His work inThe Good, the Bad, and the Uglyincluded, one of Clint Eastwood’s co-stars in the Dollars Trilogy has a legitimate claim to having a hand in three of the greatest Western movies ever made. Eli Wallach will always be best remembered for appearing alongside Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef inThe Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, with hisdastardly performance as Tucobeing a driving force of the movie’s popularity. An unfortunate consequence of his unforgettable presence in the 1966 Western is that it often leads to his contributions to the genre being overlooked.
Eli Wallach’s importance to the Western medium extends far beyondSergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy. The actor had a great deal of familiarity with Westerns years before his involvement with the film. As opposed to Clint Eastwood, who stepped into the Dollars Trilogy with experience only the TV side of the Western genre, Wallach had starred in several Westerns at this point. In fact, even if he had passed onThe Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, he’d still have roles in two all-time great Westerns to his name.
Before The Dollars Trilogy, Eli Wallach Appeared In The Magnificent Seven & How The West Was Won
Eli Wallach Played Villains In Both Classic Westerns
Eli Wallach landed his first Western role in 1960 when he played Mexican bandit Calvera inThe Magnificent Seven. In the movie, Calvera is introduced as the leader of a group of cold-blooded outlaws who take over a town. Calvera’s actions are ultimately what bring the characters played by Yul Brynner, Horst Buchholz,Western favorite James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, and Brad Dexter together for a team-up as the titular Magnificent Seven. As the leader, Calvera is in a sense the movie’s “final boss,” whom Yul Brynner’s Chris Adams has to fight in the film’s final minutes.
Eli Wallach also played a supporting role inMackenna’s Gold.Much likeThe Magnificent Seven and How the West Was Won,the 1969 film featured a star-studded cast that included the likes of Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif, Edward G. Robinson, Burgess Meredith, and Lee J. Cobb.
Two years after playing the main villain ofThe Magnificent Seven, Eli Wallach had yet another significant Western role on his hands in the form ofHow the West Was Won. An unusual movie,How the West Was Wonwas almost an anthology film, in that it comprised five different stories, with two having separate directors. Because it followed a specific family’s lives over a long period of time, it features an abundance of characters, with some being consistently important, and others disappearing from the story, akin to how real life works.
Eli Wallach’s character, Charlie Gant, appeared only in the fifth and final chapter, “The Outlaws.” Although Wallach is only around for the last segment, it still amounts to a significant role, considering that Gant is essentially the main villain of “The Outlaws,” and, in turn, the final obstacle for the main protagonist to overcome. In this sense, plus the fact that Gant is a gang leader, Wallach’s presence inHow the West Was Wonis certainly reminiscent of hisMagnificent Sevencharacter.
Eli Wallach’s Roles In The Three Movies Make Him A Western Legend
Eli Wallach Didn’t Make Many Westerns, Yet 3 Are Some Of The Genre’s Best
When looking at Eli Wallach’s overall body of work, there truthfully isn’t more than a handful of credits associated with the Western genre. Yet, Wallach still stands out as a Western icon, thanks in large part to the gravity of the few roles he’s held.The Magnificent Seven, for its part, is a beloved Western, with an 89% score on Rotten Tomatoes that says a lot about its enduring popularity.
There’s also the matter ofHow the West Was Wonwhich went down in cinematic history as one of the most influential Westerns ever made, not to mention its eight Academy Award nominations, three of which being wins. Finally, there’s the devious and conniving Tuco, who is arguably one of themost memorable Western movie characters of all time, withThe Good, the Bad, and the Uglyas a whole being frequently cited as the quintessential Clint Eastwood Western.
