Quizzes & Trivia
Eli Wallach
“That’s a mystery,” said the Jewish kid from Brooklyn, famous for roles in Tennessee Williams plays, who would become the Mexican bandit by which all Mexican bandits are measured.
“I don’t know how I was selected for this film.” But he was perfect as Calvera, leader of the bandits in The Magnificent Seven. As his horde sweeps into town, robbing the poor farmers blind, he’s thrilling in his arrogance, pretending the shopkeeper is his friend while he steals all he has.
He was not a horseman, but director John Sturges hired 35 riders to be Calvera’s gang, and they took it very seriously. Not only did they teach him to ride, but they insisted that the crew could not approach Wallach—every morning members of the gang would saddle his horse and check his guns. “And each morning I’d arrive on the set, put on my outfit, and my 35 bandits would assemble with me. And we’d go riding for an hour along the hills, and it was wonderful, wonderful!” Wallach was so ideal as a bandit that it would lead to his most famous role, as Tuco, the “Ugly” in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, opposite Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef, and two more Spaghetti Westerns.