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Ted Rusoff

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Ted Rusoff
Born(1939-05-20)May 20, 1939
Winnipeg, Manitoba
DiedSeptember 28, 2013(2013-09-28) (aged 74)
Rome, Italy
Occupation(s)Actor, voice over artist, director, screenwriter

Ted Rusoff (May 20, 1939 – September 28, 2013)[1][2] was a Canadian voiceover artist, actor, vocal coach, and translator specializing in the adaptation and translation from and into various languages of synchronized dialogue for the dubbing of films and cartoons.[3] Highly prolific with over 100 credits to his name, Rusoff is best remembered for his work adapting and performing English-language dialogue for countless Italian genre films.

As an actor, he had appeared in more than 70 films. Fluent in many languages, he is often called upon for work as language/accent/dialogue consultant for dubbings, theater, and cinema. He has worked many times as a stage-director for regular plays and as stage-director and music-coach for opera in houses in Marseilles, Copenhagen, Munich, Prague, Riga, Montevideo, Tokyo, Auckland, and elsewhere. He has been active as a choral director, known for his "Liebslieder Waltzes" and other choral masterpieces by Brahms, as well as the music of composers of the Baroque period.

Life and career

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Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Rusoff was the son of screenwriter and film producer Lou Rusoff[3] and the nephew of Samuel Z. Arkoff,[4] the head of American International Pictures. Rusoff started his career as a singer, appearing in operas, musical comedies, and on the road in various cities in Canada and the United States with his guitar during the folk-singing boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s. He specialized in foreign language songs, including Ghanaian and Māori. He also appeared in nearly all the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, acting in a wide variety of roles. He toured with a trio called The Catch Club, along with his fellow music students from UCLA, David Reznick and Larry Pack. They sang catches, or rounds, from the English Restoration period, and appeared throughout North America whilst recording an album.

In 1963, he relocated to Europe, where using his knowledge of languages, began overseeing the dubbing of English-language AIP films into Italian, French, and German. Since then, he has worked as sync-adapter and dubbing director of more than 500 films, and as a dubber his voice can be heard in more than 1000 films, providing the voice for numerous leading men as well as many villains in a number of Italian cult favorites such as The Whip and the Body (1963), Deep Red (1975), Beyond the Darkness (1979) and many others. He has also worked extensively dubbing films into Italian and French, often supplying foreign languages or accents. As a dubbing director he is known for his extensive work for the English-language versions of foreign – predominantly Italian – films. He has also sync-adapted, acted in, and directed the dubbing of films shot in Turkish, Finnish, Greek, Danish, Hebrew, and Korean as well as the standard European cinema languages.

Since the early 1980s, Rusoff has also done much work as an actor in film and television. He started out with supporting roles – often playing authority figures or religious characters such as priests, rabbis or monks. His earliest film roles were in Joe d'Amato's horror film Absurd (1981) and in Marco Ferreri's Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981), based on the works of Charles Bukowski, and Franco Zeffirelli's La Traviata (1983) alongside Plácido Domingo. He also acted together with his wife, Carolyn De Fonseca, in the Pia Zadora starring vehicle The Lonely Lady (1983), and he and De Fonseca played husband and wife, the parents of Mussolini's mistress Claretta Petacci in the TV miniseries Mussolini and I (1985), with Bob Hoskins in the title role.

Throughout the rest of the 1980s and 1990s, Rusoff acted in low-budget B-movies such as Catacombs (1988), where he plays a monk; Sinbad of the Seven Seas (1989) with Lou Ferrigno, where he plays the keeper of the torture chamber; and the Jean-Claude Van Damme flick Double Team (1997), where he plays a hacking-inclined Italian monk. However, he also had roles in many acclaimed films such as Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), alongside Max von Sydow in the TV movie A Violent Life (1991), in which he played Pope Paul III, Tinto Brass' The Voyeur (1994) and, in a film about the life of Pope John XXIII, The Good Pope (2002), as a rabbi working with the future Pope Angelo Roncalli in his efforts to free a shipload of Jews in Istanbul and send them to Israel. Rusoff also played the Chief Elder in Mel Gibson's controversial Biblical epic The Passion of the Christ (2004) and Julius Caesar's Greek slave Strabo in the popular HBO series Rome (2005–2007).

Personal life

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Rusoff was married to his long-time colleague, voice actress Carolyn De Fonseca, until her death in 2009.[4] He died in Rome, Italy, on September 28, 2013, more than a month after being hit by car.[2]

List of dubbing roles (incomplete)

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Year Title Role Actor
1963 The Whip and the Body Christian Menliff Tony Kendall
1965 Bloody Pit of Horror Raul Alberto Giordini
1967 Gamera vs. Gyaos Shiro Tsutsumi Kojiro Hongo
1967 Yongary, Monster from the Deep Ilo Oh Yeong-il
1967–1968 Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot Jerry Mano Akio Ito
1968 The Battle of El Alamein Lt. Giorgio Borri Frederick Stafford
1968 Destroy All Monsters Dr. Otani Yoshio Tsuchiya
1968 The Great Silence Outlaw Guido Simoni
1969 The Red Tent Snowblind Di Nobile Crewmember Donatas Banionis
1969 Machine Gun McCain Rocco Mino Cuspisi
1969 Battle of the Last Panzer Lt. Hunter Stelvio Rosi
1969 Naked Violence Marco Gianfranco Pellegrini
1970 Shadow of Illusion Seth Antonio Cantafora
1970 When the Bell Tolls Tego Gino Turini
1970 And God Said to Cain Gary Hamilton Klaus Kinski
1971 The Bloodstained Butterfly Police Inspector Silvano Tranquilli
1971 The Cannibal Man Marcos Vicente Parra
1971 Four Pistols for Trinity Quinn Paradine Umberto Raho
1971 Slaughter Hotel Dr. Francis Clay Klaus Kinski
1971 The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh George Corro George Hilton
1972 The Case of the Bloody Iris Andrea Barto George Hilton
1972 Death Walks at Midnight Gio Baldi Simón Andreu
1972 Milano Calibro 9 Chino Philippe Leroy
1972 The Red Queen Kills Seven Times Police Inspector Marino Masé
1972 Shadows Unseen The Priest Renato Romano
1972 Shadows Unseen Sgt. Mortesi Elio Zamuto
1973 Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye Dr. Franz Anton Diffring
1973 The Violent Professionals Vice-Commissioner Del Buono Chris Avram
1974 Almost Human Grandi's Assistant Mario Piave
1974 Beyond the Door Robert Barrett Gabriele Lavia
1974 The Eerie Midnight Horror Show Carlo Gianrico Tondinelli
1974 Identikit Police Inspector Maurizio Bonuglia
1974 The Last Desperate Hours Paolo Mancuso Antonio Sabàto
1975 Deep Red Superintendent Calcabrini Eros Pagni
1975 Eyeball Martinez Raf Baldassarre
1975 Syndicate Sadists Pino Scalia Mario Piave
1976 Apache Woman Tommy Al Cliver
1976 The Big Racket Sgt. Salvatore Velasci Sal Borgese
1976 Black Emanuelle 2 Paul Angelo Infanti
1976 Colt 38 Special Squad Inspector Vanni Marcel Bozzuffi
1976 Last Orgy of the Third Reich Camp Doctor Fulvio Ricciardi
1976 The Last Round Rico Manzetti Luc Merenda
1976 Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man Fred Marc Porel
1976 My Father's Wife Claudio Cesare Barro
1976 Plot of Fear Chief Inspector Tom Skerritt
1976 SS Camp 5 – Women's Hell Dr. Karl ?
1977 Death Hunt Inspector Ettore Moretti Al Cliver
1977 Fearless Walter 'Wally' Spada Maurizio Merli
1977 Suspiria Police Inspector ?
1977 The Desert Tigers Major Lexman Richard Harrison
1977 The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist Munition Expert ?
1977 Return of the 38 Gang Commissioner Gino Varelli Antonio Sabàto
1978 Blazing Flowers Commissioner Morani George Hilton
1978 Killer Nun Dr. Patrick Roland Joe Dallesandro
1978 Being Twenty Inspector Zambo Giorgio Bracardi
1978 The Uranium conspiracy Renzo Fabio Testi
1979 Beyond the Darkness Frank Wyler Kieran Canter
1979 Escape from Hell Dr. Farrell Anthony Steffen
1979 From Corleone to Brooklyn Lt. Danova Venantino Venantini
1979 Hotel Paradise Juan Laredo Anthony Steffen
1979 Terror Express Mike Venantino Venantini
1980 Anthropophagus Andy Saverio Vallone
1980 Cannibal Apocalypse Dr. Phil Mendez Ramiro Olivares
1980 Contamination Dr. Hilton Mike Morris
1980 Erotic Nights of the Living Dead Larry O'Hara George Eastman
1980 Hell of the Living Dead Vincent Selan Karay
1980 Inferno John the butler Leopoldo Mastelloni
1980 The Rebel Nick Rossi Maurizio Merli
1981 Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror Mark Gianluigi Chirizzi
1981 Piranha 2: The Spawning Initial Victim ?
1981 The House by the Cemetery Mr. Wheatley Carlo De Mejo
1982 Nathalie Stanley Warren Roger Beach
1982 Panic Captain Kirk David Warbeck
1982 Pieces Professor Arthur Brown Jack Taylor
1982 The Sword of the Barbarians Sangraal Pietro Torrisi
1982 Violence in a Women's Prison Chief Inspector Jacques Stany
1983 The Ark of the Sun God Prince Abdullah Aytekin Akkaya
1983 Escape from the Bronx Governor Biddle ?
1983 The Final Executioner Alan Tanner William Mang
1983 Hercules Valcheus Gianni Garko
1983 Rats: Night of Terror Kurt Ottaviano Dell'Acqua
1983 Rush Rush Conrad Nichols
1983 Throne of Fire Siegfried Pietro Torrisi
1983 Emanuelle Escapes from Hell Crazy Boy Henderson Gabriele Tinti
1984 Monster Dog Vincent Raven Alice Cooper
1984 Rage – Fuoco incrociato Rage Conrad Nicols
1984 Monster Shark Dr. Davis Barker Lawrence Morgant
1985 Jungle Raiders Tiger Protacio Dee
1985 Miami Golem Craig Milford David Warbeck
1986 Bridge to Hell Pazilbo Carlo Mucari
1986 Days of Hell Captain Williamson Conrad Nichols
1987 The Cross of Seven Jewels Marco Sartori Marco Antonio Andolfi
1987 Wartime Captain Rosen Peter Hooten
1988 After Death David Massimo Vanni
1988 Ratman Fred David Warbeck
1988 Touch of Death Lester Parson Brett Halsey
1988 Zombi 3 General Morton Mike Monty
1989 Alien From the Deep Bob Daniel Bosch
1989 The House of Lost Souls Massimo Matteo Gazzolo
1989 The House of Witchcraft Luke Palmer Andy J. Forest
1995 The Strange Story of Olga O. Paolo Roli David Brandon
1996 Fatal Frames Calzetta Massimo Pittarello
2003 Cannibal World Bob Manson Claudio Morales
2003 Land of Death Romero Claudio Morales
2003 Snuff Trap Peter Carlo Mucari
2011 The Scarlet Worm Print's Attorney Offscreen

Filmography

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Year Title Role Notes
1956 Runaway Daughters Teenager in Crowd
1981 Tales of Ordinary Madness Priest Uncredited
1981 Absurd Dr. Kramer
1983 The Lonely Lady Preacher
1988 Catacombs Brother Brandt
1988 The Last Temptation of Christ Crowd Member Voice
1988 Stradivari 2nd Dignitary
1989 Sinbad of the Seven Seas Torture Chamber Keeper Uncredited
1989 La morte è di moda Rizzo's Friend Uncredited
1990 Una vita scellerata Alessandro Farnese / Pope Alexander III
1994 The Voyeur The Parking Attendant
1997 Double Team Brother Ramulu
1997 The Eighteenth Angel Benedetti
2004 The Passion of the Christ Elder No. 7
2004 Eternal Italian Bookshop Owner
2006 The Nativity Story Old Shepherd
2009 Christine Cristina Frate Severino
2011 The Scarlet Worm Print's Attorney Voice

References

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  1. ^ "Ted Rusoff". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on April 24, 2019. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  2. ^ a b Jones, Stephen (2014). "[Deaths]". The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. Vol. 25 (Kindle ed.). Robinson. ISBN 978-1-4721-1871-4. ...died in a Rome hospital on September 28, [2013], after being hit by a care more than a month earlier. He was seventy-four.
  3. ^ a b "R.I.P. Ted Rusoff (1939–2013)". Fangoria. November 7, 2013. Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved August 17, 2015. Born in 1939 in Winnipeg City of Manitoba, Canada, Ted Rusoff wasthe son of screenwriter Lou Rusoff and nephew of AIP producer Samuel Z. Arkoff, who got him his teenaged start working as an onset production assistant for AIP and uncredited film extra where needed in the late 50s to early 60s.
  4. ^ a b Jones, Stephen (2010). "[Deaths]". The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. Vol. 21 (Kindle ed.). Robinson. ISBN 978-1-84901-672-8. De Fonseca ... was married to actor/director Ted Rusoff (the nephew of AIP producer Samuel Z. Arkoff).
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