An actor lives to act and when acting jobs in the 1960s dried up for many fledgling actors who later became household names as well as many veterans who needed a place to hang their cowboy hat, they headed to Italy where Spaghetti Westerns were fast becoming a popular film genre. Clint Eastwood, Yul Brynner, Charles Bronson, Lee Van Cleef, Rod Steiger, Ricardo Montalban, Jack Palance and Eli Wallach were among the many film and TV stars lured by the money that they could make starring in Italo-Westerns, affectionately nicknamed The Spaghetti Western.

Spaghetti Westerns was the name given by critics to the film genre of movies directed and produced by Italians but often shot on location in such places as Spain. Most often an actor whose star was fading in America such as Orson Welles went on location to shoot a Spaghetti Western to capture a new audience of moviegoers, to keep busy or to keep the wolf from the door financially. In some instances, as it did for Clint Eastwood, his participation in such spaghetti westerns as a Fistful of Dollars, The Good, the Bad & The Ugly, and For a Few Dollars More, all directed by Sergio Leone, actually propelled him to greater fame once he returned to the United States.

The theme of Spaghetti Westerns often revolved around a soap opera of revenge, money, greed, pride, betrayal and violence, but always with a hero who has been wronged in some fashion and must set things straight by hook or by crook. Eastwood borrowed the theme of vengeance from his own Spaghetti Westerns more than 20 years later for his Oscar-winning film The Unforgiven.

Within a decade of their arrival in the 1960s, the Spaghetti Western faded like all good horse soap operas into the sunset by the early 1970s. But with the advent of VHS machines and DVD copies, Spaghetti Westerns were rediscovered once again by the American viewing public. They actually can provide a great afternoon or evening's entertainment of fun watching , making it a game to put a familiar name with a face, saying, hey, isn't that Burt Reynolds, Chuck Connors, or Jason Robards? Even film veteran Henry Fonda is among the list of venerable actors whose credits include at least one Spaghetti Western. You may not want to spend your money purchasing a copy, but check out some for free at your local public library to enjoy this cinematic blast from the past.

Dee Long is a freelance journalist based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.