Tagged: The Good the Bad and the Ugly
Lee Van Cleef as “Angel Eyes” in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Lee Van Cleef in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
Vitals
Lee Van Cleef as “Angel Eyes”, ruthless mercenary
New Mexico Territory, Spring 1862
Film: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
(Italian title: Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo)
Release Date: December 23, 1966
Director: Sergio Leone
Costume Designer: Carlo Simi
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today would have been the 100th birthday of Lee Van Cleef, the actor whose Golden Boot Award-winning contributions to the Western genre began with his debut performance in the iconic High Noon (1952) but remains arguably best known for his back-to-back roles in the latter two films of Sergio Leone’s “Dollars trilogy” that established the spaghetti Western subgenre.
Born January 9, 1925 in New Jersey, Van Cleef served in the U.S. Navy aboard a minesweeper during World War II. Following his debut in High Noon, Van Cleef’s distinctive appearance and sinister mannerisms resulted in a string of supporting—and often villainous—roles in crime stories and Westerns until his breakout role as Colonel Douglas Mortimer in Leone’s For a Few Dollars More (1965), which resulted in his sole Golden Globe nomination.
Leone followed For a Few Dollars More with the Civil War-set The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly—the final installment of his so-called “Dollars trilogy”—which also prominently co-starred Van Cleef opposite Clint Eastwood’s stoic “Man with No Name”. As opposed to the more heroic Colonel Mortimer whose violent quest was driven by a sense of justice, Van Cleef’s character in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly embodied the eponymous “Bad”—a sadistic assassin who kills for money… and occasionally pleasure. Continue reading
Clint Eastwood as “The Man with No Name” in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Clint Eastwood as Blondie, aka “the Man with No Name”, in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
Vitals
Clint Eastwood as Blondie, aka “the Man with No Name”, taciturn bounty hunter
New Mexico Territory, Spring 1862
Film: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
(Italian title: Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo)
Release Date: December 23, 1966
Director: Sergio Leone
Costume Designer: Carlo Simi
Background
Today marks the 90th birthday of screen legend Clint Eastwood, born May 31, 1930, in San Francisco. (Between John Wayne on May 26, James Stewart on May 20, and Gary Cooper on May 7, there must be something about being in born in May that positions an actor for stardom in the Western genre!)
After Eastwood’s initial success on the TV series Rawhide, he traveled to Italy to star in a trio of Westerns directed by Sergio Leone, firmly establishing the significance of the “spaghetti Western”. In A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), Eastwood ostensibly played a variation of the same mysterious, laconic gunfighter alternately known as Joe, Manco, or Blondie, respectively, but immortalized in cinema as “the Man with No Name.”