Tuco (Eli Wallach)
Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez(Full name) is a mercurial, short-tempered and infamous bandit and the protagonist of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. He has several prices on his head in as many as fourteen counties, though it may add up to more. He is wanted for a great variety of crimes ranging from robbery of a post office to murder and rape.
The Good the Bad and the Ugly[]
While eating in a cantina, Tuco is ambushed by three bounty hunters, two of whom he shoots dead, one of whom he shoots the arm off of. He happens upon The Man with no Name and with him he begins conning the law out of its money, but he is later betrayed by The Man with no Name who takes Tuco's share of the money and leaves him in the desert to die. He escapes to a Desert town and robs the local gun store before teaming up with several Bounty hunters to track down The Man with no Name, who Tuco now refers to as Blondie.
The plot to kill Blondie fails and Tuco is rides through the Desert of New Mexico to track him down, after several days of riding he finally catches up with Blondie and forces him to walk through desert until Blondie collapses from exhaustion and lack of water. He tries to finish Blondie off once more but the attempt is foiled when a Stagecoach passes nearby, Tuco stops the Stagecoach and further inspection reveals that it belongs to the Confederate State Army, inside are multiple dead Confederate officers with only one survivor: Bill Carson, it is from him that Tuco learns the existence of a buried Confederate treasure, he learns the name of a Graveyard in which it is buried. Bill Carson begins to die painfully and Tuco rushes to get him some water, by the time he reaches Carson the soldier is dead and Blondie spoke with him moments before, learning the name of the grave. Tuco, who is desperate to learn the Graves name is forced to take Blondie to a New Mexican monastry where wounded men are pouring in from the war. He is forced to wait for several days whilst Blondie heals during which he confronts his own brother, Pablo Ramirez who is head of the Monastry. After swift arguement Tuco leaves with the now healed Blondie and they set off to find the buried money, with Tuco knowing te name fo the Graveyard and Blondie knowing the name of the grave they are forced to work together.
The two are captured whilst disguised as Confederate officers by Union troops and they are taken to a Union camp where they meet Sentenza (Angel Eyes) who has poor Tuco savagely beaten by Corporal Wallace for information. Tuco is taken away to be executed whilst Sentenza rides off with Blondie to find the money. Tuco, pretending he has to relieve himself, escapes from the train of which he is being transported on and kills Corporal Wallace in the process. He boards another passing train and rides to a nearby town where he meets up again with Blondie. The two team up to fight Sentenza and his men but Sentenza escapes. Afterwards they continue to travel to the Graveyard when they are yet again caught up in the war. The two assist in the destruction of Braxton bridge. Tuco is unharmed by the debris and scares himself to sleep hours later. Next morning, he is woken by Blondie by being shoved over and the two cross the river. Giving Blondie the slip, Tuco stumbles upon Sad Hill Cemetary, where he frantically searches for the gold in Arch Stanton's grave and starts digging. He's approached by Blondie and they are confronted by Sentenza a final time. The three of them have a final showdown in which Sentenza is killed. Tuco frantically fans his revolver to find it empty. It turned out that Blondie emptied his revolver the night before the gunfight. Blondie forces Tuco to dig up the money, which he does. The bandit notices Blondie tying up a noose, which he forces him to stand in. However, Blondie doesn't not let the bandit die and cuts the rope once he's at a safe distance. As Blondie rides off Tuco screams,
"Hey Blondie you know what you are!? Just a dirty son of a-"
Only to be cut off by his theme music.
A Dollar to Die For[]
Sergeant Ramirez is looking for the gold that the Count de Cabronet used to try and save Emperor Maximilian, though he was only doing it for the money.
Collecting the money, he first kills some of the men of the Count de Cabronet on order from Captain Alvarez, then murders Lieutenant Sanchez and promotes himself to General before hiding the gold away and celebrating, dressing himself in the not-quite-dead Cabronet's clothing.
Wandering over to Tyopa, he drunkenly celebrates before falling sound asleep by a well. He is woken by women's screams and is kidnapped by Banton the Apache, and then captured again Pinky Roebuck, the White Apache. He is briefly re-united with Blondie and tied with him to a large tree, but Blondie is tortured by killer ants before he can save them both, and Tuco faints from being scratched on the shoulders with Apache spears. Roebuck makes off with him towards the treasure that Tuco buried. Under Roebuck, Tuco is starved under torture, but made to eat so he can get his energy to tell him where the cash is. However, he turns the tables and ties Roebuck to a tree. He camps out by his captive before leaving in the morning with the gold. Surviving in the wild, Tuco begins to gain the weight of his body back. One night, he is found by Captain Alvarez with the money he brought with him, and is promoted to Lieutenant.
Out on his post another night, Lt. Ramirez is met again by Blondie. On his way to retrieving the gold from the camp, Tuco kills several soldiers, including Captain Alvarez to help him retrieve the money. While the fight is going on, he attempts to get away with the money, but is apprehended with Blondie.
He is finally brought into jail by Blondie, but is helped to escape when Blondie ties the rope to his cell and pulls it loose, because "A world without Tuco would be much less interesting".
TRIVIA[]
- Eli Wallach almost died up to six times playing Tuco.
- Leone cast Wallach after seeing his performance as the criminal Charlie Gant in How the West Was Won.