American actors who appeared in spaghetti westerns

1. Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Ruth Wood (née Margret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took interest in ...

2. Lee Van Cleef

Actor | Escape from New York

One of the great movie villains, Clarence Leroy Van Cleef, Jr. was born in Somerville, New Jersey, to Marion Lavinia (Van Fleet) and Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef, Sr. His parents were of Dutch ancestry. Van Cleef started out as an accountant. He served in the U.S. Navy aboard minesweepers and sub ...

3. Henry Fonda

Actor | 12 Angry Men

This remarkable, soft-spoken American began in films as a diffident juvenile. With passing years, he matured into a star character actor who exemplified not only integrity and strength, but an ideal of the common man fighting against social injustice and oppression. He was born in Grand Island, ...

4. Charles Bronson

Actor | Death Wish

The archetypal screen tough guy with weatherbeaten features--one film critic described his rugged looks as "a Clark Gable who had been left out in the sun too long"--Charles Bronson was born Charles Buchinsky, one of 15 children of struggling parents in Pennsylvania. His mother, Mary (Valinsky), ...

5. Richard Harrison

Actor | Ninja Dragon

The mighty, musclebound actor Richard Harrison was one of a slew of handsome American pectoral hunks whose 1950's career in Hollywood amounted to little more than brawny bits but, after, being lured to Italy, became a popular sword-and-sandal star of the early 1960's. Unlike many others, Harrison ...

6. Lang Jeffries

Actor | Solo contro Roma

Lang Jeffries was born on June 7, 1930 in Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for Alone Against Rome (1962), Mexican Slayride (1967) and The Revolt of the Slaves (1960). He was married to Mary Householder, Gail H. Getty and Rhonda Fleming. He died on February 12, 1987 in Huntington Beach, ...

7. Chuck Connors

Actor | Tourist Trap

Chuck Connors was born Kevin Joseph Connors in Brooklyn, New York, to Marcella (nee Lundrigan; died 1971) and Alban Francis "Allan" Connors (died 1966), Roman Catholic immigrants of Irish descent from the Dominion of Newfoundland (now part of Canada). Chuck and his two-years-younger sister, Gloria,...

8. Jason Robards

Actor | All the President's Men

Powerful and highly respected American actor Jason Nelson Robards, Jr. was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Hope Maxine (Glanville) and stage and film star Jason Robards Sr. He had Swedish, English, Welsh, German, and Irish ancestry. Robards was raised mostly in Los Angeles. A star athlete at ...

9. Jack Elam

Actor | C'era una volta il West

Colorful American character actor equally adept at vicious killers or grizzled sidekicks. As a child he worked in the cotton fields. He attended Santa Monica Junior College in California and subsequently became an accountant and, at one time, manager of the Bel Air Hotel. Elam got his first movie ...

10. Jack Betts

Actor | Spider-Man

Jack Betts was born on April 11, 1929 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. He is an actor, known for Spider-Man (2002), Falling Down (1993) and 8MM (1999).

11. Gordon Mitchell

Actor | Maciste nella terra dei ciclopi

Tall, massively built, imposing-looking blond Gordon Mitchell (early on dubbed the "The Bronze Giant") was one of those perfectly developed bodybuilders who jumped on the Steve Reeves bandwagon and hightailed it to Italy to seek movie stardom as a Herculean strongman. Born Charles Allen Pendleton ...

12. Thomas Hunter

Writer | The Final Countdown

Thomas Hunter was born on December 19, 1932 in Savannah, Georgia, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Final Countdown (1980), Il sorriso del ragno (1971) and X312 - Flight to Hell (1971). He was married to Isabelle Courts. He died on December 27, 2017 in Rowayton, Connecticut, USA.

13. Ray Saunders

Actor | The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show

Ray Saunders was born on September 27, 1922 in New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950), Dragnet (1951) and The Lone Ranger (1949). He died on March 13, 2000 in Mill Valley, California, USA.

14. Van Johnson

Actor | The Caine Mutiny

Van Johnson was the fresh-faced, well-mannered nice guy on screen you always wanted your daughter to marry! This fair, freckled and invariably friendly-looking MGM song-and-dance star of the 40s emerged a box office favorite (1944-1946) and second only to heartthrob Frank Sinatra during what gossip...

15. Tony Anthony

Producer | Get Mean

Tony Anthony is largely credited with the revival of the 3-D concept in the early 1980s. Anthony did, however work for many years on Spaghetti Westerns (some with co-production company Lupo-Anthony-Quintano Productions). He produced and starred in two 3-Dimensional movies, both of which enjoyed a ...

16. Henry Silva

Actor | The Manchurian Candidate

Henry Silva was born on September 23, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York. He quit public school to attend drama classes at age 13, supporting himself as a dishwasher in a Manhattan hotel. By 1955, Silva had moved up from dishwasher to waiter, and felt ready to audition for the Actors Studio. He was one of ...

17. Burt Reynolds

Actor | Boogie Nights

Enduring, strong-featured, and genial star of US cinema, Burt Reynolds started off in T.V. westerns in the 1960s and then carved his name into 1970s/1980s popular culture, as a sex symbol (posing nearly naked for "Cosmopolitan" magazine), and on-screen as both a rugged action figure and then as a ...

18. Dan Duryea

Actor | Too Late for Tears

Dan Duryea was educated at Cornell University and worked in the advertising business before pursuing his career as an actor. Duryea made his Broadway debut in the play "Dead End." The critical acclaim he won for his performance as Leo Hubbard in the Broadway production of "The Little Foxes" led to ...

19. Robert Woods

Actor | 2 once di piombo

Robert Woods was born on July 19, 1936 in Colorado, USA. He is an actor and executive, known for My Name Is Pecos (1966), 7 pistole per i MacGregor (1966) and Black Jack (1968).

20. Mark Damon

Actor | The Fall of the House of Usher

Mark Damon was born on April 22, 1933 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for House of Usher (1960), Monster (2003) and 11:14 (2003). He has been married to Margaret Markov since October 1976. They have two children. He was previously married to Barbara Frey.

21. Eli Wallach

Actor | Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo

One of Hollywood's finest character / "Method" actors, Eli Wallach was in demand for over 60 years (first film/TV role was 1949) on stage and screen, and has worked alongside the world's biggest stars, including Clark Gable, Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, Marilyn Monroe, Yul Brynner, Peter O'Toole,...

22. Dean Reed

Actor | Sing, Cowboy, sing

Dean Reed was born September 22, 1938, in Denver Colorado. He went to Hollywood where he signed a record contract with Capitol Records in 1958, but his third single, "Our Summer Romance" was so popular in South America he went to tour there. More popular than Elvis Presley, he stayed to enjoy his ...

23. John Ireland

Actor | All the King's Men

Born in Canada, John Ireland was raised in New York. Performing as a swimmer in a water carnival, he moved into the legitimate theater, often appearing in minor roles in Broadway plays. His first big break in pictures came in 1945 when he appeared as Windy the introspective letter-writing G.I. in ...

24. Jack Palance

Actor | City Slickers

Jack Palance quite often exemplified evil incarnate on film, portraying some of the most intensely feral villains witnessed in 1950s westerns and melodrama. Enhanced by his tall, powerful build, icy voice, and piercing eyes, he earned two "Best Supporting Actor" nominations early in his career. It ...

25. Leonard Mann

Actor | Flowers in the Attic

Leonard Mann was born on March 1, 1947 in Albion, New York, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Flowers in the Attic (1987), The Humanoid (1979) and Night School (1981).

26. Rod Steiger

Actor | In the Heat of the Night

Rodney Stephen Steiger was born in Westhampton, New York, to Augusta Amelia (Driver) and Frederick Jacob Steiger, both vaudevillians. He was of German and Austrian ancestry. After his parents' divorce, Steiger was raised by his mother in Newark, New Jersey. He dropped out of Westside High school at...

27. Edd Byrnes

Actor | Grease

Edd Byrnes was born Edward Byrne Breitenberger on July 30, 1932 in New York City, the son of Mary (Byrne) and Augustus "Gus" Breitenberger. Edd shared an impoverished and unhappy childhood with brother Vincent and sister Jo-Ann. Their mother worked hard at various jobs to keep the family together ...

28. Luke Askew

Actor | Easy Rider

Tall and rangy, usually sporting long mangy hair, and frequently projecting a strong and intense on-screen presence, character actor Luke Askew made a potent and lasting impression playing a substantial volume of mean and fearsome villains in both motion pictures and television shows alike in a ...

29. John Huston

Director | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

An eccentric rebel of epic proportions, this Hollywood titan reigned supreme as director, screenwriter and character actor in a career that endured over five decades. The ten-time Oscar-nominated legend was born John Marcellus Huston in Nevada, Missouri, on August 5, 1906. His ancestry was English,...

30. Guy Madison

Actor | The Beast of Hollow Mountain

Handsome American leading man Guy Madison stumbled into a film career and became a television star and hero to the Baby Boom generation. As a young man he worked as a telephone lineman, but entered the Coast Guard at the beginning of the Second World War. While on liberty one weekend in Hollywood, ...

31. James Coburn

Actor | The Great Escape

Lanky, charismatic and versatile actor with an amazing grin that put everyone at ease, James Coburn studied acting at UCLA, and then moved to New York to study under noted acting coach Stella Adler. After being noticed in several stage productions, Coburn appeared in a handful of minor westerns ...

32. Woody Strode

Actor | Spartacus

An athlete turned actor, Strode was a top-notch decathlete and a football star at UCLA. He became part of Hollywood lore after meeting director John Ford and becoming a part of the Ford "family," appearing in four Ford motion pictures. Strode also played the powerful gladiator who does battle with ...

33. Orson Welles

Actor | Citizen Kane

His father, Richard Head Welles, was a well-to-do inventor, his mother, Beatrice (Ives) Welles, a beautiful concert pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts (magic, piano, painting) as a child. When his mother died in 1924 (when he was nine) he traveled the world with his father. He was ...

34. Anthony Quinn

Actor | Alexis Zorbas

Anthony Quinn was born Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (some sources indicate Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca) on April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico, to Manuela (Oaxaca) and Francisco Quinn, who became an assistant cameraman at a Los Angeles (CA) film studio. His paternal grandfather was Irish, ...

35. Richard Crenna

Actor | Rambo III

Richard Donald Crenna was born in Los Angeles, California, into a modest-income family, the only child of Edith J. (Pollette) and Domenick Anthony Crenna, a pharmacist. His parents were both of Italian descent. His mother managed a small hotel in downtown Los Angeles, where Richard and his family ...

36. Robert Ryan

Actor | The Wild Bunch

Distinguished U.S. actor and longtime civil rights campaigner Robert Bushnell Ryan was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Mable Arbutus (Bushnell), a secretary, and Timothy Aloysius Ryan, whose wealthy family owned a real estate firm. His father was of Irish ancestry, and his mother was of English and ...

37. Patrick Wayne

Actor | The Searchers

Possessing his father's durable good looks, vigor and charm, this tall, strapping, exceedingly handsome second son of John Wayne had huge boots to fill in trying to escape his legendary father's shadow and corral Hollywood fame on his own terms. But attempt he did and, looking back, he may not have...

38. Craig Hill

Actor | The Black Shield of Falworth

Craig Hill was born on March 5, 1926 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Black Shield of Falworth (1954), All About Eve (1950) and Flight That Disappeared (1961). He was married to Teresa Gimpera. He died on April 21, 2014 in Barcelona, Spain.

39. Arthur Kennedy

Actor | Lawrence of Arabia

Arthur Kennedy, one of the premier character actors in American film from the late 1940s through the early 1960s, achieved fame in the role of Biff in Elia Kazan's historic production of Arthur Miller's Pultizer-Prize winning play "Death of a Salesman." Although he was not selected to recreate the ...

40. Ernest Borgnine

Actor | Marty

Ernest Borgnine was born Ermes Effron Borgnino on January 24, 1917 in Hamden, Connecticut. His parents were Anna (Boselli), who had emigrated from Carpi (MO), Italy, and Camillo Borgnino, who had emigrated from Ottiglio (AL), Italy. As an only child, Ernest enjoyed most sports, especially boxing, ...

41. Alex Cord

Actor | Airwolf

Born Alexander Viespi, Jr. in Floral Park, New York in 1933, handsome, often mustachioed Alex Cord was stricken with polio at the age of 12. Confined to a hospital and iron lung for a long time, he overcame the illness after being sent to a Wyoming ranch for therapy. He soon regained his dream and ...