Voices of the Spaghetti Western “The 5-Man Army”

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 “The 5-Man Army”

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

Dutchman – Peter Graves (I) Pino Locchi, (S) José Luis Sansalvador, (G) Michael Chevalier, (F) René Arrieu

Augustus – James Daly (I) Bruno Persa, (S) Rafael Luis Calvo, (G) Wolfgang Amerbacher, (F) Michel Gudin

Mesito – Bud Spencer (I) Glauco Onorato, (S) Pepe Mediavilla, (G) Alexander Welbat, (F) Maurice Sarfati

Luis – Nino Castelnuovo (I) Massimo Turci, (S) Manuel Cano, (G) Christian Brückner, (F) Claude Bertrand

Esteban – Claudio Gora (I) Renato Turi, (S) Felipe Peña, (G) Helmut Heyne, (F) Jean-Henri Chambois

 [Spanish & French voices per Michael Ferguson]

Helmut Heyne  (1906 – 2001)

Helmut Heyne was born April 27, 1906, in Gera, Thuringia, Germany. From 1924 to 1936 Helmut Heyne took acting lessons with Claus Clausen at the Reußisches Theater in Gera. Here and at some other theaters he began his career. In the 1930s, Heyne started as an actor in cinema and later also in television films. Among other things, he was seen in “Berlin Ballad”, “Schützenliesel” and “Sergeant Berry” alongside Hans Albers. He made his last film in 1996.

In the early 1970s, he put his acting career on the back burner to devote himself to dubbing. For example, he dubbed Robert Nevin in “Jaws” in 1974, Richard Bright in “The Godfather” in 1971 and DeForest Kelley in “Star Trek”, as well as Ian McDiarmid as Emperor Palpatine in “Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi”. His voice also became known in several animated films such as in “Asterix – Operation Hinkelstein”, where he voiced Methuselah. Furthermore, his voice is known from Disney films of the 80s and 90s. For example, he dubbed the bookseller in “Beauty and the Beast” and the medicine man in “Pocahontas”. In the German dubbed version of Jim Henson's “The Dark Crystal”, he voiced the scientist of the Skekse. In addition, he was also active as a speaker for radio plays.

Heyne died in Hamburg, Germany on February 7, 2001 at the age of 94.