The Man With No Name, Clint Eastwood

Mythical. Iconic. Lethal. That’s how the “ Man with No Name” is, recurrent and cult character performed by Clint Eastwood, the guman par excellence. It’s been years since the italian director Sergio Leone filmed the famous “Dollars Trilogy”:  “A Fistful of Dollars” (1964), “For a Few Dollars More” (1965) and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (1966). And despite the years, the three movies main character has kept in the next generations, until our days. 

The enigmatic “Man with No Name” is antihero’s living image: impenetrable face of bushy beards, hat and perpetual ponchos, and an equally eternal cigar hanging in his lips. It is said that Sergio Leone thought that the cigar would be good to counteract in some way Clint Eastwood’s good-looking: light eyes, blond hair, tall and athletic. It seems like the director was worried about the character to be too handsome. 

But the formula was a success, and this bounty hunter of few words, mysterious, icy look and trigger-happy, is part of cinema’s myths, especially on the western genre. Let’s know him a bit more.

No name but charm

For him, shoot and hit on the target was as normal as breathe, and he moved like fish on the water in the most unfavorable and violent environments, with the coldness of who has nothing to loose: not even a name. The reason to be called “The Man with No Name” is because he  has not called by an especific name or surname in the three westerns that had the leading role at mid’s of 60’s. In any case, in each film some character nicknamed him in some way. Joe at “A Fistful of Dollars”, referring him as a colleague. At “For a Few Dollars More”, his nickname was “The One-Handed” by using only the right hand for shooting. And at  “The Good,the Bad and the Ugly”, he was called “Blondie”.

Everything started at beginnings of 1964, when Sergio Leone produced the first movie of this famous trilogy, an euro-western filmed in Almería (Spain), that was an Italian, Spanish ang German production. The main plot was the arrival of a wandering gunslinger to a remote Far West town as a mercenary, joining a deadly feud between two different families.

Sergio Leone had his first choice in the leading role at the North American star James Coburn, but his appearance fee wasn’t affordable for the filmmakers, so they propose another North American rising star, with an outstanding feature in a secondary role on the American TV show ‘Rawhide’. This new kid on the block was a 33-year-old actor called Clint Eastwood, trying to create his own path in the 7th art.

Leone wasn’t convinced about Eastwood in a first sight: he thought it was too young and good-looking, but his manners while walking embodied the character really well. Finally, as per the filmmaker’s imposition to not hiring other actors with a bigger name (and much more expensive), he had to accept him on the leading role.

Clint Eastwood also was unsure about accepting this role, since the English used in the script sounded weird to him. But at the same time was the perfect chance to starring a movie for the first time, so finally he accepted to transform himself from the model of ‘debonair and neat cowboy’ from Rawhide to a whole new performance as a solitary gunslinger, with a wisely scruffy image, a mysterious attitude, fast and deadly as a venomous snake. A bounty hunter unknown for everyone, without any past, with no ideals nor goals, an absolute disbeliever with a sheen gaze that don’t feel surprised about anything. His full attire was made up with a pair of cowboy boots, skinny trousers, an opened leather vest, a worn out western hat, a holster with cartridge belt and his iconic Mexican poncho, like a cape for antiheros. 

A character who played inside Clint Eastwood’s personality

As years go by, after being chosen as the ‘Man with no Name’ leading role and becoming a western movie star, Sergio Leone revealed a very interesting portrait about our protagonist today. As it seems, the character he performed was unleashed under Eastwood’s personality. Behind the scenes, the actor is really calm, a man of a few words, kind of a feline behaviour. According to Leone, Eastwood was always sleep like a cat, and in all filming breaks he needed to take a nap inside a car. But then, when he rejoined on the stage his energy was amazing, becoming the opposite what he reflected. As a young actor he had a natural curiosity about all details in a shooting, learning himself how to make a movie, a foreword of the great director he already is.

When he had a day-off, Clint was isolated from his colleagues, being as mysterious as his character. He preferred to be alone and never went to socialize with other workers or friends. But on worktime he was very well-behaved, he wasn’t a wayward guy.

This way he made himself this ‘Man with no Name’ character inside the ‘Dollars Trilogy’, bringing the ‘spaghetti western’ to a renowned cinema genre. Also was a following inspiration for other fiction characters like Boba Fett, the bounty hunter from Star Wars, the mercenary Snake Plissken, starred by Kurt Russell in ‘Escape from New York’ and ‘Escape from L.A.’ or more recently, to ‘The Mandorlian’, the solitary galactic gunslinger.

Clint Eastwood achieved in Europe his first cinematographic success, before his native country, and after the ‘Dollar Trilogy’ he began his own Path being a worldwide celebrity, growing as an actor and also as a succesful director highly-rewarded by both audience and cinema critics. He has four Oscar awards, some of them dedicated to his discovered Sergio Leone. It was certain, like the hanging cigar over his lips that created the myth of the Man with no Name.