Cemetery with crosses - legends lost but remembered

This page is our personal hall of faml'e. 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

• WEISS, Ulrich - 4/2/1942, Wernigerode, Harz, Germany - 5/3/2022, Ferch, Brandenburg, Germany

German director and screenwriter Ulrich Weiß died in Ferch, Brandenburg, Germany on May 3, 2022. He was 80. Weiß attended elementary school from 1948 to 1956 and advanced high school from 1956 to 1960 in Klingenthal. He became an assistant cameraman for a TV station in East Germany. From 1965 to 1968 he studied camera and then directing at the Academy for Film and Television in Potsdam , where he graduated in 1970. In 1971, Weiß became a director at DEFA 's studio for short films in the Effekt group led by Karl Gass . Among other things, he made a film about the censorship of Eisenstein 's battleship Potemkin in the Weimar Republic. He directed and wrote screenplays for eleven films between 1969 and 1992. Among them was one western Blauvogel (Blue Bird) in 1979.

• WATERMAN, Dennis - 2/24/1948, Chapham, London, England, U.K. - 5/8/2022, Spain

British actor Dennis Waterman died in a Spanish hospital on May 8, 2022. He 74. Born in Chapman, London, England on February 24, 1948. He who starred in the TV shows Minder, The Sweeney and New Tricks – has died at the age of 74. He was best known for his role as bodyguard Terry McCann in ITV’s Minder. He has a showbiz career that spanned 60 years. He was known for singing the theme songs to many of his shows and was caricatured by David Walliams in Little Britain. He married four times. He left his second wife, with whom he had two daughters, for the actor Rula Lenska. The couple divorced in 1998 and Waterman married Pam Flint in 2011. His daughter Hannah Waterman played Laura Beale in EastEnders and guest starred in New Tricks in 2007. Waterman appeared in only one Euro-western as Jamie Lowrie in 1971’s “Man in the Wilderness” starring Richard Harris.

• Arno ((Arno Charles Ernest Hintjens) - 5/21/1949, Oostende, Belgium - 4/23/2022

Belgium singer Arno died of pancreatic cancer on April 23, 2022. He was 72. Born on May 21, 1949 in Ostend, a Flemish coastal town to which he remained very attached and which he evokes in his songs, Arno Hintjens began his career with the rock group TC Matic in the 1980s, notably with the song " Putain, putain" ("Damn, damn, it's really good, we are still all Europeans") - a title recently taken up in duet with another Belgian, Stromae. It was in solo that he then revealed himself to a wider audience, thanks to songs like "My mother's eyes" or his cover of "Girls by the sea" by another Belgian, Adamo. The announcement of his illness came while he was promoting an album ("Santeboutique", released in September 2019). Arno wrote and sang the song “Land of Milk and Honey” in the 2009 animated film “Luke and Lucy: The Texas Rangers”.

• SPAAK, Catherine 4/3/1945, Boulogne-Billancourt, Hsuts-de-Seine, Belgium - 4/17/2022, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Actress, singer and TV presenter Catherine Spaak died in a Rome clinic on Easter Sunday April 17, 2022. She was 77. Spaak suffered a brain hemorrhage in 2020 and had been in poor health ever since. She was the daughter of director, assistant director, writer, songwriter, Charles Spaak [1903-1975] and the sister of actress Agnes Spaak. Born in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hsuts-de-Seine, France on April 3, 1945. she made her film debut in Italian films at the age of 15 in 1960. She’d go on to appear in over 85 films and TV series. Spaak was also a singer and model. She was married four times and has two children. Her only Spaghetti western was a Catherine in 1975’s “Take a Hard Ride” starring Jim Brown and Fred Williamson.

• RUIZ, Carolo - 1973, Madrid, Madrid, Spain - 4/6/2022, Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Spanish actor Carolo Ruiz died in Madrid, Spain on April 6, 2022. He was only 49. The son of actress Terele Pávez and the nephew of actress Emma Penella and Elisa Montés appeared in 30 films and TV series from 1999 to 2022. He appeared in only one Euro-western as a townsman in “800 Bullets” 2002.

• BOHM, Uwe (Uwe Grossman) - 1/24/1962, Wilhelmsburg, Hamburg, West Germany - 4/9/2022, Berlin, Berlin, Germany

German film and TV actor Uwe Bohm, the adopted son of director Hark Bohm Uwe was known as a villain in the crime scene, from films such as Fatih Akin 's literary adaptation "Tschick" from the stage play. According to his family, Uwe was born Uwe Grossmann on January 24, 1962, He "died suddenly and unexpectedly," on Saturday April 9, 2022, his wife Ninon Bohm said. In 1988 he won the Bavarian Film Prize for his role as Jan in "Yasesmin" - a German-Turkish Romeo and Juliet variation. His other filmography in the cinema included roles in "Freistatt" (2015) and "Gold" (2013). In 2015 he played the role of the pastor Albrecht Maria Benz in NDR Tatort by director Claudia Garde "Borowski in the Underworld". Uwe’s lone Euro-western was as Gustav Müller in the 2013 film “Gold”.

• MONETA, Tullio - 5/7/1937, Fiume, Italian Regency of Carnaro, Italy - 3/31/2022, Macerata, Macerata, Italy

Italian born actor Tullio Moneta passed away in the San Severino hospital in Macerata, Italy. He was 85. Born in Fiume, Italian Regency of Carnaro, Italy pn May 7, 1937. He competed for a spot on the 1960 Italian Olympic track team as a shot putter. Knowing English and French, he found work for a French import-export company and, in 1961, he was sent to Sierra Leone, cruising the west coast from Senegal to Gabon. Then he moved to South Africa and started working in the cinema thanks to a series of lucky encounters. For a film he went to Congo, where there was war. At the end of 1964 he became bored with acting and enlisted as an interpreter for the national army of Congo. Working as a mercenary he dealt in intelligence, with missions in the Soviet Union, the Balkans, and the Middle East. After years of living in South Africa, where he has two children, he returned to Macerata in 2013. His health began to deteriorate, and he spent the last few years between one hospitalization and another until his ultimate passing. Moneta appeared in two Euro-westerns: Three Bullets... for a Long Gun – 1970 (Moses); They Call Me Lucky – 1973 (Diaz Almeida)

• YAKOVLEVA, Alexandra (Aleksandra Evgenevna Ivanes) - 7/2/1957, Kaliningrad, Kaliningradskaya, U.S.S.R. - 4/1/2022, St. Petersburg, Russia

Russian actress Alexandra Yakovleva, who played Ms. Diana Little in the 1987 Euro-western in the film “A Man from Boulevard des Capucines” died of cancer in St. Petersburg, Russia on April 1, 2022. She was 64. Born Alexandra Yakovleva Ivanes on July 2, 1957 in Kaliningrad, Kaliningradskaya, U.S.S.R. Her greatest popularity was brought to her by her work in the films “The Crew”, “Magicians” and “The Man from the Boulevard des Capucines”.

• BLOCH, Lars - 8/6/1938, Hellerup, Denmark - 3/27/2022, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Lars Bloch died in a Danish hospital after surgery on March 27, 2022. Bloch was born in Hellerup, Denmark on August 6, 1938 and lived as a child in Rungsted and Charlottenlund, before he moved with his parents to Mariager (Jutland). After successfully completing his schooling in 1956, he visited Italy. After completing his military service in the Navy Bloch in the spring of 1959 returned to Italy and was quickly noticed due to his large, hulking, blond and mostly bearded appearance and was hired as an actor in films as a prototype of the Nordic villain. His first two films were directed by Lucio Fulci. Until the 1980s, he played in many films, including nearly ten spaghetti westerns mostly small roles; occasionally he was also in larger productions (as Carol Reed Michelangelo - as the founder of the Swiss Guards) or positive roles such as that of King Richard the Lionheart in “Long Live Robin Hood” (1971). In the 1970s, he worked several times together with Aristide Massaccesi, who cast him in “Eroi all'inferno” (under a pseudonym) in a rare lead role. After his acting career ended, Bloch was employed as a sales manager for DVD productions of Italian films for the Japanese market and was occasionally involved in the production of several feature films. Lars appeared in nine Euro-westerns: Navajo Joe – 1966 (Swedish immigrant), A Stranger in Town – 1966 (Lieutenant Ted ‘George’ Harris/Stafford), Alleluia and Sartana, Sons of God - 1972 (Danish), On the Third Day Arrived the Crow – 1972 (Bill), The Return of Hallelujah – 1972 (Cain),Trinity & Sartana Those Sons of Bitches – 1972 (Clyde), Behold the Strange, Stimulating Smell of Dollars – 1973 (soldier), Shanghai Joe – 1973 (Wells Fargo client), Red Coat – 1974 (Andy O’Brien).

• FAURE, Jean-Louis 1957, France - 3/27/2022, France

French voice actor and dubber Jean-Louise Faure died in France on March 27, 2022. He was 65. Faure, born in France in 1957 began his voice acting career in the 1970s. He furnished additional voice for the 2001-2003 TV series ‘The New Adventures of Lucky Luke’.