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Showing posts from April, 2023

Interview with John Gayford

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    Back in 2017, I had the great privilege of getting to know the great dubbing actor, writer and director John Gayford (1933-2021), who spent 40-something years working in the English dubbing industry in Rome. John very kindly agreed to answer my various dubbing-related questions, and I think his wonderful recollections will be of much interest to other fans of English dubbing, so here I present the online conversations we conducted during October-November 2017.   Johan Melle: Hi, John. Thanks so much for agreeing to talk to be about your career. I greatly appreciate that. Now, first of all, I would like to ensure that I’ve correctly identified your voice. I made a little clip from the English version of the film Mark il poliziotto (1975). Can you confirm if that’s you dubbing the voice of Giorgio Albertazzi in this clip?     John Gayford: Yes, what a surprise, confirmed. I’d forgotten all about it, but I adapted the dialog for the dubbing. They’re ...

People you didn't know dubbed: Lois Maxwell

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    Throughout the glory years of the Italian film industry, many an English or American actor in Rome found themselves earning a bit of extra cash by doing dubbing work. Even a famous actor like Orson Welles took occasional dubbing jobs in Rome (and elsewhere) to earn some money for his own film projects. Another well-known name that once used to work in the dubbing salas of Rome was Lois Maxwell (1927-2007), the Canadian-born actress renowned for having played the role of Miss Moneypenny in the first fourteen James Bond films, starting with Dr. No (1962) and ending with A View to a Kill (1985). The role of Moneypenny was always a small one, but the flirtatious interactions between her and Bond, and their often outrageous sexual double entendres were big favorites with the movie-goers, and has ensured Maxwell her rightful place in movie history.   Lois Maxwell in her signature role as Miss Moneypenny. Here with Sean Connery in From Russia with Love (1963).   ...