Cemetery with crosses - legends lost but remembered

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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

  • KRAMER, Frank (Gianfranco Parolini) - 3/20/1925, Rome, Lazio, Italy - 4/26/2018, Rome, Lazio, Italy]

Enzo G. Castellari posted on Facebook this evening that Gianfranco Parolini better known to us film fans as Frank Kramer died today. Born in Rome, Italy on March 20, 1925, the Italian producer, film director, writer and overall film maker was, much like Enzo Castellari, a man of action. He was probably best known for his “Sabata” trilogy (1969-1971) and “If You Meet Sartana... Pray for Your Death” (1968). One of the last of the great Italian western and action directors is gone.


  • NEVILLE, Charles - 12/28/1938, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A - 4/26/2018, Huntington, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Neville Brothers saxophonist Charles Neville died Thursday April 26, 2018 of pancreatic cancer in Huntington, Massachusetts, where he had lived for many years. He was 79. Charles Neville was the second oldest of the four brothers who, for three decades, formed the core of the Neville Brothers, one of the most important and influential bands to emerge from New Orleans. For many years, the Neville Brothers were the closing act on the final Sunday of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Born on December 28, 1938 in New Orleans, Charles grew up on Valence Street and in the Calliope housing development. In the 1950s, he toured with bands that backed such rhythm & blues stars as Johnny Ace, Jimmy Reed and B.B. King. He enlisted in the Navy in 1956 and was stationed in Memphis. He also led his own jazz combos, which performed at Snug Harbor whenever he was in town. After the Neville Brothers called it quits in 2012, he continued to tour as a member of Aaron Neville’s solo band. He was onstage when Aaron made his French Quarter Festival debut in 2017. Charles performed with Dr. John's band during last year's Jazz Fest. Charles as part of the Neville Brothers wrote and performed the song “Let That Hammer Fall” in 1993’s Euro-western “Posse” starring Mario Van Peebles.


  • BITENC, Demeter - 7/21/1922, Ljubljana, Slovenia, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes - 4/22/2018, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Demeter Bitenc, one of the best known Slovenian film actors, has died aged 95. His first film was the first Slovenian feature film “Na svoji zemlji” (On Our Own Land). He appeared in more than 230 theatre and film roles in his seventy-year career, web portal RTV Slovenija reported. Born on July 21, 1922 in Ljubljana, he spent his childhood and youth in Gorenjska. He graduated from the Trade Academy in Ljubljana, but already during his studies he was impressed by theater, film and acting. During the war, he attended private lessons with the theater actor and director Slavko Jan, and in 1943 he made an audition for admission to the ensemble of the Ljubljana. He first received a short film experience in his first feature film by France Stiglitz. “On His Land” in 1948, he made his first real film debut in 1959 with a role of a German officer in the film “Good Old Piano”. In the next decade, he recorded nearly 40 co-production films shot by foreign producers in the then Yugoslavia. He often appeared in the uniforms of German soldiers. Bitenc appeared in six Euro-westerns: Apache Gold (1963) as Dick Stone, “Legend of a Gunfighter” (1964), “Bandits of the Rio Grande” (1965) as Elgaut, “Duel at Sundown” (1965) as Mack, “Starblack” (1966) as Burt and “Ballad of a Gunman” (1967) as Bradley.


  • MEDIAVILLA, Pepe (José Fernández Mediavilla) - 5/1/1940, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain - 4/19/2018, Spain

The Spanish dubbing actor Pepe Mediavilla has died at 77 years of age. Mediavilla was the Spanish voice of Morgan Freeman, the magician Gandalf (played by Ian McKellen), Dr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), among others. Born in Barcelona on May 1, 1940, he was considered one of the great voice actors and began his career in 1964 after his studies in La Voz de España and in 1967 he voiced Jim Brown in Twelve of the Gibbet. A career that he completed over more than fifty years as a doubler in more than 2,800 films. Pepe was the Spanish voice of several different actors in over 20 Euro-westerns. He’s probably best remembered as the Spanish voice of Bud Spencer in “Boot Hill”, “Ace High” and “The 5-Man Army”. He was also the voice of James Whitmore in “Chato’s Land”, Eduardo Fajardo in “Companeros” and Claude Akins in “A Man Called Sledge”.


  • WHITE, Ron (Ronald White) - 1953, Dawson Creek, British Colombia, Canada - 4/4/2018, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Canadian actor Ron White died in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on April 4, 2018 after a battle with cancer. He was 65. Ron was born in Dawson Creek, British Colombia, Canada in 1953 and was a hugely celebrated Canadian actor who masterfully moved from stage to screen. Ron appeared in such well-known films and television series as Unforgiven (1992), Heartland (2009) and Nikita (2011). His lone Euro-western was as Ian Forbes in the TV series The Campbells.


  • HERZ, Juraj - 9/4/1934, Kežmarok, Czechoslovakia - 4/8/2018, Prague, Czech Republic

Czech actor and filmmaker Juraj Herz died on April 8, at the age of 83. He became famous after making one of the most important Czechoslovak films, “The Cremator”, in 1968. Herz was born on September 4, 1934 in Kežmarok Czechoslovakia. He studied at a secondary school in Bratislava and at university in Prague, where he stayed and worked at the Semafor Theatre and at the film studios in Barrandov. In 1987 he emigrated to Germany. Herz has made several great films that have become cult movies, like Petrolejové lampy (Oil Lamps, 1971), The Cremator, Ferat Vampire (1981), and Sweet Amusements of Past Summer (1969). His last big movie was Habermann’s Mill (2010). Herz appeared as a poker player in the 1964 Czech western “Lemonade Joe.”


  • OH, Soon-Tek (Sun-tack Oh) - 6/29/1933, Mokpo, Korea - 4/4/2018, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Soon-Tek Oh or Soon-Taik Oh died of Alzheimer’s disease on April 4, 2018. He was 85. Oh came to the United States as a teenager in 1959, studied at UCLA and trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Long associated with the versatile Los Angeles' East-West Players theatre company, Oh has performed on stage everything from Ibsen to Shakespeare. He made his Broadway debut and received great notices for his work in Stephen Sondheim's musical "Pacific Overtures" in 1976. On TV and film, he proved to be a reliable player, notably in action films 007's “The Man with the Golden Gun” (1974) and “Good Guys Wear Black” (1978); existential drama (TV's) “Kung Fu” (1973-1974) and “Kung Fu: The Legend Continues (1993), epic mini-series “Marco Polo” (1982), “East of Eden” (1981)) and most recently a pivotal role in the film “Yellow” (1998), marking the first film by and featuring Korean Americans. He appeared as Hirohi in the 1990-1992 Euro-western TV series ‘Zorro’ starring Duncan Regher.


  • HIGELIN, Jacques - 10/18/1940, Brou-sur-Chantereine, Seine-et-Marne, France - 4/6/2018, Paris, Île-de-France, France

French author, composer, performer, actor, writer and poet Jacques Higelin died in Paris on April 6, 2018. He was 77. His long, almost endless concerts - sometimes more than seven hours at the Cirque d'hiver, in Paris! - were also his trademark. Higelin was born on October 18, 1940 in Brou-sur-Chantereine (Seine-et-Marne) into a modest family. His father was a railwayman. Little Jacques expressed very early the wish to become a singer. At the age of 14, he did not hesitate to present himself at an audition of the cabaret Les Trois Baudets . Then he did his military service in Algeria, then at war, during which he wrote the Letters of Love of a twenty-year-old soldier, published by Grasset in 1987. It was at the cinema that Jacques Higelin, a former student of the Simon course, began his career in 1959. He played in Henri Fabiani's Le bonheur est pour demain . In the early 1960s, he toured with directors Yves Robert ( Bébert and l'Omnibus ) and Roger Leenhardt (A girl in the mountains). But it is music that paces the life of the young actor. "I heard my grandmother sing in the garden. She had a delicious voice. After work, my father went to the piano and accompanied us. [...] I fell asleep to the sound of my dad's harmonica", he says in I do not live my life, I dream (Fayard). A father to whom he dedicates "Parc Montsouris", a superb piano refrain. Jacques appeared as a street singer in 1977’s “Another Man, Another Chance”.


  • ANSPACH, Susan (Susan Florence Anspach) - 11/23/1942, Queens, New York, U.S.A. - 4/2/2018, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Susan Anspach, the radiant and rebellious actress who personified the 1960s-into-the-’70s counterculture in films like “Five Easy Pieces” and “Blume in Love,” as well as in the stage musical “Hair,” died on Monday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 75. Susan Florence Anspach was born in Queens on November 23, 1942, and raised at first by a great-aunt. Because of neglect and physical abuse, Susan left home at 15 and, with a Roman Catholic organization’s help, moved in with a family in Harlem. She received a full scholarship to the Catholic University of America in Washington, where she studied music and drama, and made her professional debut in Thornton Wilder’s one-act play “Pullman Car Hiawatha” at a summer theater in Maryland. Ms. Anspach continued to work in both movies and television until her late 60s. One of her last films was “Wild About Harry” (2009). In addition to her son Caleb Goddard, whose father is Jack Nicholson, she is survived by a daughter, Catherine Goddard, whose father was Steve Curry, an original cast member of “Hair”; three grandchildren; and a brother, Robert Anspach. Anspach appeared as the widow in her only Euro-western “1989’s “Blood Red” starring Dennis Hopper and Giancarlo Giannnni


  • ANOFRIEV, Oleg (Oleg Andreevich Anofriev) - 7/20/1930, Gelendzhik, North Caucasus Krai, R.S.F.S.R., U.S.S.R. - 3/28/2018, Moscow, Russia

Russian film and voice actor and singer Oleg Anofriev died March 28th in Moscow. He was 87. Born Oleg Andreevich Anofriev in Gelendzhik, North Caucasus Krai, R.S.F.S.R., U.S.S.R. on July 20, 1930, Oleg appeared in more than 50 films. The most famous of them were “Scarlet Sails”, “Midshipmen, Forward!” And “Man from the Boulevard des Capucines.” He was most famous for lending his voice to cartoons. His voice was spoken by the characters of the “Bremen Musicians”, “Tales of the Priest and His Worker Balda” and “How the Lion and the Tortoise Sang a Song”, as well as King Louis in the Russian dubbing of the Disney’s “The Jungle Book.” Anofriev also sang one of the most famous Soviet children’s songs and the title theme “Good Night, Kids” – “Sleeping Tired Toys.” Anofriev appeared as the piano player in “A Man from Boulevard des Capucines” 1987.


  • AUDRAN, Stéphane (Colette Suzanne Jeannine Dacheville) - 11/2/1932, Versailles, Yvelines, France - 3/27/2018, France

Stéphane Audran the French screen star of the 1960s, '70s and '80s, has died at the age of 85. Audran won a string of awards including a Bafta for best actress in 1974 for two films, “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” and “Just Before Nightfall”. She was also known for her work with her husband, director Claude Chabrol. The pair made 25 films together during their marriage, which lasted from 1964 to 1980. Audran appeared in only one Euro-western: “Eagle’s Wing” (1979) as the widow.


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