Benjamin Völz

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Benjamin Völz in April 2010

Benjamin Volz (* 13. May 1960 in Berlin ) is a German actor , voice actor , voice-over and dubbing director . He also works as a painter and musician under the pseudonym Ben Gash . Völz is best known to a wide audience as the German voice of Keanu Reeves , David Duchovny , James Spader , Eric Bana , Charlie Sheen and Matthew McConaughey .

Live and act

Theater, film and television

The son of the actor and voice actor Wolfgang Völz and the dancer Roswitha Völz, b. Karwath, was seen in theater productions from an early age, including in the Berliner Kammerspiele in The Princess on the Pea (1970) and Jim Button and Lukas the Locomotive Driver (1972) as well as in Hansel and Gretel (1974) at the Theater des Westens . In 1979 he shot the experimental film 36574 Bilder with Angela Bruno, Kerl Fieser and David Vostell . In addition, from 1971 he took on leading and supporting roles in film and television productions, including in the ZDF series Aktion Grün (1976), in Krzysztof Zanussi's Paradigma (1985) and in Friedemann Schulz 's film Der Tod in der Waschstraße (1981) and Eberhard Itzenplitz ' Die Mitläufer (1985).

synchronization

Benjamin Völz is known to a wide audience primarily for his work in the field of film dubbing . His first roles included the character of Charlie Rawlins in The Daring Witch in Her Flying Bed (1971) and the character of Schroeder in the cult cartoon The Peanuts . In addition to numerous roles in changing actors in the 1980s, Völz set the ghost hunter Dr. Egon Spengler in the 140 episode animated series The Real Ghostbusters , which was subsequently marketed as a radio play version.

Since Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993), Völz has been the German celebrity voice of Keanu Reeves , and David Duchovny has also been the voice of David Duchovny since the crime series X-Files - The FBI's uncanny cases (1994) and Californication (2007) began broadcasting . Völz attracted attention through a politically motivated, significantly higher fee demand for the sequel to the X-Files - Beyond the Truth (2008), which was five times the usual pay and was controversially discussed in professional and audience circles. As the long-established voice of the main actor, Völz argued that the cost of a dubbing, with a share of 0.1 percent, was in no relation to the expenses for advertising, marketing and premiere celebrations of such a blockbuster . He also referred to the complete assignment of rights by the dubbing actors and the usual fee payments to prominent speakers in animated films, which clearly exceeded his demand. The distributor 20th Century Fox refused, attempts to reach an agreement failed. This fact led to Johannes Berenz being cast after several well-known colleagues showed solidarity with Völz and refused to take part in a test talk. In the new (tenth) season of the series, which has been broadcast in German-speaking countries since February 2016, Völz does not take on the dubbing role of David Duchovny.

In addition to his regular actors, Benjamin Völz synchronizes a number of other actors on a recurring basis. Film and television viewers know him as the German voice of Charlie Sheen in the sitcoms Chaos City (1997–2002), Two and a Half Men (2003–2011) and Anger Management (2012–2014), by James Spader in the justice series Boston Legal (2004–2008) and The Blacklist (since 2013), Eddie Cahill in the crime series CSI: NY (2005–2013) or Rob Lowe in Brothers & Sisters (2007). In addition, it is frequently cast on Matthew Macfadyen , Jean-Hugues Anglade , Tim Roth , Daniel Day-Lewis and Matthew Modine . In the context of video games, Völz also works as a voice actor outside of the cinema and television.

He directed dialogues in the Director's Cut version of Blade Runner (1992), Reality Bites - Voll das Leben (1994), Starship Troopers (1997) and Being John Malkovich (1999).

Voiceover

In addition to the synchronization, Völz also provides his voice as an off-speaker . Since the 2000s he has been repeatedly engaged in documentary films by journalists Freddie Röckenhaus and Petra Höfer, including in the information program Die Todeself, nominated for the Adolf Grimme Prize 2006, and in the cinema version of the documentary Terra X: Germany from above (2012). In the three-part science documentary Expedition into the Brain on Island Gifted People , also nominated for the Adolf Grimme Prize , Völz acted as narrator and test person and acted in the role of Alexander von Humboldt in the ZDF Expedition Tropenfieber .

In the 2009 two-part documentary series The Empire of Viruses broadcast with the participation of several European broadcasters , Völz was again engaged as an off-speaker.

From 2009 to 2011 he spoke regularly for the science magazine Abenteuer Wissen on ZDF .

In 2015 he was the voiceover in the documentary hosted by Hugo Egon Balder , With the courage of desperation - 70 years after Auschwitz .

Audio book and radio play

From 2005 to 2010 Völz set the role of the hacker Tron / Boris F. to music in the 41 episode mystery radio play series Revelation 23 , but was temporarily replaced from episode 22 by Jaron Löwenberg . In the radio play soap produced by Oliver Rohrbeck ... and by the way, Love , Völz was heard in another fixed role as the stressed architect Lutz Wagner. In 2012 he recorded Jens Westerbeck's debut novel Boatpeople as an audio book.

Music and painting

Völz first played drums in his youth, but later switched to vocals and bass. At the end of the 1970s he founded the ARM label with Kerl Fieser and in 1981 released the single Masculin Kombale , which stayed in the top ten of the Berlin indie charts for eight weeks. In 1995 Gash's long-playing record My resend life was released . With the musicians Tom Schneider, Konstanze Caradonna and Torsten Sense he formed the group bend and in 1998 published a self-titled album and two years later the successor CD Toy . In 2000 the formation broke up again. Together with his X-Files colleague Franziska Pigulla, Völz appeared on the albums Zeitgeist (1999) and Weltreise (2001) of the Schiller music project .

Benjamin Völz also works as a painter under the pseudonym Ben Gash. He owns a studio in Berlin. His works have been shown in solo and group exhibitions since the early 2000s, with a permanent exhibition in the Casa Tegoyo on Lanzarote . Gash paints intense color, expressionist pictures that mainly show cityscapes, groups of people and religious motifs.

Private life

Benjamin Völz is the brother of the voice actress Rebecca Völz and son of the actor Wolfgang Völz , as well as the uncle of Daniel Völz . He has been married to Heike Speckter since September 11, 2002 and has two sons. The family lives in Berlin.

Filmography

Awards

  • 2010: The Silhouette in the category "Dubbing Actor Series" as the voice of Charlie Sheen in Two and a Half Men

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mainzer Art Article ( Memento from September 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Agent Mulder has a new voice on Tagesspiegel from July 9, 2008
  3. ↑ The X-Files - David Duchovny gets a new dubbing voice , reports, January 7, 2016
  4. ↑ Nominations for the Adolf Grimme Prize 2007 ( Memento from December 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Grimme Online
  5. ↑ Nominations for the Adolf Grimme Prize 2007 ( Memento from December 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Grimme Online
  6. ^ ZDF interview
  7. ↑ Program information : The Empire of Viruses WDR
  8. ↑ Press kit for With the courage of desperation ZDG.de
  9. ↑ Music of the 80s: Ben Gash and Guy Fieser
  10. ↑ Ben Gash
  11. ↑ Ben Gash
  12. ↑ mut: The Völz family celebrates their wedding and double birthday in the pomp tent. In: www.morgenpost.de. Berliner Morgenpost, September 16, 2002, accessed on February 11, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Völz, Benjamin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gash, Ben (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor and voice actor
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin , Germany