Character from The Dollars Trilogy by Sergio Leone / United Artists
The Ugly — a fast-talking Mexican bandit with a long rap sheet, a genius for survival, and a history with his priest brother that cuts deeper than anything else in the film.
Tuco talks. He talks when he's threatening someone, he talks when he's terrified, he talks when he's making a deal he doesn't intend to honor, and he talks when he's genuinely moved — and the trilogy is remarkable in that it allows him to be genuinely moved. He is the most human character in the trilogy: greedy, cowardly, ruthless, and capable of grief. His relationship with Blondie is the engine of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly — a partnership that neither man admits is a partnership, built on mutual exploitation and something that isn't friendship but functions like it under pressure. He betrays Blondie when he can, Blondie betrays him back, and they keep ending up needing each other. The scene with his brother Pablo is the film's emotional center: Tuco becoming a bandit because the church was the other option and neither was enough for him. His brother became a priest and built something that will outlast him. Tuco became Tuco.
Stocky and disheveled, with a broad face, dark mustache, and the look of a man who has been dirty, hungry, and running for most of his life. Wears a mismatched outfit that varies by what he's stolen recently — often a poncho or a bandolier of ammunition. Expressive in a way no one else in the trilogy is: his face does everything his mouth is already doing, which is a lot. Dark eyes, quick and suspicious.
Also known as: Tuco, The Ugly, Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez, The Rat