Ted Rusoff
Birth : 1939-05-20, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Death : 2013-09-28
History
Ted Rusoff was an extremely prolific dubbing editor, director, and voice actor. He started as an opera singer in Los Angeles in the early 1960's before landing ADR work with his uncle Samuel Z. Arkoff at American International Pictures. Arkoff sent Rusoff to Italy in the late 60's to help get their dubbing system set up to American standards but Rusoff ended up living in Rome for the rest of his life. Rusoff's voice can be heard in the English versions of over 250 Italian, Japanese, Russian, and various European films. He also lent his voice to several big budget American films including THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST. Beginning in the late 1970's, Rusoff tried his hand at acting in front of the camera too as it was relatively easy for native English speakers in Italy to find acting work at the time. He acted alongside greats including Bob Hoskins and Max von Sydow, and in the dubbing studio alongside such dubbing legends as Robert Rietty, Geoffrey Copleston, Nick Alexander, Lewis E. Cianelli, and Mickey Knox.
Cast mostly as monks, elders and religious figures due to his large beard, Rusoff appeared in such bible epics as THE DAY CHRIST DIED and THE NATIVITY STORY as well as monks in DOUBLE TEAM and CATACOMBS. His most prestigious role is perhaps as the chief elder in PASSION OF THE CHRIST who throws the bag of money at Judas. Rusoff, being fluent in several languages including traditional Hebrew and ancient Aramaic, worked as chief translator for the film as well.
Rusoff married fellow voice actor / dubber Carolyn De Fonseca but the two had an open marriage. Rusoff fathered 9 daughters to different mothers over a span of 40 years, including one who was still an infant at the time of his death in 2013.
Self
A documentary concerning the violent Italian 'poliziotteschi' cinematic movement of the 1970s which, at first glance, seem to be rip-offs of American crime films like DIRTY HARRY or THE GODFATHER, but which really address Italian issues like the Sicilian Mafia and red terrorism. Perhaps even more interesting than the films themselves were the rushed methods of production (stars performing their own stunts, stealing shots, no live sound) and the bleed-over between real-life crime and movie crime.
Print's Attorney
An aging killer trains a young hired gun in a plot to assassinate a meek brothel owner performing barbaric abortion acts on his prostitutes.
Old Shepherd
Mary and Joseph make the hard journey to Bethlehem for a blessed event in this retelling of the Nativity story. This meticulously researched and visually lush adaptation of the biblical tale follows the pair on their arduous path to their arrival in a small village, where they find shelter in a quiet manger and Jesus is born.
ADR & Dubbing
With World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Russian Civil War as backdrop, it's an old-fashioned, blood-and-guts narrative, filled with earthly humor and a wealth of colorful characters. The story concerns the fluctuating fortunes of Grigory Melekhov, a young Cossack who is both a hero and a victim of the uprising.
Dialogue
Michelle lives in Paris with René, who is influential politicians. One morning as Michelle discovers that her 18-year-old daughter Lauren has not come home from a pub tonight. René does not want to involve the police, because he does not want a scandal that could affect his political career negative. They decide instead to hire a private investigator. It turns out that Lauren has been kidnapped to be used by a gang producing snuff. Detective withdraws from the case, however, because he fears for his life and Michelle decides to find their own daughter. The hunt goes by porn swamps in Paris, Amsterdam and Hamburg.
Elder
A graphic portrayal of the last twelve hours of Jesus of Nazareth's life.
Dialogue
Old Grandpa mouse tells to his grandchildren the "real" story of the Titanic disaster, including evil sharks, a giant octopus, and an evil whaling scheme.
Humphrey Garrett
As a family moves into their new country home, strange events occur, making them believe that their autistic daughter is somehow communicating with the victims of an unsolved murder 8 years earlier.
Pastor Nolan
Teenager Elias has watched his farming community struggle through season after season of bad crops. When unexplained visions--perhaps from another world--give Elias hope of a coming miracle, he becomes the key to saving his town.
Brother Ramulu
A CIA agent is interned for failing to kill an international terrorist. Escaping from his island exile, he teams up with a flamboyant arms dealer and sets out to find the terrorist and rescue the agent's family. Together they're a two-man arsenal... with enough voltage to rock the free world.
Benedetti
Mythology and religious dogma are slowly revealed when an attractive young woman is approached by a modeling agency that pulls her into an underworld of priests that are not Christian but rather want to resurrect Satan by collecting the souls of 18 beautiful children.
Torture Chamber Keeper (uncredited)
Sinbad returns from the sea to find his country subjected to the will of two unscrupulous sorcerers.
Rizzo's Friend
On her way home, a fashion model, Gloria, saw a man fought against a woman and killed her in a strangely noisy room in the old villa where a German Countess named Greta Stella used to live. But when the police Commissioner, who is crazy about fishing, and his dull assistant go to the problematic villa in the next morning, the villa is perceived to have been empty for twenty years and there seems to be nothing criminal left. And then Gloria asks help from a playboy-typed psychiatrist, Gianmarco Contini, who is one of the eight joint-owners of the problematic villa...
ADR & Dubbing
When a terrorist's body, infected with a stolen chemical, is recovered by the US military, the corpse is cremated, unintentionally releasing the virus/bacteria into the atmosphere over a small island. Soon the infected populace mutate into flesh-hungry zombies, and a trio of soldiers on leave must team up with a group of tourists and board themselves up in an abandoned hotel as they try to fend off the agile and aggressive living dead.
Crowd Member (voice)
Jesus, a humble Judean carpenter beginning to see that he is the son of God, is drawn into revolutionary action against the Roman occupiers by Judas -- despite his protestations that love, not violence, is the path to salvation. The burden of being the savior of mankind torments Jesus throughout his life, leading him to doubt.
Brother Brandt
In the 17th century, an order of monks in Italy capture and entomb a demon that has possessed a member of their group. 400 years later, school teacher Elizabeth Magrino visits the monastery in order to do some research. What she and the current monks do not realize is that the evil hiding within the catacombs has unwittingly been released.
voice dubbing (US version) (uncredited)
A Miami TV reporter is sent to a local university to do a story on a professor who is cloning a cell from DNA found inside a meteorite. Soon after the reporter leaves, a gunman kills everyone in the professor's lab and steals the cell for a wealthy businessman. When the reporter learns that he is targeted for assassination as well, he enlists the help of two scientists to discover who is behind the crimes, why they stole the cell, and whether or not the cell should be allowed to continue living.
Francesco Saverio Petacci
A compelling drama/documentary chronicling the life and death of Il Duce himself, from his days as a terrorist to his alliance with Hitler to the betrayal of his son-in-law and untimely demise.
Opening Victim (voice) (uncredited)
A scuba diving instructor, her biochemist boyfriend, and her police chief ex-husband try to link a series of bizarre deaths to a mutant strain of piranha fish whose lair is a sunken freighter ship off a Caribbean island resort.
Dr. Kramer
A priest-doctor chasing a man with supernatural regenerative abilities, who has recently escaped from a medical lab, reaches a small town where the mutant goes on a killing spree.
Temple Guard
A dramatization of the events from the Last Supper through the arrest and trial of Jesus to the Crucifixion.
Dialogue
Sam and Buddy, two highway robbers, join with Colonel Quint, a big crook, who sold his services to Morgan, the banker, in order to free Baby, the banker's daughter, abducted by Espartero and his killers gang. A plan to 'sell' fake dollars to Espartero goes awry, but the two sons of the forger join Quint, and so does Mokaiko, a brave Japanese cook. The rag-tag band of Quinlan meets Espartero in several scraps, and then a climactic confrontation. All are ugly, bad, and dirty (except Baby), and fight accordingly.
Additional Dialogue
In a small Scottish village, horribly murdered bodies keep turning up. Suspicion falls upon the residents of a nearby castle that is haunted by a curse involving a killer cat.
ADR & Dubbing
Charming, blithely amoral devil-may-care rogue Jesse Smith and peaceful, devout straight-arrow Mormon Lester O'Hara are estranged half brothers who are reunited after receiving a sizable inheritance from their deceased mother. The wildly contrasting mismatched duo get into all sorts of trouble while trying to claim said inheritance. Written by Woodyanders
Dialogue
Arms trafficking with the Indians on the one hand and acquiring documents concerning the ownership of a goldmine on the other are the principal interests of Quin and Gomez, the highly suspicious guests at Papa Martinez' inn. The unexpected arrival of the sheriff Thomas, and the journalist, George, upsets the plans of the two unsavoury allies and they have to try every kind of trick to win out against such adversaries.
Writer
Wedding guests awaiting the arrival of the bride suddenly become nervous when they notice that the table has been laid for 13... an ominous number. Their worries are confirmed when the bridal carriage pulls up outside bearing the lifeless bride and the corpses of three other guests. The suspicions rise between the thirteen guests, and the identity of the murderer is a shocking surprise.
Jerry Mano (voice)
An edited for TV movie made up of four episodes of the Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot TV series. The four episodes consist of the first episode, two from the middle of the series and the final episode.
