Al Mulock

Al Mulock (June 30, 1926 – May 1968) was a character actor, born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Career

He attended the Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio, then with David deKeyser started "The London Studio" which taught "the Method" to British actors. Mulock became active in the British film industry in the 1950s and early 60s making numerous appearances in various British television series and films.

He is best known for his roles in the Spaghetti Western films, most notably in his two collaborations with Sergio Leone, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West.

Death

The opening sequence of Once Upon a Time in the West was scheduled for four days. Mickey Knox, screenwriter for Once Upon a Time in the West, and production manager Claudio Mancini witnessed Mulock's May 1968 suicide in Guadix, Spain as his body passed their hotel window near the end of the shoot. From Knox’s book The Good, The Bad, & the Dolce Vita (Nation Books)

“The film had a large crew and our base was in Gidaux, a small, hot, dusty village that had minimal accommodations. Most of us were staying in a three-story building that passed as an 'accommodation'. We had returned from a location shoot, some distance from the village, and I happened to glance out the window to see what looked like a body shooting by – it was a body, and it belonged to an actor who appeared only in the opening sequence of the film.

He was still wearing his western costume and Leone, upon hearing of the suicide, told the production manager, 'get the man’s costume before they take him away'. The actor hadn’t completed his role and they needed someone to fill in, but that would be no problem if they had the dead man’s costume. Anyone about the same height and shape would do.

Actually, the man was not quite dead, but Leone didn’t ask if he was still alive. He was only concerned for the next day’s shooting. What actually killed the actor was the ride in a production car over a bumpy road to a distant hospital. He should never have been moved. A broken rib pierced his lung during the drive. We later learned that the actor was a drug addict and couldn’t get a fix in Gidaux. Desperate, he went up to the roof and took a dive.”^[1]

Selected filmography

• Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
• Shoot Twice (1968)
• The Hellbenders (1967)
• Day of Anger (1967)
• Battle Beneath the Earth (1967)
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
• Call Me Bwana (1963)
• Jazz Boat (1960)
• Tarzan the Magnificent (1960)
• Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959)

References

1. ^ Knox, Mickey The Good, the Bad and the Dolce Vita: The Adventures of an Actor in Hollywood, Paris and Rome Nation Books March 25, 2004

External links

• Al Mulock at the Internet Movie Database