Mario Besesti

Italian actor and voice actor

Mario Besesti
Besesti in The Mill on the Po (1949)
Born	(1894-11-20)20 November 1894 Milan, Italy
Died	21 June 1968(1968-06-21) (aged 73) Rome, Italy
Occupation(s)	Actor, voice actor
Years active	1932–1968

Mario Besesti (20 November 1894 – 21 June 1968) was an Italian actor and voice actor.^[1]

Biography

Besesti began a career acting on stage and screen in 1932.^[2] He made his film debut in 1938 and among his most popular filmography includes the 1949 film The Mill on the Po. Besesti was also well known as a voice dubber. Because of his strong voice and large build, he usually dubbed actors with the same stature such as Charles Laughton, Edward Arnold, Thomas Mitchell, Raymond Massey, Sydney Greenstreet, Charles Coburn and many more.

Besesti was considered to be one of Italy's most significant, well-known dubbers during the Golden Ages.^[3] He worked for the Cooperativa Doppiatori Cinematografici and made collaborations with other dubbers which included Gualtiero De Angelis, Lauro Gazzolo, Carlo Romano, Wanda Tettoni and Nino Pavese.

Besesti was also active in the Italian dubs of some of the early Disney animated films. He dubbed Stromboli in Pinocchio, The Huntsman in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Trusty in Lady and the Tramp.

Death

Besesti died in Rome on 21 June 1968 at the age of 73.

Filmography

Cinema

Pride (1938)
Then We'll Get a Divorce (1940)
Short Circuit (1943)
O sole mio (1945)
Eugenia Grandet (1947)
The Mill on the Po (1949)
La Rosa di Bagdad (1949) – Voice
My Beautiful Daughter (1950)
The Thief of Venice (1950)

Dubbing roles

Animation

Stromboli in Pinocchio
The Huntsman in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Narrator in Dumbo
Trusty in Lady and the Tramp
The King in Cinderella
Walrus in Alice in Wonderland
Great Prince of the Forest in Bambi
King Bombo in Gulliver's Travels

Live action

Phineas V. Lambert in If I Had a Million
Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Sir Humphrey Pengallan in Jamaica Inn
William Kidd in Captain Kidd
Albert Lory in This Land Is Mine
Uncle William "Billy" Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life
Michael Howland in Within These Walls
Tom Blue in The Black Swan
Thad Vail in High Barbaree
Reginald "Rags" Barnaby in Destry
Jim Taylor in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Amory Stilham in Mrs. Parkington
Judge Wilkins in Dear Wife
Penrod Biddel in City That Never Sleeps
Jimmy Norton in Meet John Doe
Wolf Larsen in The Sea Wolf
James R. Judson in From Here to Eternity
Pablo in For Whom the Bell Tolls
Pancho Villa in Viva Villa!
Max Fabian in All About Eve

References

^ "Mario Besesti's dubbing contributions". Antoniogenna.net. Archived from the original on 19 November 2018. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
^ "Mario Besesti". MYmovies. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
^ "Cronologia fondamentale dell'epoca d'oro del doppiaggio italiano Dagli albori agli anni 1970" (in Italian). antoniogenna.net. Retrieved 11 August 2020.