Once Upon A Time In The West Almost Featured Clint Eastwood's Dollars Trilogy Cast

Once Upon A Time In The West Almost Had The Greatest Western Cameo Of All Time

Published Oct 12, 2026, 10:45 AM EDT

Padraig is a Senior Features Writer and has been part of Screen Rant since 2017. Padraig is a writer, editor and retired Game of Thrones extra who has been writing about movies and TV online for over a decade. He has also written for The Irish Times, Den Of Geek, Little White Lies and many more. It's pronounced Paw-rick, BTW.

Once Upon a Time in the West nearly had the ultimate Western cameo, which fell apart due to a feud between director and star. With Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy, the Italian filmmaker gave a much-needed shot in the arm to the ailing Western genre. During the 1960s, overexposure to Westerns via countless movies and TV shows had caused audiences to tune out - until A Fistful of Dollars came along.

Not only was this the Clint Eastwood Western that made him a star, the movie was also incredibly stylish and broke most of the rules of the genre. Leone's two sequels were equally acclaimed, but in spite of the fame they brought to Eastwood, the actor decided it was time to move on from Leone following 1966's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

He was focused on breaking into American movies, so Eastwood passed on Leone's offer to star in Once Upon a Time in the West and Duck, You Sucker! Charles Bronson ultimately took the role of stoic gunslinger "Harmonica" in the former, which became one of his most famous roles. Despite Eastwood passing on the main role, Leone still had another part in mind for his former leading man.

Once Upon A Time In The West Nearly Featured The Ultimate Cameo

Fans of Once Upon a Time in the West will recall the incredible opening, where Bronson's "Harmonica" gets off a train and is ambushed by three assassins; Bronson's gunslinger effortlessly slays all three and continues on his way. For a time, Leone wanted this opening to have a symbolic meaning, where the three killers would be played by his The Good, the Bad and the Ugly trio: Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach and, of course, Clint Eastwood.

Killing all three right from the beginning would signal to viewers that Once Upon a Time in the West was moving on from the Dollars trilogy. While Wallach was game for the cameo, Van Cleef was reportedly unavailable, while Eastwood simply passed on the offer. Feeling the gag would have no real punch without Eastwood, Leone cast Woody Strode, Jack Elam and Al Mulock in those roles instead.

Why Clint Eastwood Didn't Appear

In truth, Eastwood passing on Once Upon a Time in the West should have come as no surprise. The three films may have made Eastwood an A-lister, but he became increasingly frustrated with Leone's exacting, perfectionist style, feeling the helmer took too much time to shoot his movies. When Eastwood himself became a filmmaker, he gained a reputation for being one of the most efficient directors in the business, often only filming single takes of actors - or even just using their rehearsal take.

He also revealed in Conversations with Clint: Paul Nelson's Lost Interviews with Clint Eastwood, 1979-1983 that he felt Leone's focus was on scale instead of story, and that Eastwood had increasingly less to do as an actor with each of the Dollars trilogy. Speaking to Paul Nelson, Clint explained:

There was no challenge for me anymore. In The Good, the Bad and the Ugly there certainly wasn't as much of a challenge as a performer as there was in A Fistful of Dollars or For a Few Dollars More. In each one, progressively the impetus became on the production values rather than the story.

Despite the acclaim that greeted Once Upon a Time in the West, Eastwood seemingly had zero regrets about turning it down. This appears to have driven a wedge between him and Leone, with the late, great filmmaker even lambasting Eastwood's minimalist acting style while comparing him to Robert De Niro in Once Upon a Time in America. However, the duo later reconciled somewhat after meeting in Rome in 1988.

Leone even wanted Eastwood to make a prominent guest appearance in his planned Western miniseries, Colt, which sadly didn't come to pass following Leone's death in 1989. In hindsight, it would have been cool to see Eastwood, Wallach and Van Cleef united for Once Upon a Time in the West's opening, but it could have been a touch distracting too. It might have been for the best that Eastwood turned it down, but it is a shame he and Leone didn't end up working together once again.

Source: Conversations with Clint: Paul Nelson's Lost Interviews with Clint Eastwood, 1979-1983