The best of the best in terms of scene-stealing supporting roles in Westerns!
There are a lot of great elements that make a great Western. For starters, there is the setting of the Old West, or in the case of a Spaghetti Western, the countryside of Italy that doubles as the American frontier. There are character arcs for the film’s protagonists that fit the mold of the times in America and all our struggles. They often times mimic the old mythology of the samurai, only in this case, it’s a lone gunman rather than a swordsman.
There are always iconic characters that hold the screen with their faces in Westerns. But some of the best films in this genre have also crafted some of the most memorable supporting roles in the history of cinema. So let’s count them down and see what Westerns had the best supporting characters in them.
10, Ricky Nelson as Colorado Ryan – Rio Bravo (1959)
Heartthrob Ricky Nelson was only 19 years old by the time Rio Bravo was released in theaters. He’s definitely playing to his strengths, as before long he picks up a guitar and begins to sing a song in the film. In Rio Bravo, Nelson plays a young, baby-faced cowboy by the name of Colorado Ryan.
He’s an aid to John Wayne in the film, protecting the town from outlaws who are looking to bust out one of their own. Ricky Nelson is definitely there to draw in a younger, female audience to the film, but he holds his own with The Duke and Dean Martin.
9, Matthew Fox as John Brooder – Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Over the years, Bone Tomahawk has caught traction on streaming. Its blend of the Wild West and the horror genre is a fusion that movie fans have been dreaming about for a while. With a cast that includes Kurt Russell, David Arquette, Patrick Wilson, and Richard Jenkins, it’s got to be hard to stand out.
Well, that is, unless you’re Matthew Fox. In the film, Fox plays gunslinger John Brooder, who joins a rescue team to find some locals who were kidnapped by some cave-dwelling cannibals. Fox steals a lot of scenes he’s in with the likes of some top-tier acting talent. It’s a shame that after this film, he announced he was retiring from acting.
8, Christoph Waltz as Dr. King Schultz, Django Unchained (2012)
From playing a Nazi in his first Tarantino film to playing a bounty hunter who frees slaves in his second, Christoph Waltz is quite versatile in his acting. In Django Unchained, Waltz plays the charismatic German Dr. King Schultz, the man responsible for freeing Django (Jamie Foxx). The two go on an adventure together, hunting the South’s most wanted criminals.
This leads them to another character in this film who will appear later on this list. Schultz is part sidekick to Django, part better half who can hold his own. He’s a quick-witted fan favorite. The role would earn Waltz an Oscar nomination and a win for his performance.
7, Mel Brooks as Governor William J. Le Petomane – Blazing Saddles (1974)
The question that is often asked about Blazing Saddles is whether it would be passable by today’s standards with its humor surrounding race. That’s for any single viewer to decide, but most say it is solidified as a comedy classic. Throughout the 1970s, Mel Brooks was untouchable as a writer, actor, producer, and director. Who made films that often parodied Hollywood troupes.
By 1974, it was time to poke fun at Westerns with Blazing Saddles. Brooks actually plays two roles in the film. He plays a small role as an Indigenous chief with a Yiddish accent. But the other one is the cross-eyed, cleavage-loving Governor William J. Le Petomane. There are a lot of on-the-nose jokes in the film. The laughs are compliments to the cast with their delivery and the writing duo of Mel Brooks and Richard Pryor.
6, Morgan Freeman as Ned Logan – Unforgiven (1992)
Morgan Freeman‘s contribution to Clint Eastwood’s films is another great addition to the actor’s brilliant body of work. He would go on to win an Oscar for his role in Million Dollar Baby a little over a decade later. But in Unforgiven, you see why Eastwood and Freeman make for a brilliant collaboration. Freeman plays Ned Logan in the film; he’s a former outlaw who is just trying to live an honest, peaceful life but gets thrown back into the mix with his friend William Munny (Eastwood).
The scene in the film that is hard to watch is the whipping scene, where the vicious sheriff, Little Bill Daggett, whips him brutally as he questions him. It is a tough one to get through, and Freeman even mentions that it was scary to shoot.
5, Dean Martin as Dude – Rio Bravo (1959)
It’s crazy to think that Dean Martin and John Wayne were in Rio Bravo together. Two massive names in Hollywood history that also feel like polar opposites. However, they actually appeared in another film called The Sons of Katie Elder. Regardless, Dean Martin stands out a lot in Rio Bravo, as he plays against his persona quite well. Martin plays Dude; the best way to describe him is that he’s the town drunk. Playing the town drunk sounds easy when you’re not an actor.
However, to pull off the believability that this person is sauced 24/7 is actually a hard thing to do. Martin knocks the performance out of the park for its humor and likability. And like his co-star Ricky Nelson, it’s hard to hold the screen with John Wayne and still stand out. Dean Martin never lets up in any of his screen time.
4, Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin Candle – Django Unchained (2012)
Although Christoph Waltz took home the Oscar for the film, Leonardo DiCaprio‘s intensity is in full focus in Django Unchained. It was a film released at a time when the internet was constantly questioning if he would ever win an Oscar, as year after year he delivered one incredible performance after another. In Django, Leo plays Calvin Candle, a wealthy southern plantation owner, who on his land, is where Django’s lost love, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), works. A climactic confrontation between Django and Calvin happens at a dinner table. As the story goes, behind the scenes, DiCaprio was quite nervous about saying such horrible racial slurs in character to his black co-stars.
Samuel L. Jackson notoriously told him that this was just another Tuesday. But Jamie Foxx also pulled him to the side and gave him a pep talk about how to manage things, so there was no internal struggle brewing inside of him. The next day, DiCaprio arrived on set and didn’t utter a word to his cast members. He distanced himself so that his on-screen presence came off as more menacing to his co-stars and the audience.
3, Eli Wallach as Tuco – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966)
Maybe this doesn’t need to be mentioned, but in case you don’t know, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is one of the best Westerns of all time. With phenomenal direction by maestro Sergio Leone and an unforgettable score by Ennio Morricone, it’s the best of the best in terms of Spaghetti Westerns. Eli Wallach‘s performance of Tuco is unforgettable and matches up well against Clint Eastwood, whom he pairs up with on and off throughout the film.
Tuco has a few memorable lines in the film, one of which is where he shoots someone who is out to kill him and puts a pin in the scene with the line, “When you have to shoot, shoot, don’t talk.”
2, Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday – Tombstone, (1993)
Westerns usually have an ensemble cast, so it’s hard to stand out when all the actors are giving it their all to make a major contribution to the film. Tombstone has an unforgettable cast, with scene after scene that captivates you. It may be the last best western to ever hit the big screen. Val Kilmer‘s performance as Doc Holliday is one of the most admired characters of all time. He’s charismatic, a bit of a showman, and one of the best gunslingers in any Western. He can outsmart a town full of beer bellies and yet also has a strong moral code.
Holliday very easily could pass as a bad guy in another Western with his witty persona, but having Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) deputize him and make him one of the good guys only makes you like him more because he’s someone you root for.
1, Henry Fonda as Frank – Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Seeing Henry Fonda play the bad guy in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West is the equivalent of seeing Tom Hanks play a serial killer. Although we haven’t seen Hanks do that yet, but we still have Fonda playing one of the meanest, most vindictive, child-murdering, evil characters in the wild west. Fonda was the ultimate good guy for movie lovers at the time. So seeing him bite into this character is a testament to his range and craft as an actor, making him one of the most respected actors of all time. Sergio Leone had a clear idea of what he was doing by casting him in the role of Frank.
Fonda had done westerns before, but not like this. Spaghetti Westerns were rawer, edgier, and had a more violent tone to them. They weren’t about the growth of the American dream but rather the harsh realities of the American frontier and the brutality of the wild west. Henry Fonda’s performance is a walking metaphor for that lifestyle.
You still get a chill run up your spine in his introduction scene, where he and his band of outlaws murders an entire family. The camera comes around his black-hat-wearing character and lands on his face, revealing that the murderous villain of the film will be played by one of America’s sweethearts.