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

• BRILEY, John (John Richard Briley) 6/25/1925, Kalamazoo, Michigan, U.S.A. - 12/14/2019, U.K.

Screenwriter John Briley died in the UK on December 14, 2019. He was 94. Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan on June 25, 1925 and raised in Detroit, his education was interrupted by World War II: he spent three years in the US air force, rising to the rank of second lieutenant before resuming his studies at the University of Michigan. One of his professors, the noted Shakespeare scholar GB Harrison, encouraged him to pursue a PhD at the Shakespeare Institute at Birmingham University, in the UK, where he found himself under the supervision of another literary scholar, Allardyce Nicoll. He remained in Britain after finishing his doctorate, and began writing for television, theatre and film. The shows he had written and produced for US air force employees attracted the attention of MGM, which hired him as a staff writer. His work on the horror film “Children of the Damned” (1964). Other screenplays included “That Lucky Touch” (1975), a romantic caper with Roger Moore and Susannah York; “The Medusa Touch” (1978), a preposterous but gripping psychological horror starring Richard Burton as a man compelled to cause death and disaster; and “Eagle’s Wing” (1979), a ruminative western with Martin Sheen and Harvey Keitel. After winning the Oscar for “Gandhi”, he wrote “Marie” (1985), starring Sissy Spacek as a woman fighting corruption in the US prison system. Thereafter he specialized in historical dramas: “Tai-Pan” (1986), “Sandino” (1991) and the unloved “Christopher Columbus: The Discovery” (1992) in which Marlon Brando gave, according to the critic Roger Ebert, his “worst performance in memory” as Torquemada.

• HENDERSON, Kelo (Paul Lars Henderson Jr.) - 8/8/1923, Pueblo, Colorado, U.S.A. - 12/10/2019, Ridgecrest, California, U.S.A.

American actor and trick gun specialist Kelo Henderson. Born Paul Lars Henderson Jr. in Pueblo, Colorado on August 8, 1923 he was a foreman on a ranch before working as an actor. He appeared on several western TV series before being cast as Ranger Clint Travis in 1957’s “26 Men” which ran for three years. Later he taught actors fast draw and other gun tricks. His young son Paul Lars Henderson was so good with six-gun tricks he was hired as Matty Matel and was seen in many commercials for Mattel’s Fanner .50. Kelo’s other son John Eric Henderson was also featured in the commercials. The pair often put on exhibitions. Kelo went to Germany in 1964 and appeared in “Pyramid of the Sun God” followed by “Treasure of the Aztecs” in the role of Frank Wilson. While making the two films Kelo was used to train the other actors how to use their weapons and how to ride horses. Later in life he appeared at many film festivals and was usually busy taking photographs instead of sitting behind a table signing autographs. He received a Golden Boot for his western work in 2003.

• KARINA, Anna (Hanne Karin Blarke Bayer) - 9/22/1940, Solbjerg, Denmark - 12/14/2019, Paris, Île-de-France, France

Anna Karina, the Danish-born actress who became a symbol of the French New Wave, or Nouvelle Vague, in Jean Luc Godard’s 1960s films, died on Saturday in Paris. She was 79. Whether playing a streetwalker or a terrorist, Ms. Karina managed to look flirtatious, with her dark hair, wispy bangs, heavy eyeliner and lycée-chic wardrobe of sailor-uniform tops, knee socks, lots of plaid and perky headwear, from berets to boaters. Karina also pursued a singing career, with late-1960s hits like “Sous le Soleil Exactement” and “Roller Girl,” written by Serge Gainsbourg. And she wrote four novels, including “Golden City” (1983), which she described to the quarterly Film Comment as “a kind of thriller, with gangsters.” Anna Karina appeared as Clara in the 1971 TV pseudo-Euro-western “Carlos” which also starred Gottfried John, Host Frank, Geraldine Chaplin and Thomas Hunter.

• SCIPIONI, Bruno - 7/29/1934, Rome, Lazio, Italy - 12/5/2019, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Italian theater, film, TV and voice actor Bruno Scipioni died in Rome, Italy on December 5, 2019. He was 85. Born in Rome on July 29, 1934, Scipioni graduated as an accountant and then, in 1958, he attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. He started his film career with Kapò (1959) and he was particularly active during the 1960s, usually being cast as a character actor. He was also active on stage, in television series, in commercials and as voice actor. He was the father of voice actor Carlo Scipioni. Scipioni appeared in 10 Euro-westerns: “The Terrible Sheriff” (1962); as a juryman in “4 Bullets for Joe” (1963); as Verdugo in “Heroes of the West” (1963); as Damon henchman “Lost Treasure of the Aztecs” (1964); “Ranch of the Ruthless” (1964); “Renegade Gunfighter” (1965); “A Fistful of Songs” (1966); “0For One Thousand Dollars per Day” (1966); a townsman in “Ringo and His Golden Pistol” (1966); “The Handsome, the Ugly, and the Stupid” (1967).

• DiMITRI, Antonio - 6/12/1931, Manduria, Taranto, Italy – 12/8/2019, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Italian actor and singer Antonio Dimitri died December 8, 2019 in Rome, Italy. He was 88. Known also as Tony DiMitri and George Stevenson he appeared in over 30 films and television appearances between 1953 and 1988. Born on June 12, 1931 in Manduria, Italy, he starred, using the George Stevenson alias as Quintana in 1969’s “Quintana: Dead or Alive”. He may also be best remembered in a quick cameo from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” as a Mesilla deputy who Blondie shoots his hat off at Tuco’s hanging. His other five Euro-westerns include “Two Mafiamen in the Far West” - 1964 as (Jesse James); “God May Forgive You, Not Me” – 1966 (as Manuel Hernandez); “The Judgment of God” – 1972 (as Ringo); “6 Bounty Killers for a Massacre” – 1972 (as Rinaldo) and “When Satan Grips a Colt” – 1972. Tony also had a brief musical career as a singer releasing three 45 rpm records in 1965.

• AUBERJONOIS, René (Rene Murat Auberjonois) - 6/1/1940, New York City, New York, U.S.A. - 12/8/2019, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

René Auberjonois, an actor who rose to prominence with roles on ‘Benson’, ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’, and the film “M.A.S.H.”, died Sunday December 8, 2019 at his home in Los Angeles of metastatic lung cancer, the Associated Press reported. He was 79. Auberjonois was born in New York City on June 1, 1940 and was a character actor and performed in theater of the 1960s. He made the transition to film in the 1970s, and appeared on a string of popular television series in the 1980s and ’90s among which was his only Euro-western appearance in Terence Hill’s ‘Lucky Luke’ as Mr. Edgar Rockbottom / Mendez in the 1992 episode ‘Cafe Olé’.

• RODRIGUEZ, Claudio - 8/31/1933, La Bóveda de Toro, Zamora, Spain - 12/4/2019, Madrid, Madrid, Spain

The voice and dubbing actor Claudio Rodriguez who was the voice of actors like Burt Lancaster, John Wayne and Anthony Quinn, has passed away December 4, 2019 at age 86, it was confirmed by Adoma, the association of dubbing artists in Madrid. Born in the Zamora town of La Bóveda de Toro in 1933, Rodríguez gave his voice in Spanish to well-known characters such as Albus Dumbledore, from the Harry Potter movie saga or to the Willy Fog of the eighties cartoon series “The Return of the World of Willy Fog. The actor also read the text of characters played by Max von Sydow and Charlton Heston, who once told Rodriguez that he was known in Spain thanks to him. The doubler, who also worked as a dialogue adapter and dubbing director, gave voice to other iconic characters such as the Dracula of the Francis Ford Coppola film version. He was the voice of Lee Van Cleef, Robert Hundar, Rod Cameron, Fernando Casanova, Cameron Mitchell and Luis Induni to name just a few.

• TEJADA, Manuel - 7/8/1940, Puente de Génave, Jaen, Spain - 12/3/2019, Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Spanish theater, film, TV actor Manuel Tejada died in Madrid on December 3, 2019. He was 79. Born Manuel Tejada de Luna in Puente de Génave, “a small town in Jaén about an hour from Linares,” the actor recalled in an interview; “but my first representative told me that it was better to give a better known birthplace and I ended up being born in Linares”. Moving to Madrid he became a theater actor and then branched off into films and television before returning to the theater to end his career. He appeared in three Euro-westerns; “One by One” (1968) as Sheriff Blackie; “Death Knows No Time” (1969) and “Cut-Throats Nine” (1972) as Dean Marlowe.

• CONGIA, Vittorio - 11/4/1930, Iglesias, Sardinia, Italy - 11/27/2019, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Italian film, TV and voice actor Vittorio Congia died in Rome on November 27, 2019. He was 89 years-old. Born in Iglesias, Sardinia, Italy on November 4, 2019, He was a familiar face, between cinema and TV, especially between the end of the 1950s and the end of the 1970s. Congia appeared in about forty films - including twelve musicals - between 1957 and 1978. He appeared in three Euro-westerns: Don’t Sing, Shoot (TV) (1967) Colonel Gaudenzio Forrester; “The Ballad of Ben and Charlie” (1972) as Alan ‘3%’ Smith and “The Three Musketeers of the West” (1973) as the wedding announcer. He was the Italian voice of Philip Ahn from 1972-1975 in the TV western “Kung Fu”.