Charles Bronson (I) Giuseppe Rinaldi, (S) Roberto Martín, (G) Michael Chevalier, (F) Claude Bertrand)

Frank – Henry Fonda (E) Henry Fonda, (I) Nando Gazzolo, (S) Claudio Rodríguez, (G) Wilhelm Borchert, (F) Raymond Loyer

Manuel 'Cheyenne' Gutiérrez – Jason Robards (E) Jason Robards, (I) Carlo Romano, S) Eduardo Calvo, (G) Arnold Marquis, (F) René Arrieu

Morton - Gabriele Ferzetti (E) Bernie Grant, (I) Gabriele Ferzetti, (S) Teófilo Martínez, (G) Paul Edwin Roth, (F) Jean-Henri Chambois

Brett McBain – Frank Wolff (E) Frank Wolff, (I) Corrado Gaipa, (S) Fernando Mateo, (G) Martin Hirthe, (F) Henri Poirier)

Sheriff – Keena Wynn (E) Keenan Wynn, (I) Stefano Sibaldi, (S) Pedro Sempson, (G) Hans Wiegner, (F) Louis Arbessier

Michèle Bardollet   (1939 -    )

Michele Bardollet was born on May 26, 1939, in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, is a French actress. She is the daughter of actors Léo Bardollet and Colette Iris. She was a member of the Théâtre du petit Jacques company directed by Antonin Baryel in the 1950s. She starred opposite Roger Dumas, Jean-Paul Rouland and Jacques Herlin in “The Adventures of Bidibi and Banban”.

After young audiences, it was the turn of adult audiences to discover her, in 1958, in “L'Année du bac” by José-André Lacour, directed by Yves Robert, where she played Nicky.

Michèle Bardollet had her first experience in the cinema in 1956 in “Les Promesse dangereuses” by Jean Gourguet and then made some twenty films including “Les Tricheurs by Marcel Carné” (1958), “Les Bons Vivants” (1965) by Georges Lautner, “Un homme de trop” by Costa-Gavras (1966), “Mayrig” by Henri Verneuil (1991) and on television appearances in  ‘L'Auberge de l'ange gardien’ – ‘Arsène Lupin, Au théâtre ce soir’ and ‘Le Comte de Monte-Cristo’ by Josée Dayan in particular.

Michèle then specialized in dubbing with equal talent by becoming one of the greatest ladies of post-synchronization. She is the regular French voice of Bette Midler and Barbra Streisand in most of their films, as well as Joan Collins and Sharon Gless in most of their TV movies and series.

Michèle Bardollet was married to the actor Georges Galley [1926-1994] with whom she had two sons: Alexandre, also an actor, and Frédéric.