10 Movies Scenes That Genuinely Terrified Actors

Poor Eli Wallach. As the third in the titular triumvirate, he turned in an all-time classic performance, managing to make an amoral, murderous thief into a deeply likeable hero worth rooting for, undoing years of onscreen villainy. Hell, we could even forgive his Magnificent Seven villain by the time Leone’s three-hour epic reaches its unforgettable conclusion.

However, the actor was dragged through a lot in order to give his finest performance, including literally being dragged by a horse he was tied to when an early stunt went disastrously wrong. This wasn’t the worst fate which befell Wallach in reality, though.

That came when his character had to use a passing locomotive to split the chain connecting his handcuffs after escaping a POW camp. The train barrelling toward Wallach came equipped with low steel steps which the production hadn’t accounted for whilst blocking the scene, leaving Wallach an inch from decapitation.

The actor was understandably furious and, unlike a lot of entries on this list, director Sergio Leone initially refused to use the footage from his brush with death. In time Wallach convinced him the genuine fear on his face made the take irreplaceable and Leone included it in the film.