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 critics as more defined by his actions than his words. All three characters can be seen as anti-heroes killing for their personal gain. Leone also employed stylistic trick shooting, such as Blondie shooting the hat off a person's head and severing a hangman's noose with a well-placed shot, in many of its iconic shootouts. "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" opened in Italy on 23 December 1966, and grossed $6.3 million at that time. In the United States, "A Fistful of Dollars" was released 18 January 1967 (28 months after its initial Italian release); "For a Few Dollars More"