Carolyn De Fonseca (25 May 1929 – May 2009[1]) was an American actress based in Rome. She worked extensively as a voice actress for the English-language dubbing of several hundred foreign (mostly Italian) films from the early 1960s and onwards. She was also the wife of actor/voice dubber Ted Rusoff, with whom she frequently worked.[2] She died in 2009.[2]
Career
editDe Fonseca first came to Rome in the early 1960s and tried to make a career for herself as an actress. She played a small role in the acclaimed A Difficult Life (1961), directed by Dino Risi, and had a supporting role as Chloe, the love potion maker, in the sword and sandal film Damon and Pythias (1962). She also had bit part roles in some big productions that did shooting in Italy, such as Barabbas (1961) and The Pink Panther (1963). She never really found much success as an actress but she quickly became a prolific and successful voice dubbing artist.
Some of her earliest dubbing work were in the peplum films Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules (1961) and Ursus in the Valley of the Lions (1961), in which she provided the voice of actress Moira Orfei in the English dubbed versions of the film. Subsequently, De Fonseca dubbed a series of further peplum film and she was also given the chance to dub the voice of American actress Jayne Mansfield in two of her European films which were post-synchronized without Mansfield's involvement: Primitive Love (1964) and Dog Eat Dog (1964). She also provided Mansfield's voice in the infamous quasi-documentary The Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield (1968). Released after Mansfield's death, this mondo-style cult documentary consists of footage of Mansfield visiting various night clubs and beaches while narrating her experiences. Since Mansfield died before the film's completion, De Fonseca performs the task of voicing Mansfield's thoughts and narration.
In the 1960s, De Fonseca dubbed many leading ladies into English, but eventually became more prolific in dubbing villainesses in various sword and sandal and horror films. After a supporting role in the caper film Midas Run (1969) with Fred Astaire and Richard Crenna, she would give up her acting career and focus solely on dubbing films into English. She specialized in voicing femme fatale characters such as the evil queen (played by Jany Clair) in Hercules vs. the Moon Men (1964), a bitchy tourist (played by Silvia Solar) in Eyeball (1975) and the deranged inmate Albina in Women's Prison Massacre (1983). She would also typically dub exotic figures or upper-class nymphomaniacs, such as a sex-hungry asylum patient (played by Rosalba Neri) in Slaughter Hotel (1971), and a sassy, black nightclub performer (played by Carla Brait) in The Case of the Bloody Iris (1972). De Fonseca would also sometimes deliver very over the top performances; dubbing the voices of sobbing and hysterical figures such as a paranoid asylum patient (played by Rossella Falk) in Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (1972), a sexually frustrated housewife (played by Carroll Baker) in My Father's Wife (1976), and a drug-addicted nun (played by Anita Ekberg) in The Killer Nun (1978).
As the Italian film industry was slowing down somewhat in the 1980s, De Fonseca resumed her career as a film actress in various American films that were shot in Rome, while still continuing to work with dubbing. On screen she played Christopher Reeve's secretary in Monsignor (1982), had a supporting role in the Pia Zadora film The Lonely Lady (1983), played a comedic role as an American tourist in Detective School Dropouts (1986) and finally appeared in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Sheltering Sky (1990). On television, she appeared in the highly acclaimed miniseries The Winds of War (1983). She also appeared alongside her real-life husband Ted Rusoff in the miniseries Mussolini and I (1985), in which they play the parents of Mussolini's mistress, Claretta Petacci, and played a supporting part in the TV movie thriller The Fifth Missile (1986).
List of dubbing roles (incomplete)
edit| Year | Film | Role | Actress |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules | Queen Halis Mosab | Moira Orfei |
| 1961 | Ursus in the Valley of the Lions | Diar | Moira Orfei |
| 1963 | Thor and the Amazon Women | Black Queen | Janine Hendy |
| 1963 | The Whip and the Body | Nevenka Menliff | Daliah Lavi |
| 1964 | Dog Eat Dog | Darlene | Jayne Mansfield |
| 1964 | Hercules vs. the Moon Men | Queen Samara | Jany Clair |
| 1964 | The Last Man on Earth | Ruth Collins | Franca Bettoia |
| 1964 | The Long Hair of Death | Mary Karnstein/Helen Karnstein | Barbara Steele |
| 1964 | Primitive Love | Dr. Jane | Jayne Mansfield |
| 1965 | Bloody Pit of Horror | Kinojo | Moa Tahi |
| 1965 | Red Dragon | Carol | Rosanna Schiaffino |
| 1965 | Terror-Creatures from the Grave | Cleo Hauff | Barbara Steele |
| 1966 | Killers Are Challenged | Sheena Coleman | Wandisa Guida |
| 1966 | Secret Agent Super Dragon | Charity Farrel | Marisa Mell |
| 1966 | The Murder Clinic | Gisèle de Brantome | Françoise Prévost |
| 1967 | Mission Stardust | Dr. Sheridan | Ann Smyrner |
| 1968 | The Great Silence | Regina | Marisa Merlini |
| 1968 | Run, Man, Run | Penny Bannington | Linda Veras |
| 1969 | The Sisters | Diana | Nathalie Delon |
| 1969 | Venus in Furs | Olga | Margaret Lee |
| 1969 | A Woman on Fire | Clarissa Renos | Françoise Prévost |
| 1970 | Queens of Evil | Bibiana | Ida Galli |
| 1970 | Shadow of Illusion | Gail Bland | Daniela Giordano |
| 1971 | Blackie the Pirate | Isabel | Silvia Monti |
| 1971 | The Feast of Satan | Andrea | Teresa Gimpera |
| 1971 | Slaughter Hotel | Anne Palmieri | Rosalba Neri |
| 1971 | The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh | Carol | Cristina Airoldi |
| 1972 | The Case of the Bloody Iris | Mizar Harrington | Carla Brait |
| 1972 | Don't Torture a Duckling | Maciara | Florinda Bolkan |
| 1972 | Manhunt | Trini | Francesca Romana Coluzzi |
| 1972 | The Red Queen Kills Seven Times | Lulu Palm | Sybil Danning |
| 1972 | Seven Blood-Stained Orchids | Elena Marchi | Rossella Falk |
| 1972 | Shadows Unseen | Simona | Marilù Tolo |
| 1972 | Smile Before Death | Gianna | Rosalba Neri |
| 1972 | So Sweet, So Dead | Rossella | Jessica Dublin |
| 1973 | Amarcord | Mathematics Teacher | Dina Adorni |
| 1973 | Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eyes | Suzanne | Doris Kunstmann |
| 1973 | Torso | Prostitute | Rosaria Della Femmina |
| 1973 | War Goddess | Oreitheia | Sabine Sun |
| 1974 | The Arena | Cornelia | Rosalba Neri |
| 1974 | The Eerie Midnight Horror Show | Luisa | Lucretia Love |
| 1974 | The Last Desperate Hours | Laura Monachesi | Silvia Monti |
| 1974 | Spasmo | Clorinda | Monica Monet |
| 1974 | White Fang to the Rescue | Katie | Gisela Hahn |
| 1974 | What Have They Done to Your Daughters? | Mrs. Talenti | Clara Zovianoff |
| 1975 | Blonde in Black Leather | Miele | Monica Vitti |
| 1975 | Deep Red | Gianna Brezzi | Daria Nicolodi |
| 1975 | Emanuelle's Revenge | Emanuelle | Rosemarie Lindt |
| 1975 | Eyeball | Gail Alvarado | Silvia Solar |
| 1975 | The Killer Must Kill Again | Norma Mainardi | Teresa Velázquez |
| 1975 | Season for Assassins | Rossana | Magali Noël |
| 1975 | Silent Action | Mrs. Martinetti | Loredana Nusciak |
| 1975 | Strip Nude for Your Killer | Gisella Montani | Giuliana Cecchini |
| 1975 | Syndicate Sadists | Flora | Femi Benussi |
| 1976 | The Big Racket | Anna Rossetti | Anna Zinnemann |
| 1976 | Black Emanuelle 2 | Susan | Dagmar Lassander |
| 1976 | Emanuelle in America | Diana Smith | Maria Piera Regoli |
| 1976 | Gestapo's Last Orgy | Alma | Maristella Greco |
| 1976 | My Father's Wife | Laura | Carroll Baker |
| 1976 | SS Camp 5 - Women's Hell | Kapo Greta | Patrizia Melega |
| 1976 | SS Experiment Love Camp | Dr. Renke | Patrizia Melega |
| 1976 | Violent Naples | Gervasi's wife | Maria Grazia Spina |
| 1977 | Achtung! The Desert Tigers | Dr. Lessing | Lea Lander |
| 1977 | Beast With a Gun | Giuliana Caroli | Marisa Mell |
| 1977 | Blood and Diamonds | Maria | Olga Karlatos |
| 1977 | The Cynic, the Rat, the Fist | Maria Balzano | Gabriella Giorgelli |
| 1977 | Messalina, Messalina | Agrippina | Lory Wagner |
| 1977 | Return of the 38 Gang | Rosy | Dagmar Lassander |
| 1977 | Suspiria | Olga | Barbara Magnolfi |
| 1977 | The Pajama Girl Case | Quint's Neighbor | Vanessa Vitale |
| 1977 | Watch Me When I Kill | Esmeralda Messori | Bianca Toccafondi |
| 1978 | Blazing Flowers | Nadina | Anna Maria Rizzoli |
| 1978 | The Bloodstained Shadow | Signora Nardi | Juliette Mayniel |
| 1978 | The Killer Nun | Sister Gertrude | Anita Ekberg |
| 1978 | Satan's Blood | Mary | Sandra Alberti |
| 1978 | The War of the Robots | Lois | Malisa Longo |
| 1979 | Beyond the Darkness | Iris | Franca Stoppi |
| 1979 | Escape From Hell | Katie | Cintia Lodetti |
| 1979 | Hotel Paradise | Muriel | Ajita Wilson |
| 1979 | Tigers in Lipstick | Maria | Monica Vitti |
| 1980 | Anthropophagus | Julie | Tisa Farrow |
| 1980 | The Day of the Cobra | Lola | Lecinia Lentini |
| 1980 | Erotic Nights of the Living Dead | Fiona | Dirce Funari |
| 1980 | Hell of the Living Dead | Josie | Esther Mesina |
| 1980 | Inferno | Carol | Alida Valli |
| 1980 | Macabre | Jane Baker | Bernice Stegers |
| 1981 | Absurd | Mrs. Bennett | Hanja Kochansky |
| 1981 | Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror | Evelyn | Mariangela Giordano |
| 1981 | The House by the Cemetery | Laura Gittleson | Dagmar Lassander |
| 1981 | Murder Obsession | Glenda | Anita Strindberg |
| 1982 | Piranha II: The Spawning | Jai | Carole Davis |
| 1982 | Ator, the Fighting Eagle | Indun | Laura Gemser |
| 1982 | Nathalie | Della Jackson | Grazia De Giorgi |
| 1982 | The New York Ripper | Scellenda's landlady | Rita Silva |
| 1982 | Pieces | Grace | Hilda Fuchs |
| 1982 | The Scorpion with Two Tails | Heather Hull | Wandisa Guida |
| 1982 | Sweet Body of Bianca | Jill | Grazia De Giorgi |
| 1982 | The Sword of the Barbarians | Aki | Yvonne Fraschetti |
| 1982 | Violence in a Women's Prison | Hertha | Françoise Perrot |
| 1983 | The Final Executioner | Edra | Marina Costa |
| 1983 | Hell Behind Bars | The Warden | Rita Silva |
| 1983 | Hell Penitentiary | Warden Landers | Rita Silva |
| 1983 | The Seven Magnificent Gladiators | Lucilla | Mandy Rice-Davies |
| 1983 | Throne of Fire | Princess Valkari | Sabrina Siani |
| 1983 | Women's Prison Massacre | Albina | Ursula Flores |
| 1984 | Monster Dog | Sandra | Victoria Vera |
| 1984 | The Violent Breed | Madame Fra | Danika La Loggia |
| 1985 | Jungle Raiders | Maria Janez | Marina Costa |
| 1985 | Miami Golem | Joanna Fitzgerald | Laura Trotter |
| 1985 | Phenomena | Frau Brückner | Daria Nicolodi |
| 1986 | Bridge to Hell | Vanja | Francesca Ferré |
| 1986 | The Devil's Honey | Carol Simpson | Corinne Cléry |
| 1986 | The Kiss of the Cobra | Maria | Milly D'Abbraccio |
| 1987 | Iron Warrior | Deeva | Iris Peynado |
| 1988 | The Murder Secret | Nora Hamilton | Adriana Russo |
| 1988 | Ratman | Terry | Janet Ågren |
| 1988 | The Red Monks | Ramona Curtis | Lara Wendel |
| 1989 | Alien From the Deep | Jane | Marina Giulia Cavalli |
| 1989 | The Bronx Executioner | Margie | Margit Evelyn Newton |
| 1989 | The House of Lost Souls | Daria | Licia Colò |
| 1989 | The House of Witchcraft | Sharon Mason | Marina Giulia Cavalli |
| 1991 | Millions | Margherita | Florinda Bolkan |
| 1991 | Voices From Beyond | Hilda Mainardi | Frances Nacman |
| 1995 | The Strange Story of Olga O. | Sheila Altman | Florinda Bolkan |
References
edit- ^ "Carolyn De Fonseca". bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on October 25, 2021. Retrieved 9 October 2016.
- ^ a b "R.I.P. Ted Rusoff (1939-2013)". Fangoria. November 7, 2013. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 16 August 2015.