.Westerns...All'Italiana!: My talks with Roger Browne [Part 3 of 12]

Dubbing in Rome

By Johan Melle

May 29, 2026

JM: Did actors never get paid extra to dub themselves?

RB: Actors on my level dubbing themselves generally do not get paid unless they have a separate deal with the producer or buyer. Lew Cianelli, who dubbed The Fantastic Argoman made sure I got paid since he had used me many times and we were good friends. Thanks to Ralph Zucker, who was NOT a friend, he told me I should be paid double for Terence Hill for the many times I dubbed him. Gene Luotto just worked it into the preventivo.

JM: So when people like Lee Van Cleef, Joseph Cotten, Carroll Baker etc. came to dub themselves, they basically just did it for the sake of their own performance then? Would explain why actors sometimes didn’t bother to do their own dubbing. When the American stars came to dub themselves, did they sometimes do this alongside the rest of the dubbing cast? Or were they always single-tracked...?

RB: Known actors were always single tracked to finish their obligation and save the producer on per diem, which was not cheap. Only one I ever met single tracking was Edward G. Robinson being done by Lew Ciannelli. Lew had called me to do a few loops on Argoman one evening, but plans changed to do Mr. Robinson instead. I was happy to oblige. Lew was a good friend. Same thing happened to me when I was producing a little commercial at Cinecittà. My afternoon time for a sala was taken away from me to give to Federico Fellini.

JM: Can you tell me a little more about Lewis Ciannelli? I know he was one of the ELDA old-timers who was involved in dubbing since way back in the 1950s. Did he often dub voices in addition to writing/directing?

RB: Lew Ciannelli did go way back! I remember seeing a film he directed, O.K. Nero, in San Francisco before 1955. He grew up in Beverly Hills. His father was Eduardo Ciannelli, character actor. Lew had kind of a whiny voice. Don’t think he did much dubbing. Worked in production before dubbing and gave Marlon Brando a bottle of whiskey during his film Sayonara (1957). Went to Beverly Hills High School with Rhonda Fleming and said guys used to follow her, just feeling where she went.

JM: And George Higgins, who picked you to dub Guy Stockwell, was also one of the real old-timers, no?

RB: George Higgins was one of the early ELDA members, yes. He adopted an Italian lad named Tommy. That raised a few eyebrows!

JM: Why did that raise eyebrows?

RB: If a single man adopts a young boy, or girl, it could arouse suspicions that he may have ulterior motives. Not saying that was in George’s case. He was well liked and was secretary of ELDA at one point. I and my then girlfriend from London used to meet him at the horse show and had a lot of laughs making rude remarks. I often wonder whatever happened to him. He ended up falling on hard times and had to move to an impoverished area outside of Rome in the 1970s, and I think he eventually went back to the US – NY or Boston. Dubbing and filming was slowing down. My wife and I were already planning on moving back to the States, which we did in July 1980. I got out just at the right time. I had my 20 years of work, making me eligible when I turned 60 for Italian Social Security. Our son Roman (what else?) was born there in 1979, which we always appreciated!

[Prolific and popular dubbing director George Higgins, who also dubbed a lot of character parts.]

JM: Now, you mentioned that you translated, wrote and directed the English dubbing of the cartoon series Calimero. I did not realize you used to write and direct dubbing. Did you do that much? And did you do any of the roles in Calimero yourself?

RB: I did very little writing and directing. Only Calimero and a couple of small commercials – Tic Tac was one. I didn’t do anything in Calimero – not really a cartoon voice guy. And I was making enough writing and directing and wanted my friends and colleagues to get a share.

JM: What are your memories of Uti Hof, the German actress you picked to do the voice of Calimero?

RB: Uti Hof was perfect as Calimero with her cute little accent. The producer loved it – Signor Palermo from Milano, or vice versa. Uti must have gone with Bob Mathias in Rome because she had a son who looked like Bob would have at ten years old. A friend from It Happened in Athens, he barely remembered any of his athletic achievements, but every date he ever had was no problem – who, how or when.

Uti later moved to Utah and married a Mormon. She wrote back to our office secretary Chris Selheim, who misunderstood and told everybody that Uti married a “moron”.

[Altogether, Roger adapted and directed the English dubbing of 52 shorts about the famous black chicken Calimero during 1970-71.]

[German actress Uti Hof, whom Roger chose to be the English voice of Calimero.]

JM: For Calimero, you also cast Cicely Browne as Calimero’s mother, and Rodd Dana as Calimero’s nemesis, Peter Duck. Do you remember who else you used?

RB: Funny, you know more about how I cast Calimero than I do! I only remember Uti, Dan Sturkie, maybe Ed Mannix, and Charles Borromel, who I owed. Gene Luotto was good at doing funny little squeaky types and I should have used him, but I doubt he would have accepted. He was always busy.

Calimero fell in my lap. I just happened to be in the office when the producer from Milano called and Chris put him on to me. I told him I would send him a list of our current directors. He said he was in a hurry to get started, the loops were cut, and since I spoke such good Italian why didn’t I do the translation/adaption and direction? I said gladly. I had only directed two small commercials before.

JM: I also noticed the excellent character dubber Michael Tor voicing a couple of characters in Calimero. He was another of the ELDA old-timers. Do you remember anything about him?

RB: I never got to know him too well. He was an art lover, and I heard some of his art came out of WWI. At one point, some people proposed him for president of ELDA. That would have never worked! He was not a man of the people, a bit prissy. He and Gino Bardi directed some, and Gino once called Michael ‘Lady Windermere’ for using a fan.

JM: Tony Russel was president of ELDA before you. Did you know him and his wife Jodean well?

RB: I guess Tony, a friend, was president while I was busy making films during 1963-1968 and wasn’t available to dub much. Jodean was flaky. She, Tony and I played golf, and she farted on Tony’s backswing. Tony went home to do Dinner Theater with Eve Arden and settled in Las Vegas. I spoke with him by phone before he died.

JM: I read an interview with Tony where he stated that when he arrived on the scene, there were different dubbing organizations and that they were all competing for the same work and cutting each other’s throats by dubbing for less and less. He said that when he was president of ELDA, he was eventually able to get them to all unite under the ELDA banner. How was the situation when you arrived? Were there competing organizations at that point, and did they each have dubbers working exclusively for them? If so, which group did you belong to?

RB: Around 1965/66 there was ELDA, and there was a splinter group led by Dick McNamara. I actually dropped out of ELDA because I felt I wasn’t being used enough. I had done some big parts, but it stopped because of Bob Spafford who, being from California and knowing I was from Kentucky, thought he detected certain Southernisms. I called Dick and he assured me that I would be in all his films, and he was busy. Then there was a movement to get everybody into ELDA. Dan Sturkie was instrumental being a top dubber. Dick begrudgingly came along; he would then have to compete with top directors for films. But production went up, as well as quality of work. Many gained, but some of the marginals like Jack Gillen and Ian Danby lost ground as well as newbies, people just off the boat. We had a strong list of people.