BBC article here (and video interview with CL)
'To me Clint closely resembled a cat'
Clint Eastwood was catapulted to film stardom when he played a brooding gunslinger in Sergio Leone's first Spaghetti Western, A Fistful of Dollars.
'To me Clint closely resembled a cat'

Clint Eastwood was catapulted to film stardom when he played a brooding gunslinger in Sergio Leone's first Spaghetti Western, A Fistful of Dollars.
"...As perfect as many would consider Eastwood's casting, Leone initially had James Coburn (The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven) in mind for the part. "I really wanted James Coburn, but he was too expensive," the Italian director told the BBC..
"What struck me most about Clint was his indolent way of moving. It seemed to me Clint closely resembled a cat." ***
As Eastwood put it, the film was: "an Italian-German-Spanish co-production of a remake of a Japanese film in the plains of Spain".
"I knew 'arrivederci' and 'buongiorno' and [Leone] knew 'goodbye' and 'hello' and that was it," Eastwood told the BBC. "Then he learned a little English and I learned a little Italian – and between, a little Spanish – and we kind of just fudged our way along..."
*** My cat's comment:"What struck me most about Clint was his indolent way of moving. It seemed to me Clint closely resembled a cat." ***
As Eastwood put it, the film was: "an Italian-German-Spanish co-production of a remake of a Japanese film in the plains of Spain".
"I knew 'arrivederci' and 'buongiorno' and [Leone] knew 'goodbye' and 'hello' and that was it," Eastwood told the BBC. "Then he learned a little English and I learned a little Italian – and between, a little Spanish – and we kind of just fudged our way along..."