Cemetery with crosses - legends lost but remembered

This 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 last name: 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

• DELL'ACQUA, Roberto - 4/16/1946, Rome, Lazio, Italy – 9/16/2019, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Italian acrobat, stuntman, actor Roberto Dell’Acqua died in Rome, Italy on September 16, 2019. He was 73 years old. Born into a family of circus people he worked as an acrobat along with his older brothers and later transformed this talent into a career as a stuntman in films and television. He also appeared as a supporting actor in over 60 films. Sometimes billed as Robert Stevenson and Leo Widmark he appeared in over 20 Euro-westerns from “Killer Caliber .32” in 1967 to “Buck at the Edge of Heaven” in 1991. The Italian film industry put his natural talents as an acrobat to good us as Robert was usually seen as a saloon and barroom brawler, while playing henchmen soldiers and deputies in most of the westerns he appeared. Some of his better known Euro-westerns included “Boot Hill” (1969), “Have a Nice Funeral My Friend” (1970); “Trinity is STILL My Name” (1971); “Shanghai Joe” (1973); “The Son of Zorro” (1973); “Keoma” (1975) and “Buddy Goes West”.

• PARASHELES, Peter - 8/2/1927, Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A. - 7/31/2019, West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.A.

Film editor Peter Parasheles died in West Palm Beach, Florida on July 31, 2019. Born in Hartford, Connecticut on August 2, 1927 he worked with Orson Welles filming Chimes at Midnight in Spain during the Franco years and while living there was the film editor on the Euro-western “Custer of the West” starring Robert Shaw, Robert Ryan and Ty Hardin.

• CARILLO, Luis (Luis Martin Carillo) - 19??, Spain - 9/12/2019, Spain

Veteran Spanish voice actor and dubber Luis Martín Carrillo died on September 12, 2019 in Spain. He was an actor and actor of Spanish dubber and director. He was the usual voice in Spain of Spencer Tracy, Michael Caine, Peter Falk and Jean-Paul Belmondo. He participated in the dubbing of the Colombo, Team A, Charlie's Angels and Xena La Princesa Guerrera TV series. He also participated in the dubbing of the classic series of Saint Seiya, The Knights of the Zodiac in Spanish. He made his debut in Episode 54 by voicing Agora de Loto. He was the Spanish voice of Virgilio Teixeira in 1966s “Return of the 7”; James Mitchum in 1967s “The Tramplers”; Jack Taylor in 1968s “The Christmas Kid”; Tatsuya Nakadai in 1968's “Today We Kill… Tomorrow We Die”; Burt Reynolds in 1969’s “100 Rifles”; Peter Lee Lawrence in 1970s “Sabata the Killer”; Al Lettieri in 1970s “A Town Called Hell”; Pierre Brice in 1970s “Winnetou and Old Shatterhand in the Valley of Death”; George Eastman in 1972s “Call of the Wild”; Peter Lee Lawrence again in 1972s “Garringo”; Raimund Harmstorf in 1973s “White Fang”; Guy Rolfe in 1974s “Land Raiders”; Leo Anchoriz in 1974s “The 3 Musketeers of the West”, “Spaghetti Western” and “What Am I Doing in the Middle of a Revolution”; Julian Ugarte in 1976s “The Stranger and the Gunfighter”; Chris Avram in 1977s “California”; the Spanish voice of Joe Dalton in the 1983 animated TV series “Lucky Luke” and Michael Tylo in 1990s TV Series “New Adventures of Zorro”.

• VALORI, Alessandro - 1965, Macerata, Marche, Italy - 9/9/2019, Recanati, Marche, Italy

Italian director Alessandro Valori died in a Recanati, Italy restaurant of a heart attack on September 9. He was 54. Valori was born in Macerata, Marche, Italy in 1965 and directed the Euro-western short B.B.K. (Baby Bounty Killer) in 1996.

• GAROFALO, Franco - 4/18/1946, Naples, Campania, Italy – 8/22/2019, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Italian director, writer, actor Franco Garofalo died in Rome, Italy on August 22, 2019. He was 73 years-old. Sometimes billed as Frank Kramer (not the director by the same name who is Gianfranco Parolini) he was born in Naples, Italy on April 18, 1946. He made his film debut in “Il sesso della Strega” (Sex of the Witch) in 1973. In 1974 appeared in American director Steve Carver’s “The Arena”. Garofalo was also known for his roles in “Hell of the Living Dead” (1980), and “Schizofrenia di un attore” (2002). Franco appeared in only one Euro-western “They Call Him Veritas” (1972) as Misery starring Mark Damon.

• VIRTANEN, Jukka (Jukka Jalmari Virtanen) - 7/25/1933, Jämsänkoski, Finland - 9/1/2019, Helsinki, Finland

Over the decades, Jukka Virtanen, 86, who has become known to Finnish television viewers for several television shows , died on Sunday September 1 2019, after a long battle with cancer. Virtanen had an extraordinary career in Finnish television, films and theater. Born on July 25, 1933 in Jämsänkoski, Finland, Virtanen is remembered for example as a presenter, actor, screenwriter, director and songwriter. Virtanen was also one of the founding members of the New Happy Theater. Many also remember him as the presenter of the legendary Record Board. A good friend of Spede Pasanen he worked with him on several films and appeared as Juoppo in 1970’ “Speedy Gonzales”. Jukka also was a writer on the 1970 TV western film “Häjyt, rennot ja rumat”.

• THOST, Bruno (Bruno Thost Grinley) - 4/23/1936, Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany - 8/28/2019, Vienna, Austria

German actor Bruno Thost died in Vienn, Austria on August 28, 2019. He was 83. After graduation, he began his studies in Stuttgart, as mechanical and aircraft engineer, but he stopped off in favor of studying acting, after he had already worked at the Württemberg State Theater as porter, super, stage manager, chorus in the extra chorus and voice roll. In 1963 he passed his final exams and played his first role as Will Parker 1964 on the open-air stage in Wiesmoor near Cuxhaven. Since then he played many roles Karl May . In Wiesmoor he also had the direction in 1965, in Bad Segeberg he supported the now dedicated director Toni Graschberger in his work and worked with him passages of the textbooks to Winnetou ( 1971 ) and In the Gorges of the Balkans ( 1972 ). From 1970 until his retirement in 2001, he was a member of the permanent ensemble at the Vienna Burgtheater. In Seelbach (Ortenaukreis), where he grew up in part, Bruno Thost and his daughter Katja Thost-Hauser encouraged the open-air games that took place there for the first time in 2004. Both father and daughter took over both direction and roles. In the summer of 2017, Bruno Thost undertook an unusual return to Karl May: in the three performances marking the 30th anniversary of the Karl May stage Gföhl , he once again assumed the role of Santer.

• KRAUSS, Helmut - 6/11/1941, Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany - 8/26/2019, Gaslar, Niedersachsen, Germany

Film, TV and voice actor died in Goslar, Germany on August 26, 2019 He was 78. Kraus was also been heard in radio plays, audiobooks and computer games and has appeared as a reciter and cabaret artist. He has a well-known television role as neighbor Hermann Paschulke since 1981 in the television series Dandelion. Krauss took over the narrator role from 2000 to 2003 at the Karl May Play at Bad Segeberg. Born in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany on June 11, 1941, in 2005 Krauss played the role of the host Don Geronimo in the play Winnetou and the Secret of the Felsenburg, in which he also told the story. Since the 2014 season, he had been working as a narrator at the Freilichtbühne in Burgrieden, where he now accompanies the pieces directed by Karl May with his distinctive voice.

• DELLE PIANE, Carlo 2/2/1936, Rome, Lazio, Italy - 8/23/2019, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Italian film actor Carlo Delle Piane died in Rome on August 23, 2019. He was 83. He was born in Rome on February 2, 1936 and made his film debut at the age of twelve in Duilio Coletti's “Heart and Soul”; he starred in the stereotypal role of an arrogant but basically kind-hearted boy for a large number of films until mid-fifties. The turning point of his career was an encounter with Pupi Avati, with whom Delle Piane experienced more significant and varied roles, going from comic surreal performances to melancholic and even dramatic shades. He appeared in more than 100 films winning the Nastro d'Argento for Best Actor for his performance in “Una gita scolastica”. For his role in “Regalo di Natale” (1986) he won the Volpi Cup at the 43rd Venice International Film Festival. Delle Piane appeared in only one Euro-western, 1971’s “Judge Roy Bean” starring Robert Hossein.