For all of his career, Henry Fonda had played heroic characters. He had made a living as the perpetual “good guy”. Then along comes Italian director Sergio Leone who wants Fonda to play the villainous Frank in Once Upon A Time In The West. Fonda flat-out refused.
Not one to give up easily, the legendary Western director flew to New York to convince the actor. He told him: "Picture this: the camera shows a gunman from the waist down pulling his gun and shooting a running child. The camera tilts up to the gunman's face and… it's Henry Fonda". After meeting with Leone, Fonda called his friend Eli Wallach, who had co-starred in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Wallach advised Fonda to do the film, telling him "You will have the time of your life". Which is all the more remarkable because on three or four occasions during shooting, Wallach nearly lost his life playing the treacherous bandit Tuco.
Henry Fonda was so protective of his “brand” as a hero that he initially arrived at the studio with facial hair and fake brown contact lenses — Sergio Leone told him to lose the disguise, because he wanted Fonda to be immediately recognizable to the audience and he felt “his blue eyes are those of an ice cold killer”. One of the best casting choices ever, in my view.
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