Clint Eastwood was already established and older than expected when he starred in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Most of Eastwood's iconic Westerns were Spaghetti Westerns, known for graphic violence and moral ambiguity. Blondie in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is still Clint Eastwood's defining and most iconic performance.

While The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly might be Clint Eastwoods most famous role, the actor was already both established and older than viewers might assume by the time he starred in the Spaghetti Western. As an actor and a director, Clint Eastwood has had the unique privilege of starring in three distinct eras of the Western genre. As a young emerging actor in the 1950s, Eastwood appeared in Technicolor Westerns such as Star in the Dust and Ambush at Cimarron Pass. Rawhide cemented the actors status as a genre mainstay, but he soon helped revolutionize the Western's image.