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

• BRAND, Peter - 8/1/1937, Gera, Thuringia, Germany - 4/10/2023, Potsdam, Berlin, Germany

DEFA Stiftung is reporting in their June newsletter that cinematographer Peter Brand passed away on April 12, 2023, in Potsdam, Berlin, Germany. He was 85. Born in Gera, Thuringia, Germany on August 1, 1937, Brand worked on 38 films from 1963 to 1999 in both films and television. Among his best remembered films are “Das unsichtbare Visier” (1973), “Der fliegende Holländer” (1964) and “Sabine Wulff” (1978). Brand was the cinematographer on one Euro-western 1985’s “Atkins” starring Oleg Borisov and Peter Zimmermann.

• CUADRRON, Franky (Frank J. Cuadrron) - 19??, Spain - 6/1/2023, Spain

Spanish film actor Frank ‘Franky J. Cuadrrón died on June 1, 2023 in Spain (age unknown). Franky was part of the new generation of film characters who have participated in a revival of Spanish Spaghetti westerns, many produced and directed by Dirk Roche. Franky appeared in at least four recent film productions that I am aware of “Old Wolves of Autumn” 2016 as a doctor; “Botas de Sangre” 2017; “A Bastard, a City and the Dead” as ‘The Major’ and “Recompensa” in 2022.

• CALDERON, Sergio - 7/21/1945, Coatlan del Rio, Morelos, Mexico - 5/31/2023, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Sergio Calderón, the amiable Mexican character actor who made his mark in such notable films as “The In-Laws”, “Men in Black” and “Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End:, died on May 31st. He was 77. Calderón portrayed a Mexican revolutionary at the turn of the 20th century in “Duck, You Sucker!” (1971), by Sergio Leone, and was a murderous Mexican chief of police opposite Albert Finney in John Huston’s “Under the Volcano” (1984). Born on July 21, 1945, Calderón moved from his home in a tropical village to Mexico City when he was 10 and studied at the Instituto Andrés Soler of the Asociación Nacional de Actores. He then made his onscreen debut in “The Bridge in the Jungle” (1970), starring John Huston. Among the three dozen or so films on his résumé were “The Revengers” (1972), “The Children of Sánchez” (1978), “Old Gringo” (1989), “The Missing” (2003), “The Ruins” (2008) and “Little Fockers” (2010). He also showed up on the final season of the FX series ‘Better Things’ last year. Sergio appeared in two European westerns the previously mentioned “Duck You Sucker” in 1971 as a Mexican Revolutionary and in 1988’s “Blood Red” as Perez

• MAHARIS, George (George Maharias) - 9/1/1928, Astoria, New York, U.S.A. - 5/24/2023, Beverly Hills, California, U.S.A.

RIP George Maharis George Maharis, who starred as the brooding Buz Murdock on Route 66 before he quit the acclaimed 1960s CBS drama after contracting hepatitis, has died. He was 94. Born George Maharias on September 1, 1928, in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York, one of seven children to Greek immigrants. He attended Flushing High School and spent 18 months with the U.S. Marines. He aspired to become a singer but became interested in acting and studied with Sanford Meisner and Lee Strasberg at The Actors Studio, then did a parody of fellow Method actor Marlon Brando on the NBC comedy Mister Peepers in 1955. Maharis died May 24th at his home in Beverly Hills. George appeared in only two westerns both Spaghetti westerns in 1969: “The Desperados!” as Jacob Galt and “Land Raiders” as Pablo Cardenas.

• BROWN, Jim (James Nathaniel Brown) 2/17/1936, St. Simons Island, Georgia, U.S.A. - 5/18/2023, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Jim Brown, the NFL titan who appeared in “The Dirty Dozen,” a number of Blaxploitation films and Oliver Stone’s “Any Given Sunday,” The Running Man,” Tim Burton’s “Mars Attacks” and Spike Lee’s “He Got Game,” to name a few films, died May 18, 2023 in Los Angeles. He was 87. In nine extraordinary seasons as a fullback with the Cleveland Browns, Brown set an array of NFL records. In 2002 the Sporting News named him the greatest professional football player ever. That phenomenal athleticism and a charismatic personality made him bankable as the first African American action star. The 1969 Western “100 Rifles” starred Brown as an Arizona lawman who ventures into Mexico to find Burt Reynolds’ Yaqui Joe, a Native American who robbed a bank to buy rifles for his people. There he tangles with a beautiful native leader played by sex symbol of the day Raquel Welch; much was made in the press of the interracial love scene featuring Brown and Welch, but Brown apparently grew impatient with the actress because of the control her people exerted over the film. “When I’m on a picture,” he told Ebert at the time, “I have two bosses, the director and the producer. My co-star is not my boss.” Brown also starred opposite Lee Van Cleef in three Spaghetti westerns: “El Condor.”, “Take a Hard Ride” and “Kid Vengeance”.

• AUSTIN, Ray (Raymond John DeVere Austin) - 12/3/1932, London, England, U.K. - 5/17/2023, Earlysville, Virginia, U.S.A.

British born producer, director, stuntman and coordinator Ray Austin died at his home in Earlysville, Virginia on May 17, 2023. He was 90 years old. Born in London on December 3, 1932. He started his career as a stunt performer on such films as “North by Northwest” (1959) and “Spartacus” (1960). From 1965 to 1967 he served as stunt coordinator on 50 episodes of “The Avengers”. For The Champions he initially became involved as a second unit director, subsequently rising to the position of full director. His work as a television director included episodes of “The Avengers” (1968), “Space: 1999” (1975–1976), “The New Avengers” (1976–1977), and “V” (1984). He directed 50 of the 88 episodes of the Euro-western series ‘Zorro’, which was filmed in Madrid between 1989 and 1992 for the American ABC Family Channel. He has also directed some made-for-TV films, including “The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.” (1983), and some feature films such as “Virgin Witch” (1972) and “House of the Living Dead” (1974). Austin was married from 1976 to actress Yasuko Nagazumi, who performed in some of the series he worked on, notably ‘Space: 1999’. He later divorced Nagazumi and married British producer and writer Wendy DeVere Knight-Wilton in 1984.