20 Iconic Movie Scenes That Nearly Killed Their Stars
15. Eli Wallach: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
They had a fantastic director in Sergio Leone, but the hot, sweaty, poorly scheduled filming process was never easy, and Leone was prone to cutting the corners.
The biggest victim of this thriftiness was Eli Wallach, the “Ugly” part of “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly” who nearly lost his life several times during filming.
First, Wallach drank from a bottle of acid a crew member had carelessly left out in the open. He later had to perform in a scene where he was to be hanged on top of a horse. The horse bolted, carrying Wallach over a mile into the desert with his hands tied behind his back.
But the most famous escape from death Wallach suffered through during filming came with the famous train scene. Wallach had to lie perfectly still beneath a moving train that was severing his handcuff chain.
Unbeknownst to both Wallach and the film crew, the train had several step ladders attached to the side of each car. If Wallach had been a few short inches higher, he could have lost his head.
