Clint Eastwood began his acting career in the second half of the 1950s. He became known to a wider audience through the series A Thousand Miles of Dust, but his big success came with A Fistful of Dollars in 1964. The role of the nameless gunslinger was his big cinematic breakthrough. It was difficult to convince him.
Clint Eastwood was only the third choice for Sergio Leone and was also very skeptical
According to an article in the pop culture website Far Out Magazine, Clint Eastwood was not the first choice for the role of the nameless hero. Instead, Eric Fleming, who also starred in the series A Thousand Miles of Dust, was offered the role. Fleming was a promising star at the time and the role was too risky for him.
The second choice was the then B-movie star Richard Harrison. He declined, but suggested someone else to director Sergio Leone: Clint Eastwood. At that time, no one could have imagined him in the role of the mysterious rider without a namebut Leone listened to Harrison. Eastwood also had to be convinced.
That’s why Clint Eastwood agreed
In a video from filmSCHOOLarchive recorded in 2003, Clint Eastwood shared his experience with A Fistful of Dollars. He explained how strange he initially found the idea of shooting a Western in Italy and that he thought it would be a failure. Then he learned that the filming would take place in Spain.
I thought this thing was going to be a huge flop, but I’m going to get a trip to Italy and Spain. I’ve never been to either place, so it’s going to be a great experience.
So he didn’t believe in the project. But there was one thing that convinced him. The film was Sergio Leone’s idea of a Western remakes of Yojimbo, the Bodyguard Eastwood was a huge fan of the film, which was only a few years old at the time, and was excited to take on the role of the hero.
For a Fistful of Dollars is considered one of the best Westerns ever
Not only was A Fistful of Dollars Clint Eastwood’s big breakthrough, it also holds up to this day. The film magazines Vulture and the Hollywood Reporter list the western as one of the best and most important entries in the genre. Moviepilot also lists it as one of the best westerns ever, with a score of 7.7 out of 10 from almost 8,000 reviews.
And that’s not all: For a handful of dollars just the beginning of perhaps the most influential Western series everIn the following years, Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood made For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
With the so-called Dollar Trilogy, Leone and Eastwood cemented their cult status in the Western genre – despite all initial resistance.