Spaghetti Western Trivia ~ Elam and Elam

Veteran American western actor Jack Elam was used by director Sergio Leone to great effect in “Once Upon a Time in the West” (1968) as one of the three bounty hunters who await Harmonica at the lonely train station in the opening of the film. Elam will always be remembered for his scene with the pesky fly he finally traps in the barrel of his pistol and soothingly listens to its buzz as it seeks freedom from its trap. Most people don’t know that Jack turned down the role of the one-armed bounty hunter in “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” whose face is shown at the very beginning of the film and who finally catches Tuco while he’s taking a bath in the bombed out hotel room. The role was taken by Al Mulock. The character’s name in “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly?” Elam!