5 Best Lee Van Cleef Western Movies, Ranked

Acting legend Lee Van Cleef is a familiar face from more than one Western that you need to see before you die. A prolific performer with over 170 screen acting credits to his name, Van Cleef's career spanned from 1952 to the posthumous 1990 release of "Thieves of Fortune" after the actor died in 1989.

Though Van Cleef acted in many roles across numerous genres, his name is most closely connected with some of the finest Westerns ever made. Even though he didn't always play main characters, his face should still be in the conversation for a spot in the Mount Rushmore of greatest Western performers in history. Because of this, his vast body of work can be dauntingly large for a newcomer who wishes to get acquainted with his seminal roles. In order to help with this dilemma, we have taken the time to put together a list of Van Cleef's five finest Western movies, ranked by their Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer ratings.

1965's "For a Few Dollars More" is the second installment in one of the greatest movie trilogies of all time – Sergio Leone's Dollars (or Man with No Name) series. It also features Lee Van Cleef in a particularly large role, playing second fiddle only to Clint Eastwood. Eastwood and Van Cleef play two bounty hunters, respectively known as Manco — the movie's incarnation of the iconic Man with No Name — and Colonel Douglas Mortimer. Both hunt for a dangerous and brutal bank robber called El Indio (Gian Maria Volonté). Out of necessity, the two end up working together, but it eventually becomes evident that both their temperaments and their motivations are extremely different.

Fans of Van Cleef will admire "For A Few Dollars More" for a number of reasons. Not only does it feature the actor in what may very well be the coolest and most prominent protagonist role of his career, but it also gives him plenty of screen time in a bona fide Western classic. The movie has a magnificent 92% Tomatometer rating and a 94% Popcornmeter audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and the fact that it only stands as Van Cleef's fifth-best Western speaks volumes of the actor's career.

The 1952 Fred Zinnemann film "High Noon" is one of the classic Westerns that reinvented the genre, and young Lee Van Cleef was there for it. While the movie quite easily qualifies as a Gary Cooper joint, its sheer class and Van Cleef's turn as outlaw gang member Jack Colby make it a fitting film for this list — and a definite must-watch for a Van Cleef Western completionist.

Starring Cooper as Marshal Will Kane and Grace Kelly as his new wife Amy Fowler Kane, "High Noon" is a classic tale of a disaster that strikes when a law enforcement officer is about to retire, told in a slightly different way than usual. As Kane is about to step down from his position as the marshal of Hadleyville, he finds out that a cruel band of outlaws — led by the ruthless Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald) — is coming to town, with plans to kill him. This creates a dilemma: Should Kane stay and confront his would-be killers, or follow Amy's advice and leave the town posthaste?

Any Western fan can probably guess how things ultimately play out, but "High Noon" tells its story so well that minor predictability doesn't hurt it in any way. While not quite the most Van Cleef-heavy title here, "High Noon" is far and away the most decorated film on this list. The movie took home four Academy Awards (including Best Actor for Cooper), and its Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score of 94% proves its status as a true Western legend.

In 1962, Lee Van Cleef appeared in the star-studded John Ford Western "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." Though the fact that it's a collaboration between Hollywood legends John Wayne and James Stewart hogs a lot of attention, Van Cleef delivers a characteristically apt performance as the titular outlaw Liberty Valance's (Lee Marvin) steely-eyed gang member Reese. While very distinctly a henchman, Reese gets a fair few scenes in the movie, and he can often be seen quietly staring daggers at the opposition as he looms behind the animated Valance — an entertaining distinction between his and Marvin's approach to cinematic villainy.

"The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" sees Ransom Stoddard (Stewart) and Tom Doniphon (Wayne) team up against Valance's gang to stop their reign of terror, with the former's political career after Valance's dramatic death serving as the framing device. Despite its lack of accolades compared to other Van Cleef films, its critical appreciation is ever so slightly more enduring than that of "High Noon," thanks to its 95% Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer rating.

It's very hard, if not impossible, to name a Lee Van Cleef movie more iconic than "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." Sergio Leone's 1966 conclusion of the Dollars trilogy once again features Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name (this time dubbed "Blondie") and Van Cleef's character as bounty hunters. But this time, Van Cleef plays the ruthless and murderous Angel Eyes, the film's titular Bad. The brutal character finds himself teaming up and later colliding with Blondie (the Good) and Eli Wallach's bandit Tuco (the Ugly) on a quest for gold amidst the Civil War.

There are no two ways about it: "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" is a classic. This is one of those films that even people who aren't into Westerns at all have probably seen at some point, or are at least vaguely familiar with. Amazingly enough, the critics and audiences seem to share the exact same, extremely high opinion of the film, as reflected by its 97% Tomatometer and Popcornmeter ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. In fact, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" might very easily be the seminal Van Cleef movie — but one of the actor's Westerns has somehow managed to accumulate even more appreciation from the community of critics.

Henry King's 1958 Western "The Bravados" might be something of an outlier when it comes to Lee Van Cleef movies, but its full 100% Tomatometer rating is enough to put it at the top of this particular list. Here, Van Cleef once again plays a somewhat smaller fiddle than the actor's spaghetti Western-era fans might be accustomed to, while Gregory Peck's Jim Douglass and Joan Collins' Josefa Velarde take center stage. Still, Van Cleef's Alfonso Parral has a fairly meaty role in the grand scheme of things as one of the four outlaws that Douglass is determined to see hang for reasons of his own.

The Bravados is a very classic, well-made old school Western about a man who has lost everything and is consumed by his lust for vengeance. However, it's far from a conventional story. Here, nothing is quite as it seems, and the people who seem like the easiest culprits might just turn out to be innocent — of this particular crime, anyway. For fans of classical Westerns who like their stories with a moderate but effective scoop of Van Cleef, "The Bravados" is the one to watch.