Dubbed in Rome

  Being a ‘dubbing detective’ can oftentimes be a very complicated job. It takes a lot of time, effort and patience to familiarize yourself with a voice to the point that you can trust yourself to be able to positively pick it out in any and all types of roles. And that’s just one part of it! There are many other challenges one is frequently faced with when doing research on dubbing, and one of them is trying to pinpoint exactly when a given dub was actually recorded. Now, a lot of the time, English dubs in Rome were recorded in close proximity with the original production of the films, but there are also several examples of dubs which were recorded up to several years after the film was originally made. Sometimes, because an actor in the film who was unknown at the time of production later ended up becoming famous and thus greatly increasing the film’s marketability. Other times because a certain type of film became very popular; prompting producers to try to make some money o...

    Leslie La Penna is an Italian-American dubbing actor/director who has been active in the Roman dubbing industry ever since the 1960s, having worked extensively with both English and Italian dubbing. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, then his very deep and resonant voice surely will, as Leslie can be heard in the English versions of just about every single Italian low-budget horror and action film made during the 1980s and 90s. Just take a look at the video below, which contains clips from a few of Leslie’s most famous English dubbing roles:     Born as Leslie James La Penna in Rome on May 13, 1954, Leslie's parents were the legendary American dubbing actor/director Tony La Penna and his Italian actress wife Natalia Rai. At the time, Tony was already a well-established name on the English dubbing scene, having played a big part in building up the English dubbing industry in Rome since its meager beginnings in the late 1940s.   Leslie's parents, Natalia...