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Once Upon a Time in the West
There were three men in her life. One to take her… one to love her —and one to kill her.
As the railroad builders advance unstoppably through the Arizona desert on their way to the sea, Jill arrives in the small town of Flagstone with the intention of starting a new life.
  • Released on 12/21/1968 (Movie)
  • 8.3 out of 10 (4350 votes on TMDB)
  • Drama / Western
  • Cast
  • Crew
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Headshot of Claudia Cardinale
Claudia Cardinale

Character's name: "Jill"
Birthday: 04/15/1938
Birthplace: Tunis, Tunisia
Biography:
Claude Joséphine Rose "Claudia" Cardinale (born 15 April 1938) is an Italian actress. She has starred in European films in the 1960s and 1970s, acting in Italian, French, and English. Born and raised in La Goulette, a neighbourhood of Tunis, Cardinale won the "Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia" competition in 1957, the prize being a trip to Italy, which quickly led to film contracts, due above all to the involvement of Franco Cristaldi, who acted as her mentor for a number of years and later married her. After making her debut in a minor role with the egyptian star Omar Sharif in Goha (1958), Cardinale became one of the best-known actresses in Italy with roles in films such as Rocco and His Brothers (1960), Girl with a Suitcase (1961), Cartouche (1962), The Leopard (1963), and Fellini's 8½ (1963). From 1963, Cardinale appeared in The Pink Panther opposite David Niven. She went on to appear in the Hollywood films Blindfold (1965), Lost Command (1966), The Professionals (1966), Don't Make Waves (1967) with Tony Curtis, The Hell with Heroes (1968), and the Sergio Leone Western Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), a joint US-Italian production, in which she was praised for her role as a former prostitute opposite Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, and Henry Fonda. Jaded with the Hollywood film industry and not wanting to become a cliché, Cardinale returned to Italian and French cinema, and garnered the David di Donatello for Best Actress award for her roles in Il giorno della civetta (1968) and as a prostitute alongside Alberto Sordi in A Girl in Australia (1971). In 1974, Cardinale met director Pasquale Squitieri, who would become her partner, and she frequently featured in his films, including I guappi (1974), Corleone (1978) and Claretta (1984), the last of which won her the Nastro d'Argento Award for Best Actress. In 1982, she starred in Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo as the love interest of Klaus Kinski, who raises the funds to buy a steamship in Peru. In 2010, Cardinale received the Best Actress Award at the 47th Antalya "Golden Orange" International Film Festival for her performance as an elderly Italian woman who takes in a young Turkish exchange student in Signora Enrica. Outspoken on women's rights causes over the years, Cardinale has been a UNESCO goodwill ambassador for the Defense of Women's Rights since March 2000. In February 2011, the Los Angeles Times Magazine named Cardinale among the 50 most beautiful women in film history. Description above from the Wikipedia article Claudia Cardinale, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Headshot of Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda

Character's name: "Frank"
Birthday: 05/16/1905
Date of Death: 08/12/1982
Birthplace: Grand Island, Nebraska, USA
Biography:
Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American actor who had a career that spanned five decades in Hollywood. Fonda cultivated a strong, appealing screen image in several films now considered to be classics, earning one Academy Award for Best Actor on two nominations. Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor and made his Hollywood film debut in 1935. His film career began to gain momentum with roles such as Bette Davis's fiancee in her Academy Award-winning performance in Jezebel (1938), brother Frank in Jesse James (1939), and the future President in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), directed by John Ford. His early career peaked with his Academy Award-nominated performance as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, about an Oklahoma family who moved to California during the Dust Bowl 1930s. This film is widely considered to be among the greatest American films. In 1941 he starred opposite Barbara Stanwyck in the screwball comedy classic The Lady Eve. Book-ending his service in WWII were his starring roles in two highly regarded westerns: The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) and My Darling Clementine (1946), the latter directed by John Ford, and he also starred in Ford's western Fort Apache (1948). After a seven-year break from films, during which Fonda focused on stage productions, he returned with the WWII war-boat ensemble Mister Roberts (1955). In 1957 he starred as Juror No.8, the hold-out juror, in 12 Angry Men. Fonda, who was also co-producer, won the BAFTA for Best Foreign Actor. Later in his career, Fonda moved into darker roles, such as the villain in the epic Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), underrated and a box office disappointment at its time of release, but now regarded as one of the best westerns of all time. He also played in lighter-hearted fare such as Yours, Mine and Ours with Lucille Ball, but also often played important military figures, such as a Colonel in Battle of the Bulge (1965), and Admiral Nimitz in Midway (1976). He finally won the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 54th Academy Awards for his final film role in On Golden Pond (1981), which also starred Katharine Hepburn and his daughter Jane Fonda, but was too ill to attend the ceremony. He died from heart disease a few months later. Description above from the Wikipedia article Henry Fonda, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Headshot of Jason Robards
Jason Robards

Character's name: "'Cheyenne'"
Birthday: 07/26/1922
Date of Death: 12/26/2000
Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Biography:
Jason Nelson Robards Jr. (July 26, 1922 – December 26, 2000) was an American actor. Known as an interpreter of the works of playwright Eugene O'Neill, Robards received two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor. He is one of 24 performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jason Robards, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Headshot of Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson

Character's name: "'Harmonica'"
Birthday: 11/03/1921
Date of Death: 08/30/2003
Birthplace: Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, USA
Biography:
Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky) was an American actor. Known for his granite features and brawny physique, he gained international fame for his starring roles in action, western, and war films; initially as a supporting player and later a leading man. A quintessential cinematic tough guy, Bronson was cast in various roles where the plot line hinged on the authenticity of the character's toughness and brawn. At the height of his fame in the early 1970s, he was the world's number one box office attraction.

Headshot of Gabriele Ferzetti
Gabriele Ferzetti

Character's name: "Morton"
Birthday: 03/17/1925
Date of Death: 12/02/2015
Birthplace: Rome, Italy
Biography:
Gabriele Ferzetti (born Pasquale Ferzetti; 17 March 1925 – 2 December 2015) was an Italian actor with more than 160 credits across film, television, and stage. His career was at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s. Ferzetti's first leading role was in the film Lo Zappatore (1950). He portrayed Puccini twice in the films Puccini (1953) and Casa Ricordi (1954). He made his international breakthrough in Michelangelo Antonioni's controversial L'Avventura (1960) as a restless playboy. After a series of romantic performances, he acquired a reputation in Italy as an elegant, debonair, and somewhat aristocratic looking leading man. Ferzetti starred as Lot in John Huston's biblical epic, The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966), and played railroad baron Morton in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). Perhaps his best known role, internationally, was in the James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) as Marc Ange Draco, although his voice was dubbed by British actor David de Keyser. He was perhaps best known to non-mainstream audiences for his role as the psychiatrist, Hans, in Liliana Cavani's The Night Porter (1974). In the 1970s, he appeared in a significant number of crime films, often as an inspector. He appeared in Julia and Julia, opposite Laurence Olivier in Inchon (1982), and the cult film, First Action Hero. Later in his career, he played the role of Nono in the TV series Une famille formidable, while also appearing in Luca Guadagnino's 2009 film I Am Love. Ferzetti died on 2 December 2015, aged 90. Description above from the Wikipedia article Gabriele Ferzetti, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Headshot of Paolo Stoppa
Paolo Stoppa

Character's name: "Sam"
Birthday: 06/06/1906
Date of Death: 05/01/1988
Birthplace: Rome, Italy
Biography:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Paolo Stoppa (6 June 1906 – 1 May 1988) was an Italian actor and dubber. Born in Rome, he began as a stage actor in 1927 in the theater in Rome and began acting in films in 1932. As a stage actor, his most celebrated works include those after World War II, when he met director Luchino Visconti: the two, together with Stoppa's wife, actress Rina Morelli, formed a trio whose adaptions of works by authors such as Chekhov, Shakespeare and Goldoni became highly acclaimed. He debuted in television in 1960 in the drama series Vita col padre e con la madre, reaching the top of the popularity in the 1970s, in particular in the adaption of crime novels by Friedrich Dürrenmatt (Il giudice e il suo boia and Il sospetto) and Augusto De Angelis. As a film actor, Stoppa made some 194 appearances between 1932 and his retirement in 1983: films he appeared in include popular classics such as Miracolo a Milano (1951), Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960), Viva l'Italia! (1961), Il Gattopardo (1962), La matriarca (1968), Amici miei atto II (1982). He also had a role in the Sergio Leone epic Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and cameoed in Becket (1964). Stoppa was also a renowned dubber of films into Italian. He began this activity in the 1930s as dubber of Fred Astaire. Other actors he dubbed include Richard Widmark, Kirk Douglas and Paul Muni. Description above from the Wikipedia article Paolo Stoppa, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Headshot of Woody Strode
Woody Strode

Character's name: "Frank's Gunman"
Birthday: 07/25/1914
Date of Death: 12/31/1994
Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, USA
Biography:
​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 Kirk Douglas in Spartacus (1960).

Headshot of Jack Elam
Jack Elam

Character's name: "Frank's Gunman"
Birthday: 11/13/1920
Date of Death: 10/20/2003
Birthplace: Miami, Gila, Arizona, USA
Biography:
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 job by trading his accounting services for a role. In short time he became one of the most memorable supporting players in Hollywood, thanks not only to his near-demented screen persona but also to an out-of-kilter left eye, sightless from a childhood fight. He appeared with great aplomb in Westerns and gangster films alike, and in later years played to wonderful effect in comedic roles.

Headshot of Keenan Wynn
Keenan Wynn

Character's name: "Sheriff"
Birthday: 07/26/1916
Date of Death: 10/14/1986
Birthplace: New York City, New York, USA
Biography:
Francis Xavier Aloysius James Jeremiah Keenan Wynn (July 27, 1916 – October 14, 1986) was an American character actor. His expressive face was his stock-in-trade; and though he rarely carried the lead role, he had prominent billing in most of his film and television roles. Description above from the Wikipedia article Keenan Wynn, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Headshot of Frank Wolff
Frank Wolff

Character's name: "Brett McBain"
Birthday: 05/11/1928
Date of Death: 12/12/1971
Birthplace: San Francisco, California, USA
Biography:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Walter Frank Hermann Wolff (May 11, 1928 —December 12, 1971) was a versatile American actor whose prolific movie career began with roles in five 1958-61 Roger Corman productions and ended a decade later in Rome, after scores of appearances in European-made films, most of which were lensed in Italy. Description above from the Wikipedia article Frank Wolff (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Headshot of Lionel Stander
Lionel Stander

Character's name: "Innkeeper"
Birthday: 01/11/1908
Date of Death: 11/30/1994
Birthplace: The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA
Biography:
Lionel Stander was an American stage, screen, radio, and television actor.

Headshot of Frank Braña
Frank Braña

Character's name: "Frank's Gunman (uncredited)"
Birthday: 02/24/1934
Date of Death: 02/13/2012
Birthplace: Pola de Allande, Asturias, Spain
Biography:
Francisco Braña Pérez (Pola de Allande, Asturias, February 24, 1934 - Majadahonda, February 13, 2012) was a Spanish actor.

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Stefano Imparato

Character's name: "Patrick McBain (uncredited)"
Birthday: 12/22/2024

Headshot of Claudio Mancini
Claudio Mancini

Character's name: "Hanged Man (uncredited)"
Birthday: 03/24/1928
Birthplace: Roma, Lazio, Italy

Headshot of Al Mulock
Al Mulock

Character's name: "Frank's Gunman (uncredited)"
Birthday: 06/30/1925
Date of Death: 05/01/1968
Birthplace: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Biography:
Alfred Mulock Rogers (June 30, 1926 – May 1968), better known as Al Mulock or Al Mulloch, was a Canadian character actor.


Headshot of Fulvio Morsella
Fulvio Morsella
Producer

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Bino Cicogna
Executive Producer

Headshot of Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone
Screenplay

Headshot of Sergio Donati
Sergio Donati
Screenplay

Headshot of Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone
Director

Production Companies