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 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 “The Big Gundown”
[(I) Italian, (S) Spanish, (G) German, (F) French, (E)
English]
Jonathan Corbett –
Lee Van Cleef (I) Renato Turi, (S) Claudio Rodríguez, (G) Christian
Marschall, (F) Jacques Deschamps
Manuel ‘Cuchillo’
Sanchez – Tomas Milian (I) Pino Locchi, (S) Juan Logar, (G) Klaus Kindler,
(F) Gérard Hernandez
Brokston – Walter
Barnes (I) Bruno Persa, (S) Benjamín Domingo,
(G) Klaus W. Krause
The Widow – Nieves
Navarro (I) Rita Savagnone, (S) Mercedes Mireya, (G) Rosemarie Fendel
Baron von Schulenberg
- Gérard Herter (I) ?, (S) Rafael De Penagos, (G) Gérard Herter
Chet Miller – Angel
del Pozo (I) Cesare Barbetti (S) Juan Miguel Cuesta, (G) Wolf Rahtjen
RENATO TURI (1920 –
1991)
Reanto Turi was born in Florence, Italy
on May 12, 1920. He was considered an important figure in Italian dubbing. At
an early age, Turi visited many theatres across Italy
with his parents before later moving to Rome.
He felt a great desire to perform on stage during those visits. During the
outbreak of World War II, Turi served at the airport in Elmas, Sardinia. When it was bombarded by American forces, Turi
was seriously injured, resulting in his leg being amputated. As a result, he
had to give up his dreams as a theatre actor.
Nevertheless, Turi pursued an acting career in film,
television and radio, acting in over six films and starring in many television
productions. Despite his inability to make a stage appearance, he served as the
voice of God in the 1973 musical comedy Aggiungi un posto a tavola. His
voice was then re-recorded for later performances even after his death.
Turi was more successful as a voice dubber. He was the
founder of the dubbing society SEDIF and he made frequent collaborations with
other dubbers including Giuseppe Rinaldi, Wanda Tettoni, Oreste Lionello, Gianfranco
Bellini and Emilio Cigoli. Turi often provided the Italian voices of Walter
Matthau, Lee Marvin, Christopher Lee, Telly Savalas, Lee Van Cleef, John
Carradine, Lionel Jeffries, Charlton Heston, Sidney Poitier, Livio Lorenzon and
Arthur Kennedy in most of their movies. In Turi's animated roles, he voiced
Jasper in the Italian version of One Hundred and One Dalmatians as well
as Edgar in the Italian version of The Aristocats.
Turi died in Rome
on April 5, 1991 just one month before his 71st birthday. Turi's family members
held important positions within the dubbing company which he founded.
