RIP Franco Zucca

 

Trieste bids farewell to Franco Zucca: his is the voice of Ben Kingsley in "Schindler's List"

Il Piccolo

July 24, 2022

TRIESTE  Franco Zucca, actor from Trieste but above all a great voice actor, the voice of actors such as Alain Delon, Rod Steiger, Max von Sidow, Oliver Reed, Michael Caine and Omar Sharif, died on the eve of his 70th birthday (he would have turned them on August 26th). Among his most successful and well-known characterizations, the amazing Ben Kingsley of "Schindler's List" ("Whoever saves a life, saves the whole world"), the refined Raúl Juliá of "The Addams Family" and Robert Picardo, the hologram doctor of "Star Trek".

Franco Zucca, born in Trieste on August 26, 1952, had started at the Contrada, and then joined the ranks of the Teatro Stabile del Friuli Venezia Giulia, then in the companies of Catania and Rome. His career as a voice actor was exhausted, embracing films, animated films, television series, video games, cartoons. His was a warm and intense voice, never academic, the expression of an actor's apprenticeship: "The important training ground was the radio, I really did a lot of it and I owe my acting approach to Ugo Amodeo", he said in an interview with Small from a few years ago. «I entered the building under Bolchi making my debut in '71 in" Crime and punishment ". Then I tried the way of dubbing and it went well for me, between luck and merit. But I have to tell young people to stay away from the crumbling Roman dubbing schools. They are a scam and are only used to extract money. The only way must be that of the actor. Without being actors, dubbing is not done. Then you have to arm yourself with courage and patience and start the various auditions. It is a very difficult but fascinating path: dubbing is sacrosanct, it combines technique and artistry, but at the base there is only one role: that of the actor ».

He was very fond of the American series "Law and Order", where he began by voicing cop-actors George Dzundza and Jerry Orbach, and then took over the dub, but he also liked to remember his participation in "Happy Days", and then to Star Trek: Voyager, The Medici, The Lady in Yellow, up to Game of Thrones. The actors he loved most were those from the world of theater: Tom Wilkinson, whom he voiced in "Michael Clayton", and Pete Postlethwaite, who voiced in "In the Name of the Father" and "Thank You, Mrs. Thatcher." In "The shape of water" by Guillermo del Toro, winner of four Oscars and Golden Lion, Franco Zucca is the voice of Richard Jenkins.

 

ZUCCA, Franco

Born: 8/26/1952, Trieste, Friulin Venezia Giulia, Italy

Died: 7/24/2022, Rome, Lazio, Italy

 

Franco Zucca’s westerns – voice actor:

Dead Man’s Walk (TV) – 1996 [Italian voice of Harry Dean Stanton]

Cold Mountain – 2003 [Italian voice of James Gammon]

Australia – 2008 [Italian voice of Barry Otto]

Django Unchained – 2012 [Italian voice of Bruce Dern]

Bone Tomahawk – 2015 [Italian voice of Richard Jenkins]

The Hateful Eight – 2015 [Italian voice of Bruce Dern]

Rango – 2013 [Italian voice of Furgus]