On
May 12th one of Spain’s most iconic voice actors, Constantino Romero García, passed
away after a long period of illness, five months to the day after he had
announced his retirement to the Spanish public. While perhaps not as
well known in the rest of the world, his death meant a lot to a significant
number of young, and not-so-young, Spaniards, and for a simple reason: This
was the man who gave voice to Darth Vader (Star Wars), Mufasa (The Lion King),
the Man with No Name (The Dollars Trilogy), Thulsa Doom (Conan the Barbarian),
James Bond during the Roger Moore era, any role played by Clint Eastwood, and a number of other characters from a number of other films.
His tragic
death, at the age of 65 after a long period of illness, effectively signified
the loss of an icon both for fans of foreign-language dubbing and Spanish Geek
culture in general.
Rather
than give an extensive and detailed description of Romero’s career, which can
be found on many places on the internet (among them Wikipedia), I will say that
one thing that has made the man’s death such a loss not just to his fans but to
the Spanish dubbing industry in general is the fact that he was very much a
voice actor, and a singularly skilled
one at that. It can be all too easy to dismiss voice acting as unworthy of the
same consideration or praise as theatre or film acting since its realm lies
mainly in animation or, here in Spain, films that have been translated and
dubbed for a non-English-speaking audience. Those, however, who have tried
voice acting will testify that it can be just as challenging as either film or
television, and sometimes more so since the actors have only a script and a
recording studio, and nothing else to work with.
To
give a convincing, compelling, and above all excellent performance without
another actor to play off of, or even without seeing what it is that’s
happening or knowing how the character is reacting to a particular situation
and how that might affect the tone or modulation of their voice, is something
not only worthy of consideration but of outright praise. With extensive
experience as a radio and television presenter, as well as in advertising, and
blessed with a deep, commanding voice, Constantino Romero was able to give
voice powerful and charismatic performances whether in film or in animation. He
could be intimidating, powerful, quiet and reserved, or dryly humorous, but he
was always memorable and his talent was always palpable.
To his
fans Romero’s voice work, particularly when dubbing films, often not only
matched the strength of the original actor’s work but in the opinion of some even
improved on them.
Talented
and possessed of good humour, Romero’s death leaves a void that cannot be
easily filled. He was an icon to an entire generation of Spanish film-goers,
and both he and his work will be missed by many.
Siempre tuve claro que lo mejor de mi profesión eran las personas. ('I've always known that the best part of my profession was the people in it.')
-Constantino Romero ---
A sample of Contantino’s Romero’s voice-work can be found here (Note: The video is in un-subtitled Spanish).
