Cemetery with crosses - legends lost but remembered

KÜLOWThis page is our personal hall of fame. A reminder to us all that even though considered a B-genre, Spaghetti Westerns were full of great characters, played by great people. Many have passed away, and while we are young growing up re-watching all these classics, many more will probably leave us. May they be remembered. What follows, is a work-in-progress, a growing list of legends who have passed away...

sorted by their last names: A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z|} FRESH GRAVES de Zigno, Federico Alberto - 8/12/1952, Firenze, Tuscany, Italy - 5/19/2016, Firenze, Tuscany, Italy Italian film critic and author Federico Alberto de Zigno died May 19, 2016 in Firenze, Italy. He was 63. Born August 12, 1952 in Firenze, Italy. He was a specialist of genre films, and hds been a member of the editorial board of the journal Amarcord. He was the author of the book Cittadini X: serial killer dalla realtà allo schermo (1998) and collaborated on numerous publications of the publishing company Glittering Images, including the magazine Diva and volumes The Cosmical horror of HP Lovecraft (1991), Marquis De Sade antologie illustree (1993). As a passionate student of almeriense film phenomenon during the years 1960-70, he had written, with Antonio Bruschini, Western All'Italiana: the Wild, the Sadist and the Outsiders (2001) and Western All'Italiana 100 More Must-See Movies ( 2006). Similarly he had authored texts for vampire books like Il redivivo (1993), Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo di Sergio Leone (2000), Il cinema di Mel Gibson (2004), etc. He had collaborated on magazines like Night Cinema and Spanish Nosferatu and Quatermass. ZIVOJINOVIC, Velimir Bata - 6/5/1933, Koracica, Serbia, Yugoslavia - 5/22/2016, Belgrade, Serbia Serbian actor Velimir Bata Živojinović died in a Belgrade, Serbia hospital on May 22, from complications of gangrene. He was 82. Bata, who was born in Koracica, Serbia on June 5, 1933, had been in poor health from a stroke in 2012. Zivojinovic had twice received the Golden Arena for Best Actor at the Festival in Pula - for the films "Kozara" (1962) and "Three" (1965). For the film "Tren". In August 1993 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award "Slavica" for its role in the Yugoslav film industry and recognition of the Yugoslav Film Archive - Gold Seal. He appeared as Jim Potter in 1965’s “Flaming Frontier”. GAMBINI, Nella C. - 1/6/1953, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy – 5/1/2016, Rome, Lazio, Italy Italian stage, film, radio, TV, voice actress and stunt woman Nella Gambini died on May 1, 2016. She was 63. Her son Tadzius C. Gambini made the announcement on Facebook according to Nella’s wishes. She was the granddaughter of actress Vittoria Di Silverio [1907-2014], daughter of circus acrobat, stuntman Biagio Gambini [1926-1986] whom she followed into stunt work at the age of 13. She later appeared in films and then voice dubbing and after leaving the film industry became a stage actress. Nella appeared as an extra in “Up the MacGregors” (1966) and did stunt work on the TV western “Don’t Sing Shoot” and also in “7 Pistols for a Massacre” (both 1967). She was the Italian voice of Fiorella Mannoia in “On the Third Day Arrived the Crow” and “Six Bounty Killers for a Massacre” (both 1972). She finished her Euro-western career as stunt coordinator and master of arms on 1975’s “Young Guns Go West” in 1975. LEBEAU, Madeleine 6/10/1923, Antony, Hauts-de-Seine, France - 5/1/2016, Estepona, Costa del Sol, Spain RIP Madeleine Lebeau. French actress Madeleine Lebeau, who was the last surviving member of the film Casablanca, died on May 1st in Estepona, Costa del Sol, Spain. She was 92. Lebeau was born on June 10, 19213 in Antony, Hauts-de-Seine, France. She was married to Marcel Dalio who also appeared in Casablanca and died in 1983. She then married Italian screenwriter Tullio Pinelli who died in 2009 at 100. Her stepson filmmaker Carlo Alberto Pinelli broke the news that she had died after suffering a broken thigh bone. During World War II Lebeau came to the U.S. and appeared in such films as Hold Back the Dawn (1941) and Gentleman Jim (1942) with Errol Flynn. She returned to Europe after the war and appeared in such films as The Royalists (1947), Cage of Gold (1950), Sins of Madeleine (1951) and La Parisienne (1957). Her lone Euro-western was a Jennie Lee in Gunmen of the Rio Grande with Guy Madison. MAINARDI, Elisa - 7/27/1930, Rome, Lazio, Italy - 5/8/2016, Rome, Lazio, Italy Italian actress Elisa Mainardi died in Rome on May 8th. Born in Rome on September 29, 1930, Mainardi studied at the acting school of Peter Sharoff, and debuted on stage in 1956, in Ottavio Spadaro's “Corruzione a palazzo di giustizia”, alongside Salvo Randone, immediately receiving critical acclaim for her performance. Shortly thereafter she became the lead actress in “Il sorriso della Gioconda directed by Ernesto Grassi and in “La penna” directed by Lucio Chiavarelli, and in Luciano Salce's “Colombe di Anouilh”. Her stage works include main roles in works directed by Luchino Visconti, Giorgio De Lullo, Silverio Blasi and Alessandro Fersen. Mainardi was also active on television and in films, in which she worked several times with Federico Fellini. Her only Euro-western appearance was as Nancy in “The Relentless Four” (1965) starring Adam West. MORADEI, Alina - 3/8/1928, Chiavari, Genoa, Italy - 5/5/2016, Rome, Lazio, Italy The voice we hear coming to mind right away from Cabot Cove, the fictional town in Maine where lives Jessica Fletcher, the mystery writer-detective played by Angela Lansbury: in the Italian version, the voice of the Lady in yellow was, Alina Moradei. She died yesterday May 5th at the age of 88 years. Born in Chiavari in 1928, she has been dedicated to dubbing from the beginning of the 1950s: among the many actresses to whom she lent her voice were Maggie Smith, Katharine Hepburn and Cloris Leachman. Alina was also an actress and voice of Radio Rai. Alina was the Italian voice of Stephanie Cole in 1999’s “Grey Owl”. SANDER, Ian - 11/22/1947, New York City, New York, U.S.A. - 5/3/2016, Encino, California, U.S.A. Ian Sander, who with his wife Kim Moses executive produced the popular drama series 'Ghost Whisperer' and 'Profiler', died Tuesday at home after suffering a heart attack. He was 68. Born in New York City on November 22, 1947, he graduated from the University of Southern California and attended Loyola Law School before launching a career as an actor. He appeared in the 1970 film "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls", in the 1971 Broadway play "No Place to Be Somebody" and on such TV series as 'The Mod Squad', 'Medical Center' and 'The Rockford Files'. Sander appeared as Red Clayton in the 1976 Euro-western “God’s Gun”. De ANDRES LOPEZ, Ángel - 10/23/1951, Madrid, Madrid, Spain - 5/4/2016, Madrid, Madrid, Spain Spanish stage, film and TV actor Ángel de Ándrés López died May 4th at his home in Madrid, Spain. He was 64. Ángel participated in various Spanish television series garnering much success and fames such as ‘Cuéntame’, ‘Pelotas o más’ and more recently ‘Carlos, Rey Emperador’. He appeared as Cheyenne in the 2002 Euro-western “800 Bullets”. Di GIACOMO, Franco - 9/18/1932, Amatrice, Umbria, Italy - 4/30/2016, Rome, Lazio, Italy The great Italian director of photography Franco Di Giacomo died April 30, 2016 in Rome. He was 83. More than 120 films to his credit, and worked with some of the greatest Italian directors, from Bertolucci to Ettore Scola, Taviani by Nanni Moretti. He was also president of A.I.C., The association of the authors of photography. Di Giacomo was a camera operator on “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (1966), “Once Upon a Time in the West” (1968), and was cinematographer on “Buddy Goes West” (1980). FRIEDRICHSEN, Uwe - 5/27/1934, Altona, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany - 4/30/2016, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany German stage, film, TV and voice actor Uwe Friedrichsen has died. He died Saturday at the age of 81 in a Hamburg hospital as the result of a brain tumor. Friedrichsen is best remembered for his role in the television series "Family Schoeller Man" and the role of the detective in "John Klings Abenteuer" (1965-1970) for which he took over and his work on the German version of “Sesame Street”. Uwe was the German voice of Montgomery Ford (Brett Halsey) in “Today We Kill… Tomorrow We Die” (1967), Monte Markham in “Guns of the Magnificent Seven” (1968_ and Dean Reed in 1970’s “Adios, Sabata”. He also starred as Tex Ritter in the German western TV series ‘Stadt ohne Sheriff’ in 1972. HESS, Wolfgang - 9/1/1937, Switzerland - 4/28/2016, Zurich, Switzerland Another legendary voice actor has left us. Wolfgang Hess, the German voice of Bud Spencer in over 40 films died on April 28th. He was 79. Hess was born on September 1, 1937 in Switzerland. He was mainly in the 1970s and 1980s, sought-after and often booked as a voice actor with more than 500 credits. More than 40 times Hess voiced the roles of Bud Spencer in Germany, among which are his most popular works with Terence Hill as They Call Me Trinity, Trinity Is Still My Name. He was Fernando Sancho's German voice in "The Big Gundown", Gregg Palmer's voice in They Call Me Providence and Eli Wallach's voice in The White, The Yellow, the Black among many others.