Tony Russel is a former film, stage, and television actor. He is noted for having worked extensively in the Italian film industry in the mid-1960s, and for his work as a voice actor where he was the founder and president of the English Language Dubbers Association in Italy. He was one of several American actors who turned down the lead of A Fistful of Dollars. After making Burt Topper's War is Hell, he went to Italy first appearing in the title role of La leggenda di Fra Diavolo. He then appeared in several sword and sandal and Eurospy films. Russel played Zorro in Behind the Mask of Zorro; he had originally tested for the role of Walt Disney's Zorro but lost out to Guy Williams. Among Russel's starring roles are parts in the sci-fi epics Wild, Wild Planet and its sequel, War of the Planets filmed concurrently. He left Italy for America in 1967. 

November 23rd, 1925 in Kenosha  /  Died:   Mar 18th, 2017 - aged 91