Clint Eastwood in the 1960s already becoming very popular in France, labelled as the "new Gary Cooper". In Paris, he met Pierre Rissient and had an affair with actress Catherine Deneuve. Two months later Eastwood began working on "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", the final film of the Dollars trilogy, in which he again played the mysterious Man With No Name character. Lee Van Cleef was brought in again to play a ruthless fortune seeker, while Eli Wallach, a character actor noted for his appearance in "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), was hired to play the cunning Mexican bandit "Tuco", although the role was
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was released 10 May 1967 (17 months); and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" was released 29 December 1967 (12 months). Thus, all three of Leone's Dollars Trilogy films were released in the United States during the same year. The original Italian domestic version was 177 minutes long, but the international version was shown at various lengths. Most prints, specifically those shown in the United States, had a runtime of 161 minutes, 16 minutes shorter than the Italian premiere version, but others, especially British prints, ran as short as 148 minutes. Upon release, "The Good, the Bad and the