Though speaking several languages (a bit German, French, Spanish and Italian, the latter nearly without any accent) Lex Barker was always dubbed in European movies. In Germany the only chance of hearing his original voice is to buy his CD, to listen to our Soundbites or to search for one of his rarely available American movies.
Nevertheless his voice is worth being heard as it's deeper than those of all his dubbing actors (as it is with many american actors) and very sonorous.
Gert
Günther Hoffmann (1929 - 1997) dubbed Lex in nearly every movie in the
60ies. His voice is very familiar to German viewers. He usually dubbed for
example Sean Connery, William Shatner and Rock Hudson. He has been well known in
Germany mainly because of the series "Sonderdezernat K1". He died in 1997 at the
age of 68.
Horst
Niendorf (1926 - 1999) was often heard as a dubbing actor, he dubbed for
example several times Burt Lancaster, Robert Mitchum, and Gene Hackman,
sometimes Rod Taylor and George Kennedy. Horst Niendorf died in 1999.
Heinz
Engelmann (1911 - 1996) was well known in Germany because of the series
"Stahlnetz". I could just once identify him as Lex's speaker. He also dubbed
Stewart Granger in "Unter Geiern" and "Old Surehand". He was also the German
voice of John Wayne, Gary Cooper and William Holden. BTW: he dubbed Randolph
Scott in "Thunder over the Plains" and some more movies. He died in
1996.
Siegmar Schneider (1916 - 1995). He was the standard speaker for James Stewart.
Wolf Ackva
(1911 - 2000) dubbed for example "M" in many James Bond movies. Sometimes he
dubbed Gregory Peck, Richard Widmark, Clark Gable and William Holden. He dubbed
Ray Milland in many of his later films.
Wolfgang
Preiss (1910 - 2002) played many officer roles, for example Count of
Stauffenberg and others. He played opposite Lex in the "Mabuse" movies (see "Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse",
"Die unsichtbaren Krallen des Dr. Mabuse") and in "Mr. Dynamit - Morgen küßt Euch der Tod". In
the 50ies he sometimes spoke for Claude Rains and Ken Curtis.
see hint below!
Rainer
Brandt (born in 1936) has got an own dubbing studio. He translated for
example the series "The Persuaders". He spoke Tony Curtis as Danny Wilde in this
series and among a lot of further dubbings (Elvis Presley at least 14 times and
Jean-Paul Belmondo in newer productions) spoke Mario Adorf in "Apache Gold".
Günter Grabbert (born in 1931) was a well known actor in
the former DDR and is still active in TV roles today.
Reinhard
Glemnitz (born in 1930) has been working as a dubbing actor since more than
40 years. He dubbed among others Gérard Barray and Guy Madison. He is
well known in Germany from TV, mainly as Assistant Robert Heines in TV-series
"Der Kommissar".
Axel
Monjé (1910 - 1962) spoke many Hollywood top stars, for example Rock
Hudson, Errol Flynn, Mario Lanza and Robert Taylor. He spoke Jock Mahoney, too,
who b.t.w. played with Lex in "Away All Boats". Monjé died in 1962 on
stage.
see
hint below!
Claus
Jurichs (1935 - 2005) was a dubbing actor for many years; his best known
role was Ken Kercheval as “Cliff Barnes” in the TV-series
“Dallas”.
Holger Hagen
(1915 - 1996) was very well known, too. To his major roles belonged Burt
Lancaster and Richard Burton, besides he dubbed Marcello Mastroianni, Dean
Martin, David Janssen and many others. He died in 1997.
Wolfgang Eichberger (1911 - 1963), could often be heard up to
his untimely death. He dubbed mainly supporting roles, but sometimes well known
stars as well like Randolph Scott, Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum. He played
for example in the movie "Der 20. Juli".
see hint below!
Horst Naumann
(1925 - 2024) is to be seen in the "Schwarzwaldklinik" and "Traumschiff", where
he played the ship's doctor (until 2010), a role that was earlier played by Holger Hagen. Besides he can often be heard as a dubbing
actor, he dubbed for example Sean Connery in "Camelot". In the series “The
Prisoner” he spoke for leading actor Patrick McGoohan.
Peter
Pasetti (1916 - 1996) was a prominent movie- and theatre actor who also
worked as a dubbing actor mainly in the fifties. Some of his dubbing roles are
for example Humphrey Bogart, Victor Mature, Gary Cooper and John Wayne.
Ernst
Meincke (born in 1942) followed Rolf Schult in dubbing Patrick Stewart as
Captain Picard in the TV series "Star Trek - the next Generation". Besides he
can be seen as an actor in some TV series.
Klaus
Guth (born in 1940) often appears in TV series, but every now and then he
dubbs, for example for John Cleese, Leslie Nielsen and Christopher Plummer.
Reinhard Kolldehoff (1914 - 1995) was to be seen in numerous
movies, mainly in supporting roles. In the 50s to 70s he could often be heard as
a dubbing actor.
Reent
Reins (born in 1946), known from many TV series, is mainly known as a
dubbing actor for Don Johnson in "Miami Vice" and "Nash Bridges".
Gunnar Helm
(born in 1956) is an experienced actor and dubbed Peter Wingfield in
“Highlander” and David Morse in “The Rock” for example.
Herbert Stass
(1919 - 1999) did dubbing work since the early fifties and was standard speaker
for Tony Curtis for a long time. Besides he dubbed Dirk Bogarde and Frank
Sinatra for example. In the first Karl-May-movie he spoke for Pierre Brice.
see hint below!
Hartmut Reck
(1932 - 2001) was a dubbing professionell who dubbed for example Richard
Chamberlain ("The Thornbirds") and many other stars like Terence Hill, Richard Widmark, Robert Duvall, Anthony Hopkins and Donald Sutherland. Futhermore he was well known for his role as an inspector in the detective series "Die Männer vom K3".
Lutz
Mackensy (born in 1944) has a lot of dubbing experience since the late
sixties. He often dubbed Al Pacino and other stars, but does a lot of acting,
too, for example in the German series "Großstadtrevier".
Michael
Telloke (1945 - 2010) was a highly experienced actor and dubbing actor who
dubbed among others Lance Hendriksen in the TV series "Millennium"
and David Canary as "Candy" in the TV series "Bonanza". He spoke for Alec Baldwin and Alan Rickman and many other well known actors.
Michael Telloke passed away in May 2010.
Manfred
Meurer (1908 - 1979) was mainly a theatre actor, but played in movies as well. He started his work as a dubbing actor in 1949, so "Return of the Bad Men" must have been one of his first works - albeit as one of three dubbing actors (see movie description). Meurer was mainly chosen for supporting characters, he dubbed for example Jack Elam, Lee Marvin and Boris Karloff. Meurer spoke minor roles in the Karl-May-movies "Der Schut" and "The Desperado Trail ".
see hint below!
Lutz Schnell (born in 1960) played theatre roles even as a child. He visited a theatrical school and played in famous movie "Das Boot" in 1980. Later he could often be seen in German TV series as "SOKO 5113", "Die Männer vom K3" and "Die Sturmflut". Since some years he did mainly dubbing and radio plays. He dubbed for example Leland Orser ("Emergency Room" and "Twisted"), Val Kilmer, Dennis Quaid,
Antonio Banderas and Sam Rockwell.
Ulli Kinalzik (born in 1939) is well known from movies and TV where he played the leading role in "Hafendetektiv" and guest roles for example in "Tatort", "Derrick", "Der Alte" and "Ein Fall für zwei". He worked as an dubbing actor, too. He dubbed for example Viggo Mortensen and Peter O'Toole. He even played in the open air theatre of Bad Segeberg in the famous Karl-May plays.
Klaus Nietz (born in 1943) has been an actor, radio speaker and dubbing actor in the former GDR and continues his career successfully since the reunion of the German states. He spoke for example for David Ogden Stiers in the TV series "The Dead Zone" and for Martin Landau in the DVD dubbing of some formerly deleted scenes of the classic TV series "Mission: Impossible". He had numerous guest
appearances in German TV shows.
Heinz Behrens (born in 1932) worked successfully as an actor in both German states. In the former GDR, where he worked additionally as a dubbing actor, he had several guest appearances in popular TV shows.
Wolf Frass (born in 1948) worked as an actor on several TV productions (u.a. "Tatort" and "Großstadtrevier") and does radio plays and audio books. Additionally he works as a dubbing actor, for example for Rutger Hauer, Nick Nolte and Michael Ironside.
Interesting:
In the film "Der 20. Juli" from 1955 there are five actors who spoke for Lex Barker: Wolfgang Eichberger, Manfred Meurer, Axel Monjé, Wolfgang Preiss and Herbert Stass.
For those who are interested in learning more about dubbing and dubbing actors here are some very informative infos:
(Last updated: 02-02-2022)
Sound file with Lex' German dubbing actor
link to page Soundbites with Lex' own voice
Some of the Karl-May-movies with Lex were shown in other countries, too. Though while shooting Lex spoke English the other actors spoke German or their native languages so the movies had to be dubbed anyway.
Now that Universum-Film released some movies in German and English (see "Books and more") it would be interesting to know whether Lex dubbed himself in the English versions of these movies. I got the following information from different sources:
According to Universum-Film Lex didn't dubb himself but they have no sure information on this.
Rialto told me that there is no information available concerning dubbing of the Karl-May movies. The dubbing studios and Rialto's partner do no longer exist, so it will be up to us to decide by hearing the English version whether Lex dubbed himself or not.
After watching and hearing the Universum boxes I came to the following conclusion:
Lex did probably dubb himself in the English version of these films! Only in "Treasure of Silver Lake" I have severe doubts about Lex dubbing himself, in the other movies I'm sure about hearing Lex' own voice here! Please judge by yourself here. By the way: Lex dubbed himself in the movie (not included in these boxes!) "Old Shatterhand"!
Addition May 2015: according to new information Lex was definitely dubbed by someone else in the english version of "Treasure of Silver Lake"
These movies being the only ones I have in English I can only judge these. Now this is the list of movies in which Lex most likely dubbed himself in the English version:
In this movie Lex is dubbed by an English dubbing actor, he didn't speak himself! (See biography by Reiner Boller). You can find some sound files in the movie description.
Additional information to this most interesting topic would be most welcome!
As far as I know Lex spoke Italian very well, but it was the usual practice in Italy to dubb each movie so all of his movies were dubbed with different voices. Unfortunately I don't know anything about his dubbing actors.
A Barker fan told me that in the Czech Republic Lex had been dubbed by the same actor Vladimír Ráž in all of his movies. Ráž was born on 1st July 1923 and passed away on 4th July 2000. In imdb you can see his filmography.
Addition October 2015: There's a great Czech homepage about the Karl May films karel-may.majerco.net. Here most German dubbing actors are listed, mostly with sound files. Click on the movie title in the table.
On YouTube you can see part of Apache Gold, with Vladimír Ráž speaking for Lex Barker.
Many thanks to pholcmann for the information on these videos!
In Poland Lex was mainly dubbed by actor Mariusz Dmochowski (1930-1992), who
had a strong deep voice which helped to make Lex even more popular.
Unfortunately all movie copies are lost so I am sorry I can't provide you with a sound file of a Lex movie, but I got a sound file just to demonstrate his voice (no dubbing!) from Urszula:
(186 Kb)
Here you can see pictures of Mariusz Dmochowski:
www.filmweb.pl/o8674/Mariusz+Dmochowski
www.filmpolski.pl/fp/index.php/111523
www.filmpolski.pl/fp/index.php/141523
In some movies Lex has been dubbed by Stanislaw Zaczyk, unfortunately I have no information on the kind of movies. Some information on Zaczyk can be found here:
http://fdb.pl/osoba/54785-stanislaw-zaczyk
Sound file to demonstrate his voice (no dubbing!): (56 Kb)
Many thanks to Urszula for this information!
I only have one information on a Spanish dubbing, and that's "Aoom". Lex spoke English while shooting the movie but was later dubbed in Spanish. Soundfile see here.
I want to thank everyone who contributed to Lex' dubbing informations, most of them I got from Jürgen!
Additionally I want to thank everyone who added pictures to this site!
I appreciate any information on Lex Barker's dubbing actors! Please write to
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Print version | Last edited on: 02.02.2022 |