Rolf Tasna

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Rolf Tasna (1920-1997) was a German-Italian actor whose authoritative voice and proficiency in several languages made him in great demand for dubbing, voice-over narrations and radio speaker gigs in Rome throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s. His work as an Italian language dubber has been well documented, but not many are aware that Rolf was also frequently called on to dub in English. With his imposingly resonant voice and his refined and articulate English, tinged with a faint Germanic accent, he sounded like a classical James Bond villain, and he was perfectly cast as a number of bad guys in English dubs of many Italian peplum, Eurospy, horror and WW2 films. In the video below, you can watch clips of some of Rolf’s most famous English dubbing roles:

 



Rolf Tasna was born as Rolf Hohenemser on December 11, 1920 in Braunschweig, Germany. His parents were Ernst Hohenemser (1870-1940), an aphorist and translator, and Helly Steglich-Hohenemser (1892-1977), an art historian and translator. When Rolf was just three years old, the family left Germany and relocated to Rome, Italy, and Rolf grew up as a German-Italian bilingual.

Originally, Rolf did not intend on becoming an actor, but instead graduated with a degree in philosophy. By the early 1950s, however, he had turned to acting and was very busy appearing in films (mostly melodramas), theater productions and radio plays, as well as being a frequent radio speaker and narrator voice for documentaries, which in turn led to much dubbing work. He also appeared in many television productions, with his perfect command of German making him in much demand for various Nazi roles.

 

Rolf in a major villainous role in The Dragon's Blood (1957), based on the epic medieval poem, The Niebelungenslied. An English dub of the film exists, but is unfortunately not available anywhere.

Rolf in one of his many Nazi roles in the TV production L'ammiraglio (1965).

Rolf as a James Bond-style villain in the Eurospy flick The Black Box Affair (1966).


When dubbing American and British films into Italian, Rolf was often cast in leading roles, and according to his credits in the Italian dubbing database Il mondo dei doppiatori, some of the most famous actors he dubbed in Italian include George Sanders in Witness to Murder (1954), Howard Keel in The Day of the Triffids (1961), Charlton Heston in 55 Days at Peking (1963) and John Wayne in Circus World (1964).

When profiled in the TV guide magazine Radiocorriere TV n. 2 (1956), Rolf professed that in addition to speaking Italian and German, he was also fully fluent in both English and French, and that he did dubbing in several languages, specifically citing having narrated the Luciano Emmer documentary Gli eroi dell’Artide, a.k.a. Heroes of the Arctic (1954) in both Italian, German and English. Old newspaper listings show that he also provided the English narration for another Luciano Emmer documentary, Picasso (1954), and it is likely through these narrator jobs that Rolf’s involvement with English dubbing first began.

 

This clipping from the New York newspaper Daily News (December 23, 1955) shows that Rolf provided the English narration for the documentary Picasso (1954).


The earliest English dubbing roles I have found for Rolf are in a string of peplum and swashbuckler adventures from the early to mid-1960s, and his voice would subsequently be featured in many Eurospy, horror and WW2 films. Not all of the English dubbing directors made use of his talents, however, and he seems to have worked primarily in dubs directed by Gene Luotto, Geoffrey Copleston or Lewis E. Ciannelli.

In contrast to his Italian dubbing work, where he often did the male leads, Rolf was almost without exception cast as villains when dubbing in English – perhaps due to the slight Germanic accent with which he always spoke in English. He was always given highly memorable parts, however, and got to dub many famed European actors, such as Georges Marchal, Adolfo Celi, Arnoldo Foà, Rossano Brazzi and Robert Hossein.

 

Rolf dubbed the voice of Adolfo Celi in the English versions of both Master Stroke (1967) and Death Knocks Twice (1968).

Piero Lulli was dubbed into English by Rolf in The Scourge of the Barbarians (1962) and Kill, Baby... Kill! (1966).

Silvano Tranquilli, a notable Italian language dubber in his own right, was dubbed into English by Rolf in Wife Swapping Italian Style (1970) and High Crime (1973).
 

In the peplum adventure Maciste in the Mines of King Solomon (1964), Rolf dubbed the voice of Elio Jotta in both the Italian and the English language version.

  

Rolf even dubbed animated films, notably supplying the English voice of the villain Badli in the Japanese animated fantasy film A Thousand & One Nights (1969).


Here is another video highlighting some of Rolf’s memorable dubbing performances:

 


 

Curiously, Rolf also took part in the English dubbing of several older Italian films such as The Defeat of Hannibal (1937), The Seven Dwarfs to the Rescue (1951) and The Revenge of the Black Eagle (1951), all belatedly dubbed into English the mid-1960s and subsequently exported to the US. Rolf dubs some really great, prominent roles in all of these, examples of which you can watch here:

 


In between dubbing assignments, Rolf also continued to appear on-screen in film and television, including a few English language roles in the two syndicated American TV series Orient Express and Conrad Nagel Theater, both shot in Rome, but unfortunately, the episodes in which he appeared are currently not available anywhere. However, for his on-screen performances in the Italian films The Black Box Affair (1966) and The Devil is a Woman (1974), Rolf dubbed his own voice for the English versions, as you can see in the video below:

 


 

And as a point of comparison, here’s a video of a few of Rolf’s Italian television roles, all shot with live sound, so you can hear him acting in Italian (with a bit of German thrown in here and there):

 


 

Rolf continued to act and dub into the mid-1970s, and then looks to have retired around that time. At the moment, nothing is known about his post-retirement life except that he passed away in Bologna on December 11, 1997, his 77th birthday!

Hopefully, some more details about Rolf’s English dubbing work can be unearthed. If it is, I’ll update this page, and of course the dubbing filmography below, which is, as always, a work in progress.

 

 

English dubbing filmography:

 

- Heroes of the Arctic (1954) - voice of Narrator

- Picasso (1954) - voice of Narrator

- Terror of the Red Mask (1960) - voice of Astolfo (Livio Lorenzon)

- Rampage of Evil (1961) - voice of Count Valcino (Paul Muller)

- The Scourge of the Barbarians (1962) - voice of Manfred (Piero Lulli)

- The Slaughter of the Vampires (1962) - voice of Dr. Nietsch (Luigi Batzella)

- The Triumph of Robin Hood (1962) - voice of Sir Elwyn of Nottingham (Arturo Dominici)

- The Saracens (1963) - voice of Rabanek (Demeter Bitenc)

- The Hyena of London (1964) - voice of Dr. Anthony Finney (Angelo Dessy)

- Maciste in King Solomon’s Mines (1964) - voice of Riad (Elio Jotta)

- The Revenge of the Black Eagle (1951; dubbed circa 1964) - voice of Vladimir Dubrovsky (Rossano Brazzi)

- The Triumph of Hercules (1964) - voice of Milo (Pierre Cressoy)

- Triumph of the Ten Gladiators (1964) - voice of Prince Alimandro (Gianni Di Benedetto)

- Zorikan the Barbarian (1964) - voice of Zorikan (Dan Vadis)

- Operation Counter-Spy (1965) - voice of Karatis (Joaquin Diaz)

- Puss ’n Boots (1955; dubbed circa 1965) - voice of Never Sober (Helmut Ziegner)

- The Seven Dwarfs to the Rescue (1951; dubbed in 1965) - voice of Prince of Darkness (Georges Marchal)

- SuperSeven Calling Cairo (1965) - voice of Alex (Massimo Serato)

- The Defeat of Hannibal (1937; dubbed in the mid-1960s) - voice of Hannibal (Camillo Pilotto)

- Pia of Ptolemy (1958; dubbed in the mid-1960s) - voice of Nello della Pietra (Arnoldo Foà)

- The Big Blackout (1966) - voice of Anton Josipović (Giulio Donnini)

- Kill, Baby... Kill! (1966) - voice of Inspector Kruger (Piero Lulli)

- Requiem for a Secret Agent (1966) - voice of Oscar Rubek (Peter van Eyck)

- Superargo Against Diabolicus (1966) - voice of Diabolicus (Gerard Tichy)

- Master Stroke (1967) - voice of Mr. Bernard (Adolfo Celi)

- Million Dollar Countdown (1967) - voice of The Mystery Man (Claudio Gora)

- Mission Stardust (1967) - voice of Mr. Arkin (Pinkas Braun)

- The Wild Eye (1967) - voice of Paolo (Philippe Leroy)

- Death Knocks Twice (1968) - voice of The Professor (Adolfo Celi)

- The Battle of El Alamein (1969) - voice of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (Robert Hossein)

- The Damned (1969) - voice of Gestapo Officer (Werner Hasselmann)

- Five for Hell (1969) - voice of General Friederich Gerborstadt (unidentified actor)

- The Red Berets (1969) - voice of Captain Brandt (Sieghardt Rupp)

- The War Devils (1969) - voice of Captain Heinrich Meinike (Venantino Venantini)

- Wife Swapping Italian Style (1970) - voice of Diego (Silvano Tranquilli)

- The Archer of Fire (1971) - voice of Baron Rudolf von Battenberg (Antonio Pica)

- The Blonde in the Blue Movie (1971) - voice of Mr. Bosen (Steffen Zacharias)

- The Devil in Maddalena (1971) - voice of Maddalena’s Husband (Ivo Garrani)

- Ben and Charlie (1972) - voice of Kurt van Niessen (Luciano Catenacci)

- Hector the Mighty (1972) - voice of The Lawyer (José Calvo)

- Amarcord (1973) - voice of High School Headmaster (Franco Magno)

- High Crime (1973) - voice of Franco Griva (Silvano Tranquilli)

- The Magnificent Dare Devil (1973) - voice of Grossmann (Glauco Onorato)

 

 

English animation dubbing:

 

- A Thousand & One Nights (1969) - voice of Badli

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