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How does he signal that exactly?
The movie-mad director took his inspiration from cinema fact.
But that luck meant being shoehorned into dreck likeFrancis in the NavyandTarantula.
He got luckier being cast as Rowdy Yates on the hit TV showRawhide.
Still, he wasnt a leading man.
Eastwood agreed to do the film because it was a paid vacation to Spain during his TV hiatus.
Also because if it stunk, no one in America would ever see it.
Needless to say, it didnt … and they did.
A star was born.
And so was a new star-making template.
And also like Eastwood, he was hungry for the bigger screen.
He was rugged, but his lined-and-leathery mug was hardly the face of a matinee idol.
Bronson actuallylikedworking for the Italians (the hefty paychecks didnt hurt either).
But Leone brilliantly saw in Van Cleef a face made for his signature super-tight close-ups.
Hed eventually earn cult status back on his home turf in John CarpentersEscape From New York.
Whats a serious actor to do?
Well, bust out your passport, for one.
In fact, he had two different runs in Rome.
Telly Savalas
Who loves ya, baby?
Not Hollywood so much in the long, dry years beforeKojak.
But Italy opened its arms wide for Aristotelis Savalas.
Take the case of Farley Granger.
He and his lover moved to Rome in the early 70s.
And that star wasnt so much tarnished as it was just in need of a little Euro-polishing.
But its the following yearsSabatasequel,Adios, Sabata!, that is a snapshot of real expat insanity.
Joseph Cotten
Cotten will always be inextricably linked with Orson Welles.
But by the early 70s, his leading-man days were long over and theLove Boatwalk-ons awaited.
Like Welles, he took gigs far below his talent.
), and 1979sIsland of the Fishmen.
That last one is every ounce as bad as it sounds.
