Good day folks.
I hope you good people can help me. I rewatched The Good, the Bad and the Ugly with my dad. When we got to the scene with the dust covered Union soldiers, my dad claimed to recognize the actor of the cavalry officer as the US actor John Anderson (known for his small roles in Psycho and US westerns such as Geronimo). I couldn’t imagine that Anderson, even thou he often played smaller roles, would play such a small NON-SPEAKING role, especially since it would probably be cheaper to just use an italian or spanish actor, as Leone did with most other smaller roles, but my dad insisted.
So could anyone of you clear this up for us.
Many Thanks!
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It’s not John Anderson … sorry, Dad!
This actor turns up in numerous Spaghetti westerns throughout the 60s to early 1970s … he’s usually just an extra, without dialogue … but he gets a few lines in ‘Blindman’ (1971)
You will also see him as the preacher / priest at the McBain funeral in ‘Once upon a time in the west’.
As yet no one here at SWDB has been able to identify him … he’s not credited on the IMDB for any of his film appearances.
My feeling is that he was a ex-patriot from one of the Northern European countries, living or retired to the Almeria region of southern Spain - He only appears in films shot in this specific region … so perhaps he was just paid cash in hand for a few days work now and then?
It would be really interesting to know something about the guy … or from anyone who knew him. He appears to be around late 50s / early 60s in age during the SW boom.
We already have a thread on this topic … but thanks for reviving it 
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Wow! Thank you so much for answering.
Never thought it would be such a mystery, almost a rabbit hole to get lost in.
Thanks again.
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Welcome aboard amico, you’ll have lots of fun here, and plenty of folks to help you with questions and recommendations, which I see you’ve already engaged in.
I remember this actor having a minor speaking part in Tonino Valerii’s Per Il Gusto di Uccidere (Taste of Killing). He plays a barfly who while drunk pushes George Wang’s buttons and gets a machete in his belly for it. Tom Betts mentioned somewhere once that this guy was most likely one of the many American soldiers of WWII stationed in Italy who decided to stay after the occupation ended and worked as a film extra. usually in Westerns or Giallos set in the States.
That’s stretching conjecture a bit too far … and besides Southern Spain, where all his appearances are filmed, is a long way from Italy.
PS: He is accompanied on at least 3 occasions by a woman who may have been his ‘Missus’ … She’s the lady who comments on 'Tuco’s 2nd hanging - “I’m glad they caught him, a man guilty of all those crimes” … a hard faced blonde haired woman, around the same age as ‘Mystery Man’. They’re seen together in, ‘Twice a Judas’ , ‘The Price of Power’, and she’s also a mourner at the McBain funeral.
She also has no IMDB credits even though she has dialogue … and many of the cast listed have none. So, these two persons weren’t part of any actor’s union … although that wasn’t any big deal back then.
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Here’s the original thread started 2018 … time flies, and still no closer to solving the mystery
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You’re right Aldo, I must’ve been thinking about someone else Tom Betts was talking about.