RIP.
No shit! Drag…
The Magnificent Seven is one of my favorite movies. I’ll watch it again tomorrow in memory. R.I.P.
His first credit on imdb is from 1951 (although his bio says his first TV/movie role was in 1949), and his last is from 2009 (when he was 94). He was the best thing about The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. He was a really fine and memorable actor.
Damn, I was amazed watching his performance in The Misfits just last week. Bye, Eli. You were good, no matter what the role’s name was.
RIP Eli,
I fondly recall TGTBATU as my first proper “grown-up” film. Certainly the first one that sticks in the memory. Tuco Benedicto Pacifica Juan-Maria Ramirez (AKA “the rat”) was a truly brilliant cinematic creation.
That film would be a pale and poor shadow of itself without Eli’s performance.
I dare say he upstaged Eastwood.
Absolutely he did, it was Tuco’s film, no doubt.
I agree, if I conjure up a picture in my mind of that film I see Tuco sitting grumpily on a horse with a noose round his neck, squinting, grimacing and gurning and eager to get on with it. Eastwood and Van Cleef are great, but ultimately secondary.
You could relate to Tuco, a great character.
I’ll miss Eli - his career spanned many phases and he was good in all of them.
One of the all-time greats, over several decades. R.I.P.
My favorite performance of his as well.
RIP
Tuco was my favourite too!
He’s a simple (yet crafty), humorously impulsive, (and always) dangerous man. And while TMWNN masks all emotion/reactions, Tuco always flies his feelings with pride. All three main characters play different variations of shifty, homeless brigands; but it’s small additions (like Tuco’s background story of childhood poverty) that makes him the most human.
Sad to see Eli go, but what a life.
And the torch of “Holy crap, they’re still alive?” passes to Lauren Bacall. Abe Vigoda is disqualified because he’s immortal.
Watched The Misfits just a couple months ago myself. So weird that it was Gable and Monroe’s last film, Clift only did a few more films. Ritter only lasted until '69. But he kept going and going.
An early film that showed that the guy just had talent was Baby Doll (1956). Yet he was already in his 40s then.
If you look at the The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse entry for him at IMDb, you’ll see the 1949 credit. Don’t know why that isn’t at the bottom of the list.
His best trick by far was the time he possessed that lady’s toaster. HAUNTED TOASTER - YouTube
RIP
IMDb lists series credits by the year of the last apperance and his was in '55.
Sad loss.
Am I really the first here to mention Batman? He was the original Mr. Freeze and did it much better than Arnold.
I wrote him a fan letter 15 years ago or so and asked him what he thought of Arnold’s take on the role. He wrote me back a nice note (along w/ a signed photo) that said something about how he got $10,000 to play the role and Schwarzenegger got $10,000,000.
blondie!!!
I was really pulling for him to make it to 100.
RIP, Eli. 