Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Remembering Emilio Cigoli

Born Emilio Cigoli on November 18, 1909,in Livorno, Italy, he was the son of actress Giovanna Cigoli. He began his career in the theater and then entered film as an actor but was relegated to small supporting roles. Because of his deep baritone voice he was recruited to become a voice dubber in 1936 and the first member and stockholder of CDC (Cooperative Film Dubbing). Along with his brother-in-law Giulio Panicali and Gualtiero De Angelis he became “the king of dubbing” from the 1940s to 1960s. It is estimated he dubbed over 7000 films over a 40 year period. In 1966 he left CDC and joined SAS which caused quite a bit of confusion to Italian theater goers who now heard a different voice come out of the mouths of such American actors as John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck, William Holden, Burt Lancaster and Charlton Heston. He was married to dubbing director and dubber Giovanna Garatti and worked continuously until his death on November 7, 1980 in Rome. Cigoli dubbed the Italian voice of Lee Van Cleef in “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and “Beyond the Law”. He was the voice of Gordon Mitchell in “3 Graves for a Winchester”, Chuck Connors in “Kill Them all and Come Back Alone” and James Coburn in “Massacre at Fort Holman”. Today we remember him on what would have been his 100th birthday.

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