Benito Stefanelli

Who was Benito Stefanelli?

Benito Stefanelli was an Italian film actor and stuntman who made over 60 appearances in film between 1955 and 1991.

Stefanelli is best known in world cinema for his roles as henchmen in several of Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Western films, portraying gang members in the trilogy of films A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and the The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in 1966. He also appeared in the Sergio Leone picture Once Upon a Time in the West in 1968.

In his career Stefanelli appeared in countless other western films and particularly during the 1960s and early 1970s he worked simultaneously as a stunt coordinator on the films that he performed in including those of Sergio Leone. A fluent English speaker, he also reportedly served as Clint Eastwood's interpreter on the set of A Fistful of Dollars.