Boy? How old is he?

[Cal]

Throughout the film, Lee Van Cleef constantly calls Clint 'Boy'. Ok...so Clint is like 35 in this film. How old is Van Cleef supposed to be? Hardly a boy, no? But then again, I would hardly call Clint a 'Blondie' in GBU. His hair is darker than most but I guess compared to the other Italian actors at the time, he was a blondie  

[Jupa]

Well,what should I say...I'd guess van Cleef is something like 45-50 in the film.If Clint is supposed to be something like 30-35,I think van Cleef has the right to call him a "boy".

[Cal]

Well, the reality is that Van Cleef was only 5 years older than Eastwood in real life. Van Cleef was born  in January 1925, Eastwood was born in May 1930. I like the older man, younder man thing they had going in this film. I just found it interesting that they were almost the same age, that's all.

[Shobary]

Mortimers own words:
"Boy, I've reached almost fifty years of age with my system."

[Cal]

So i guess they wanted his character to be older then, even though he was only 41 or so at the time.

[jouissance]

I feel I can answer your question regarding Eastwood being called 'Blondie' with a degree of experience. I lived in Colombia for two years. I have what I would consider bark brown hair and I was often called, 'Mono'. Mono can mean two things (maybe more) the first is monkey and the second is slang for 'Blondie'. In other words, at least the people of Colombia, hair color what not so important as their ability to recognize a person as a North American.

At frist, I thought it was an insult but after a while I realized most Colombians used as a form of admiration and love. It was a loving way of saying 'Gringo'. Now I must say, TUCO would use this word with a variety of sentiments, anger, frustration, joy, etc. Most of all, I think there was an underlying sense of jealousy. That too is something I experienced in Colombia...their desire to be like us (Guns and Roses could be heard at every street corner and everyone asked me if I knew Michael Jordan but no one seemed to know what sport he played).  

Lastly (I hope I'm not boring ya'll), Gringo has an interesting history (if you don't already know). During the war in Texas (The stand off at the Alamo). The American troops wore green or had green on their uniforms.  As a form of taunting, in broken English, the Mejicanos would say, "Green Go" and it later became one word, 'Gringo' to refer to citizens from the US. This has stuck, at least in Colombia, as a strictly a word to be used for us folks from the US of A. For example, Germans, French or even folk from the UK were never refered to as, 'Gringo(s)'.

Caio 'Blondie',


from jouissance

[Christopher]

Van Cleef seemed to pass well as a guy of about 50 years old. It's not that he looked old though, maybe it was that Eastwood didn't look his age at the time.

[Hippieoddball1]

I thought that Clint was called blondie because off the colour of his had at the start of the film, which is a creamy white colour and everyone else seems to have a black or brown hat. Maybe this was Leone's way off trying to show that the man with no name was made at the end of the film.

[Cusser]

Van Cleef's hair/baldness made him look older than he was.  And No Name calls him "old man", but remember average life expectancy then (admittedly lower for those who came in contact with No Name).  Remember, also, in Death Rides a Horse, "Bill" (J. P. Law) calls him "grandpa".

[Millions in Hand]

I feel I can answer your question regarding Eastwood being called 'Blondie' with a degree of experience. I lived in Colombia for two years. I have what I would consider bark brown hair and I was often called, 'Mono'. Mono can mean two things (maybe more) the first is monkey and the second is slang for 'Blondie'. In other words, at least the people of Colombia, hair color what not so important as their ability to recognize a person as a North American.

At frist, I thought it was an insult but after a while I realized most Colombians used as a form of admiration and love. It was a loving way of saying 'Gringo'. Now I must say, TUCO would use this word with a variety of sentiments, anger, frustration, joy, etc. Most of all, I think there was an underlying sense of jealousy. That too is something I experienced in Colombia...their desire to be like us (Guns and Roses could be heard at every street corner and everyone asked me if I knew Michael Jordan but no one seemed to know what sport he played).  

Lastly (I hope I'm not boring ya'll), Gringo has an interesting history (if you don't already know). During the war in Texas (The stand off at the Alamo). The American troops wore green or had green on their uniforms.  As a form of taunting, in broken English, the Mejicanos would say, "Green Go" and it later became one word, 'Gringo' to refer to citizens from the US. This has stuck, at least in Colombia, as a strictly a word to be used for us folks from the US of A. For example, Germans, French or even folk from the UK were never refered to as, 'Gringo(s)'.

Caio 'Blondie',


from jouissance

That sounds about right. But in GBU, Angel Eyes tells that woman that even a filthy begger like that has a protecting angel, a golden hair angel. So he is actually referring to his hair, and not the fact that he is "North American."

Ive read many messages on other boards about this topic. In my opinion, I would have to say that compared to the other male characters, Blondie has "lighter" hair, so rather than call him "light hair" or something like that, hes stereotypically labled as "Blondie." But Im not saying that Im right or anything. But what  jouissance said is a very likely possiblilty.

[KERMIT]

it would seem the elder of the two would have the option to call the younger what he pleased being a bounty hunter himself and survived close to 50 years of age.  to me it's just a affectionate term from non other than lee van cleef also letting his hair down as blondie would in GB&U offering cigars to both tuco & johnny reb.

i got my sister who's 7 years older than me and holds a PHD in psyco-linguistics and is a far more rounded film buff than me to watch GB&U. after blondie takes back his cigar from the dying boy, and grabs the poncho, she shrugged and said "thats it ?" he gives him a cigar and he dies ?
maybe she should try getting her money back from the university.

[Millions in Hand]

she shrugged and said "thats it ?" he gives him a cigar and he dies ?
maybe she should try getting her money back from the university.

Hah. That brought a smile to my face.  

I like the part when he is about to take his jacket back, then stops and pats him. Its the little things like that, that make this movie just that more good. (No pun intended)

[Frank]

I just re-watched this movie last night.

After Eastwood and Van Cleef meet up for the hat shooting scene, they retire to Col. Mortimer's room for whiskey and conversation.  Van Cleef says, "Well, I'm 50 and...."

Which pretty much answers the how old is he question.

[mortimerforever]

praps 50-60[i've reached fifty years with my way.]

no. the question isn't indiscreet. but the answer could be.