Tuco Ramírez

Tuco Ramírez
Behind the scenes
Portrayed by	Eli Wallach
Appears in	The Good, the Bad and the Ugly A Dollar to Die For
Biographical information
Location	Texas
Status	Alive
Gender	Male

“I like big fat men like you. When they fall, they make more noise, and sometimes they never get up!”

–Tuco Ramírez to Corporal Wallace.

Tuco Benedicto Pacífico Juan María Ramírez or "The Ugly", is one of the secondary antagonists of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. He is a Mexican bandit and former partner of the man he referred to as "Blondie" as part of a smart operation aimed at collecting money for themselves who, whilst taking revenge on Blondie for quitting their job, finds out the name of the cemetery where Bill Carson hid $200,000, but only Blondie knows the name on the grave. This forces Tuco to become reluctant partners with Blondie. He is played by Eli Wallach.

Biography

Early life

When Tuco was roughly ten or twelve, his brother, Pablo, left his family to become a priest. Tuco stayed behind with his parents and he soon became a bandit to earn money. He eventually completely drifted away from his family as he became more infamous. By the time of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Tuco's mother had been dead for years and his father dies shortly before the start of the movie. Pablo tells Tuco that his father requested he be there when he died even though there was no way to inform Tuco. When Tuco confronted his brother after their father's death, they discussed the differences in their life choices and eventually come to harming each other in the discussion. After, Pablo asks for forgiveness, but his brother has already left.

Quotes

“There are two kinds of people in the world, my friend: Those with a rope around the neck, and the people who have the job of doing the cutting.”

— Tuco to Blondie.

"When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk!"

- Tuco to the One Armed Man

“There are two kinds of spurs my friend, the ones coming by the door.....and the ones coming by the window.”

— Tuco to Blondie at gun point.

“You think you're better than I am? Where we came from, if one did not want to die of poverty, one became a priest or a bandit! You chose your way, I chose mine. Mine was harder. You talk of our mother and father. You remember when you left to become a priest? I stayed behind! I must have been ten, twelve. I don't remember which, but I stayed. I tried, but it was no good. Now I am going to tell you something. You became a priest because you were... too much of a coward to do what I do!”

— Tuco to his brother, Pablo.

“Hey Blondie! You know what you are?! Just a dirty son of a b-”

— Tuco to Blondie.

Notes

• Eli Wallach came close to dying many times on set playing as the character Tuco:
  • He almost got his head sliced filming the scene where he breaks his chains with the train; for if he had lifted his head up seconds later, his head would have been brutally hit by one of the steps to get on to the train. Sergio Leone asked to shoot the scene again but Eli didn't cooperate.
  • Wallach nearly drank from a bottle containing acid to help break the gold bags open because he believed it to be his favorite soda. He spat the acid out before he swallowed any of it due to the bitter taste. Poison Control was called immediately along with many drinks of milk as a neutralizer. Eli suffered from no major injuries or sickness afterwards except for a sore mouth.
  • He was in plenty of danger when shooting the scenes where his character would be hanged because if the explosive charge in the noose's rope failed, he would have been strangled; or when the horse bolts out of town with him riding on it, Eli could have fallen off and been seriously injured; along with the fact he had no control over the horse for his hands were truly tied behind his back.
• His full name is 'Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez', but he is more commonly known as 'The Rat', or just 'Tuco'.
• Tuco is the character that brought popularity to the phrase "There are two kind of people in the world...", using it more frequently than Blondie.
• Tuco was originally wanted alive for $2000. But Blondie was able to boost it to $3000 after two stunts at the gallows. After the second stunt though Blondie no longer did the scam with him believing Tuco wouldn't be worth more than $3000.
• In the scene where Tuco is assembling a new gun, Eli Wallach, who hated guns and had no use for them, had very little knowledge of firearms, so he was improvising the entire time he was creating that pistol.
• Director Sergio Leone saw the character of Tuco as a scuzzy bandit who wore his gun around his neck on a lanyard instead of in a holster. Wallach asked Leone how the pistol was supposed to end up in his hand. Leone told him to twist his shoulder to make the gun snap into his hand. Wallach asked him to demonstrate, so Sergio attempted it himself, but only succeeded in hitting himself in the crotch. From there Sergio agreed that Tuco can have his pistol sitting next to his belt.
• Sergio Leone became close friends with Eli Wallach after filming and considered Tuco to be his favorite character.