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

• CROCIANI, Raimondo - 1/14/1946, Rome, Lazio, Italy - 6/14/2023, Santa Margherita di Belice, Agrigenter, Sicily, Italy

Italian film editor and director Raimondo Crociani died on June 14th in Santa Margherita di Belice, Agrigenter, Sicily, Italy. He was 77. Raimondo was born in Rome on January 14, 1946 and was a film editor on more than 150 films from 1970 until 2020. He worked as an editor on Terence Hills television series ‘Don Matteo’ in 2000 as well as 1982’s “Banana Joe” starring Bud Spencer. His only Euro-western was a film editor on 1971’s “Judge Roy Bean” starring Robert Hossein and Pierre Perret.

• BERLUSCONI, Silvio - 9/29/1936, Milan, Lombardy, Italy - 6/12/2023, Milan, Lombardy, Italy

Silvio Berlusconi, a media mogul and the longest-serving Italian prime minister in the post-war era, died at age 86 on June 12, 2023 in Milan, Italy. Born in September 29, 1936 in Milan, starting in 1973, Berlusconi first entered the media world by setting up a small cable television company, TeleMilano, to service units built on his Segrate properties. It began transmitting in September the following year. TeleMilano was the first Italian private television channel and later evolved into Canale 5, the first national private TV station. Berlusconi built media group Fininvest into a national force, importing American shows like 'Baywatch' to Italy. He entered politics in the 1990s and was first elected prime minister of Italy in 1994. He was convicted of bribing a former senator in 2015. In 1978, Berlusconi founded his first media group, Fininvest, and joined the Propaganda Due masonic lodge. In the five years leading up to 1983, he earned some 113 billion Italian lire (€58.3 million). The funding sources are still unknown because of a complex system of holding companies, despite investigations conducted by various state attorneys. The three-time prime minister was convicted of tax fraud in 2014 and was initially banned from running for political office until 2019. An Italian court lifted the ban in May 2018, and Berlusconi won a seat in the European Parliament the following year. In September 2022, he returned to the Italian Senate. His fortune, which he shared with his five children, included stakes in media, publishing and banking firms. Berlusconi produced “Lucky Luke the Movie” (1991); ‘Lucky Luke the Series’ (TV) (1991-92); “Call of the Wild” (1992), “Jonathan of the Bears” (1994).

• POWELL, Dennis 'Dinny' - 7/27/1932 Camberwell, London, U.K. – 6/6/2023, London, England, U.K.

Stuntman, actor Dennis ‘Dinny’ Powell died in London, England on June 6, 2023. He was 91. The brother of stuntman, actor Nosher Powell [1928-2013], Dinny was born in Camberwell, London, England on July 27, 1932. The brothers started out as boxers but as the Film and TV business started to flourish in the late 1950s and early 1960s Dinny and Nosher found themselves in demand. The Powell family are from solid stock. Both Nosher and Dinny were imposing characters and were often cast as heavies in TV series like ‘The Avengers’, ‘The Saint’ and ‘Danger Man’. These early performances gave them Equity union status and the doors were open for the future. They also had the benefit of horsemanship on their side. Firstly, they were in westerns like “For a Few Dollars More” and major films such as “You Can’t Win ‘Em All” with Tony Curtis and Charles Bronson, and then the world of jousting came calling. The thing with being a fine horseman who is a film and television stuntman, is you don’t have opportunity to use this ability all the time. A jousting troupe was set up by fellow stuntman Max Diamond which employed the services of everyone who could ride. They not only got to create and perform great sword fights and fall off horses. Tours of the US and Australia became not only a great adventure, but was also a sort of, promotional exercise for the UK stuntmen. He’s remembered as the guy in “Superman II”, who is thrown through the wall by General Zod after he threatened Ursa. Even more memorable was his appearance as a bodyguard in the movie “Revenge of the Pink Panther”. With over 135 credits to his name Dinny was a remarkable man. He appeared in four Euro-westerns: “For a Few Dollars More” (1965) [stunts]; “Sky Bandits” – (1986) [stunts]; “The New Zorro” (TV) (1990) and “Red Dwarf: Gunmen of the Apocalypse” (TV) (1993) as Famine.

• 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