The great actor Eli Wallach has died at the age of 98. You never read any scandals about him, he was married to the same woman for 65 years, and kept working as long as he could. From what I have read, he was going to be a teacher, but sort of wandered into acting before and during his military service, and once in it, he was fully engaged.
Of course he was most famous for his role as Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez in the absolute classic The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. He's first seen in the film leaping through a (closed) window (hey, every actor has to do that!) holding a turkey drumstick in one hand and a gun in the other, having just shot three would-be assassins. And the lines his character was given --
There are two kinds of people in this world: those with the rope around their necks and those who do the cutting.
I'm looking for the owner of that horse. He's tall, he's blonde, he smokes a cigar, and he's a pig.
When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk.
I get dressed, I kill him, I'll be right back.
In the course of all this, Wallach's character is nearly executed (by hanging) no less than three times. GBU was also famous for the music by Ennio Morricone, which it seems appropriate to include here:
Of course there were many other roles he played, I can't say I've seen them all (who has?) but he was always excellent in everything I've seen. His list of film roles is here, and it runs from 1956 to 2010.
RIP Eli Wallach (1915-2014).