The majority of bounty hunters in Westerns are skilled, but a few of them boast of better numbers when it comes to earnings and kill counts.
The appeal of the bounty hunter might have faded in recent years, but at the height of the Golden Age of Westerns, such individuals were a common form of hero, perhaps second only to the proverbial local sheriff. The independent marksmen made a living by capturing or killing outlaws and collecting the prize money. Interestingly, this wasn’t just a Hollywood invention. Back in 1873, the US Supreme Court had recognized bounty hunters as an official part of the law enforcement system.
Today, private investigators have mostly taken the place of bounty hunters in movies and TV shows, but it isn’t uncommon to see a head collector in the occasional Western that gets made. Among the bounty hunters that have appeared over the decades, a few can be considered prolific because they either killed a lot more baddies, earned way more money than their peers, or were just plain cool. These are the most prolific bounty hunters in Western cinema.
10, Sabata – Sabata (1969)
Western movies are filled with close-range shooters, and then there is Sabata (Lee Van Cleef), who can easily rival most modern-day fictional snipers. In Sabata’s opening sequence, the titular character is shown taking out a group of robbers from several miles away. When he goes to collect his $5,000 reward, it’s revealed that the men were stealing $100,000 belonging to the army.
However, there is more than meets the eye. In a new twist, it emerges that a few generals had planned the robbery in order to use the money to buy land that was being targeted by the government for railroad development. As the new owners, they would be able to sell it at a higher price.
The subsequent events play out predictably, with Sabata discovering the scheme, and the conspirators sending dozens of men to kill him. Still, the manner in which the hero keeps killing the hordes of attackers from all corners is remarkable. The goons keep coming, and he never stops shooting. At the conclusion of the mayhem, he eliminates the big fish too, remaining with the entire bag of money.
9, Harmonica – Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
There’s a lot to like about Once Upon a Time in the West’s Harmonica (Charles Bronson). He is ever calm, he has a quick draw, he plays an instrument, and he utters arguably one of the most memorable Western movie quotes: “Your friends have a high mortality rate, Frank.” Well, Frank happens to be the influential henchman of a railroad tycoon and Harmonica has a problem with him because he killed his brother a long time ago (something Frank doesn’t remember).
Since Frank is an outlaw with a $5,000 prize tag on his head, Harmonica comes up with a plan to capture him and use the reward money to buy a valuable Sweetwater Ranch that the tycoon is after. While trying to accomplish that, he is forced to battle a great many men, but he ultimately accomplishes his mission. His perfect revenge ends with him shooting Frank and placing Harmonica’s eponymous instrument in his mouth (just as Frank had done to a young Harmonica the day he attacked his family).
8, Rooster Cogburn – True Grit (1969)
The Coen brothers’ True Grit might be one of the best Western remakes, but the original Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne) is still more iconic. The character is a U.S. Marshall who relies on bounty hunting as a side gig. Rooster is hired by a young girl named Mattie to get the man who killed her father and from this job, he earns a $100 payment plus a bonus of $200 for saving her life.
It’s a decent sum in the Old West for a single job and Rooster impresses even more by killing dozens of henchmen over the course of the film. Though he has a sidekick in the Texas Ranger, La Boeuf, Rooster does most of the heavy lifting in the movie. It’s hinted that he has done jobs like these multiple times in the past and the fact that he has grown old in the job is proof of that.
7, Trane – Vera Cruz (1954)
Not all bounty hunters are protagonists. Some, like Vera Cruz’s main character, Ben Trane, are antiheroes, since Ben doesn’t hesitate to engage in unlawful scheming to fatten his pocket. He starts out as a soldier during the Civil War (where he kills hundreds of men), and after being honorably discharged, he begins working as a bounty hunter.
Soon, he is hired by Marquis Henri de Labordere from Mexico to escort Countess Duvarre through the dangerous badlands on her way to Veracruz. Initially offered $25000, he demands $50,0000, the first proof of his intellect.
The observant Trane later learns that the stagecoach is holding $3 million in gold which the government intends to use to buy weapons. The quick-thinking bounty hunter makes a deal with the Countess to keep the cash and claim it was stolen. Several other parties pop up along the way attempting to get the gold for themselves, but Trane kills them all before walking away with the treasure.
6, Blondie – The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (1966)
Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad & the Ugly is generally considered the greatest Spaghetti Western for a whole host of reasons. One of the three main characters is the bounty hunter Blondie, who makes a deal with the outlaw Tuco to keep capturing him and helping him escape (by shooting the hangman’s noose) in exchange for them sharing the money. This scheme brings both men a total of $2000 each before their business relationship disintegrates.
Together with the mercenary Angel Eyes, the men try to outdo each other in order to be the first to get $200,000 worth of Confederate gold that is buried in a cemetery. Blondie ends up getting the money, which he is surprisingly kind enough to share with Tuco. He, therefore, receives a total of $102,000 during his time in the movie, making him one of the highest-earning fictional bounty hunters ever.
5, Dr. King Schultz – Django Unchained (2012)
The great Christoph Waltz is being underutilized lately, but in the early 2010s, he had a number of incredible roles such as that of the dentist-turned-hunter, Dr. King. Schultz in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained.
Waltz’s character accomplishes a lot in the movie, including hunting and killing the notorious Brittle brothers, freeing several slaves, training Django to become like him, and helping the titular character find his lost lover, Broomhilda. The character’s level of industriousness and overall achievements are remarkable, considering that he doesn’t even last the entire movie.
Schultz’s spending power is shown to be quite high too, meaning he makes a lot from his job. He pays Django $75 the first time he meets him and agrees to pay $12,000 for Broomhilda’s release. Most importantly, he takes down 16 men in the movie, making him only second to Django when it comes to general kill counts.
4, Jim Kipp – The Bounty Hunter (1954)
The Bounty Hunter‘s opening sequence confirms that Kipp is good at his job. The character is shown taking a dead body to town to collect a reward and one of the townsfolk even describes him as “the man that will do anything for money.” Every criminal fears him, so the Pinkerton Detective Agency tasks him with tracking down three robbers who took away $100,000. For his trouble, he will get about a quarter of the amount.
The mission becomes a lot harder because there is a bigger conspiracy in play. It turns out that the Sheriff is actually one of the robbers, so several obstacles are thrown Kipp’s way. However, he overcomes them all, thanks to his grit and skill, and takes down everyone. In the end, he keeps the money for himself.
3, Hank Fellows – Taste of Killing (1966)
One needs the right weapons to be a good bounty hunter. For Taste of Killing’s protagonist, Hank Fellows, the job is a lot easier because he has a long-range rifle with telescopic vision. He is seen using it right at the start of the film to target criminals that have killed soldiers and taken over a military vehicle that is transporting money to a bank in Omaha. Their plan was to get to the bank while masquerading as soldiers in order to steal more money, but Hank foils their plan and kills them before submitting their bodies for reward money.
A bigger challenge comes when Hank is offered double his reward money if he helps get the money to Omaha, now that the soldiers are dead. Along the way, he is ambushed multiple times, but he manages to fend off all the attacks and get the money to Omaha safely. He therefore finishes with a high body count as well as double his money.
2, Dan Evans – 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
One also needs the right motivation to be a proper bounty hunter, and for 3:10 to Yuma’s Dan Evans (Christian Bale), it’s the desire to feed his family. “I’m tired of watching my boys go hungry. I’m tired of the way that they look at me,” he says. The fact that he is deeply in debt also becomes a motivating factor.
To erase his financial woes, Evans offers to transport notorious outlaw Ben Wade (Russel Crowe) to prison if he is paid $1000 and his farm is granted access to the area’s fresh river water. Despite being disabled (having lost one leg during his time as a soldier in the Civil War), Evans manages to defend himself from all of Wade’s goons and get the criminal to prison.
1, Manco – For a Few Dollars More (1965)
From the moment he is introduced in For a Few Dollars More, Manco (otherwise known as The Man with No Name) makes it obvious that he only takes on a job if the money is good enough. When he is informed that a notorious bank robber named El Indio has escaped from prison and that there is a $27,000 reward for capturing him and his entire gang, he gets to action.
Manco has a smarter plan, which involves him going undercover in El Indio’s gang and finding a way to bring him down. In fact, the bounty hunter rarely uses his weapon in the entire movie. The strategy works well for him and in the final minutes, he is seen transporting the bodies of the entire gang to exchange them for reward money. He also does it with more suave, stoic intimidation than almost any other bounty hunter in Western cinema.