Carolyn De Fonseca
Carolyn De Fonseca is an American actress and voice dubbing artist based in Rome. She is known for her sensual, breathy voice and has 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 is also the wife of actor/voice dubber Ted Rusoff, who she frequently works with.
Carolyn 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 decently sized supporting role as Chloe, the love potion maker, in the peplum Damon and Pythias (1962). She also had bit part roles in some big productions that did shooting in Italy, such as Barabbas (1962) and The Pink Panther (1963) but Carolyn never really found much success as an actress. However, with many Italian films being prepared for international releases, native English speakers were in demand to work with dubbing, and Carolyn quickly became a profilic and successful voice dubbing artist.
One of Carolyn's earliest dubbing work was in the film The Loves of Hercules (1960). The film was post synchronized but its leading lady Jayne Mansfield did not dub her own voice, which led to Carolyn dubbing Mansfield's voice in the English version of the film. Subsequently, Carolyn would go on to dub Mansfield's voice in all of Mansfield's European films such as Primitive Love (1964) and Dog Eat Dog (1964). It was also Carolyn who provided Mansfield's narrator voice in the infamous quasi-documentary The Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield (1968). Released after Mansfield's death, this mondo-style cult documenary consists of footage of Mansfield visiting various night clubs, beaches etc while narrating her experiences. Since Mansfield died before the film's completion, Carolyn performs the task of voicing Mansfield's thoughts and narration.
In the 1960s, Carolyn dubbed many leading ladies into English but eventually became more profilic in dubbing villainesses in various peplum 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 bitchy, arrogant vixens 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, violent inmate Albina in Women's Prison Massacre (1983). She would also typically dub exotic figures, or lust-craving 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). Carolyn 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 half-crazy drug addicted nun (played by Anita Ekberg) in The Killer Nun (1978).
As the Italian film industry was slowing down somewhat in the 1980s, Carolyn 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 Reeves' secretary in Monsignor (1982), had a fairly sized supporting role in the Pia Zadora flick 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 TV, she appeared in the highly acclaimed mini series The Winds of War (1983). She also appeared alongside her real-life husband Ted Rusoff in the mini series Mussolini and I (1985), in which they play the parents of Mussolini's mistress, Claretta Petacci.
Dubbing filmography (incomplete)
| Year | Film | Role | Actress |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | The Loves of Hercules | Queen Dianira | Jayne Mansfield |
| 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 | Primitive Love | Dr. Jane | Jayne Mansfield |
| 1965 | Terror Creatures From the Grave | Cleo Hauff | Barbara Steele |
| 1969 | Venus in Furs | Olga | Margaret Lee |
| 1969 | A Woman on Fire | Clarissa Renos | Françoise Prévost |
| 1970 | Shadow of Illusion | Gail Bland | Daniela Giordano |
| 1971 | Blackie the Pirate | Isabel | Silvia Monti |
| 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 | Smile Before Death | Gianna | Rosalba Neri |
| 1973 | The Arena | Cornelia | Rosalba Neri |
| 1973 | War Goddess | Oreitheia | Sabine Sun |
| 1974 | The Eerie Midnight Horror Show | Luisa | Lucretia Love |
| 1974 | Spasmo | Clorinda | Monica Monet |
| 1974 | White Fang to the Rescue | Katie | Gisela Hahn |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 1977 | Beast With a Gun | Giuliana Caroli | Marisa Mell |
| 1977 | The Cynic, the Rat, the Fist | Maria Balzano | Gabriella Giorgelli |
| 1977 | The Desert Tigers | Dr. Lessing | Lea Lander |
| 1977 | Suspiria | Olga | Barbara Magnolfi |
| 1978 | The Bloodstained Shadow | Signora Nardi | Juliette Mayniel |
| 1978 | The Killer Nun | Sister Gertrude | Anita Ekberg |
| 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 |
| 1980 | Anthropophagus | Julie | Tisa Farrow |
| 1980 | Erotic Nights of the Living Dead | Fiona | Dirce Funari |
| 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 |
| 1981 | Piranha II: The Spawning | Jai | Carole Davis |
| 1982 | Ator, the Fighting Eagle | Indun | Laura Gemser |
| 1982 | The New York Ripper | Scellenda's landlady | Rita Silva |
| 1982 | Pieces | Grace | Hilda Fuchs |
| 1983 | Hell Penitentiary | Warden Landers | Rita Silva |
| 1983 | Women's Prison Massacre | Albina | |
| 1984 | Monster Dog | Sandra | Victoria Vera |
| 1985 | Miami Golem | Joanna Fitzgerald | Laura Trotter |
| 1985 | Phenomena | Frau Brückner | Daria Nicolodi |
| 1986 | Bridge to Hell | Vanja | Francesca Ferrè |
| 1989 | Alien From the Deep | Jane | Marina Giulia Cavalli |
| 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 |