'The Good, The Bad And The Ugly' star Eli Wallach dies at 98

Eli Wallach, the prolific U.S. character actor who starred in “The Magnificent Seven” and “The Good, The Bad And The Ugly,” has died at 98. His death was reported by The New York Times, which cited his daughter Katherine. Wallach was an early practitioner of method acting. After studying at the Actors Studio, he went on to have a career in film and TV that spanned over six decades. He also appeared in a wide variety of stage roles, often alongside his wife Anne Jackson.

As an actor I’ve played more bandits, thieves, warlords, molesters and mafioso than you could shake a stick at.

Eli Wallach, acknowledging in an interview that he tended to be cast as a villain—despite his versatility as an actor

Wallach made a lasting impression as the scuzzy bandit Tuco opposite Clint Eastwood in “The Good, The Bad And The Ugly,” Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Western classic. He stood out as Calvera, the Mexican bandit chieftain, in “The Magnificent Seven,” an adaptation of the Japanese classic “Seven Samurai.” He also appeared as a mobster in Francis Ford Coppola’s mafia saga “The Godfather: Part III.” The son of Jewish immigrants from Poland who owned a candy store in an Italian neighbourhood in Brooklyn, Wallach served in World War Two and then began studying acting.

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