Lydia Simoneschi

Lydia Simoneschi (4 April 1908 – 5 September 1981) was an Italian actress and voice actress. During her career, she gave her voice to actresses mainly during the Golden Ages. Born in Rome and the daughter of silent film actor and director Carlo Simoneschi, she began her acting career when she was very young in Camillo Pilotto's stage company; in the early 1930s she made her film debut, but her inconspicuous physical appearance did not help her in front of the camera. However, her persuasive, passionate and sophisticated voice paved the way for her to become a voice actress.From the early 1940s until the first half of the 1960s, Simoneschi became one of the most prominent Italian voice actresses, lending her voice to almost all the greatest Hollywood and European divas which include Barbara Stanwyck, Susan Hayward, Ingrid Bergman, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Olivia de Havilland, Vivien Leigh and Maureen O'Hara. One of Simoneschi's main skills was that of being able to adapt very well to the different acting styles of the numerous actresses to whom she lent her voice. From 1964 she has also been a dubbing director and kept working in this environment until her retirement in 1976: in forty years of career as a voice actress, Simoneschi is estimated to have given her voice to over five thousand films.