20 Things You Didn't Know About The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
11. Clint Eastwood Was Almost Killed By A Chunk Of Rock Shrapnel
During the filming of the aforementioned scene, Clint Eastwood's career (and life) was nearly cut short. As this was 1966, there was no option for the actors to be composited against a CGI explosion, so Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach hunkered down behind sandbags in the vicinity of the real thing. Upon the explosion of the bridge, a piece of rock shrapnel the size of a fist flew towards them and slammed into the sandbag right next to Eastwood's head.
Watching the scene in slow motion, the chunk can clearly be seen and is mere inches from Eastwood. However, this is far from the only story of carelessness, irresponsibility and cheating death that occurred on set.