Maybe when he was a young man he had blonde hair, but years of wearing a hat has darkened up his hair.
shareI think film critics have wondered this too - it seems they wrote it in the script, and then did not bother to change it while Clint really is not very blond. Maybe it's just like Tuco's way of saying "honky" or "whitey" ?
He seemed really blonde to the italians, that's why.
shareThere are blond Italians, especially in the north of Italy.
shareWhat's the percentage of that and in the North? Not much I imagine, he probably looked blond to most Italians.
shareBut Clint Eastwood is no more blonde than Lee van Cleef or Eli Wallach, at least not visibly enough in this film to plausibly call "blondie" a "golden-haired angel." He may have been more blonde than the hundreds of Europeans comprising the secondary cast, but not noticeably more blonde than The Bad and The Ugly. It seems ridiculous to refer to him that way, as if it were a physical feature that prominently distinguished him from two-thirds of the title trio.
shareWell, I'm from the Philippines so you can imagine blond people are not exactly common. In school, we had 2 kids with dark brown hair, darker than Clint's hair and all the kids called them blondies.
I heard another story about Tadanobu Asano (a well known Japanese actor) and Sayaka Akimoto (Filipino-Japanese celebrity) who both had brown hair as kids and were bullied growing up for being blond.
So I just figured for people not used to brown or blond hair, anything light is blond.
"So I just figured for people not used to brown or blond hair, anything light is blond."
Yes, that's a good observation. In America or Sweden it may seem ridiculous to call him "blondie," but to other populations brown hair would qualify, relatively speaking. However, considering that this film was set amidst the Civil War in a country with lots of far more blonde people, I think Leone could have made a better choice (he was one of the four screenwriters).
In Mediterranean countries anybody with fair skin is considered a "biondo" (Italy for example) a blond.
shareI always wonder why do IMDb's boards have so many stupid threads like this. People always asking about the ethnicity of the actors, like which one of them are really white or not. Is that some cultural thing? An American obsession about "race" issues or something? Jesus, sometimes these boards look even worst than Nazi Germany!
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Sorry, your "explanation" makes some sense, but doesn't convince me. So that's the reason why people here are so obsessed about the hair colour of Clint Eastwood? Is he really blond or not? What about when they see a gorgeous woman that is somehow "exotic"? The first question is: what's her damn ethnicity. Jesus, she is beautiful, isn't that enough for them?! From where I come there are only two kinds of women: beautiful and non-beautiful. And that's it. Why bother about her fvcking ethnicity?
She's my fave
Undressing in the sun
Return to sea, bye
Forgetting everyone
Eleven high
Ride a wave
What are you even babbling about? The OP asked why a guy who isn't blonde is called "blondie".
I've wondered that myself. So have a lot of people. It's like if a character was called "mustache" but was clean shaven, or a character was named "fatty" but was skinny.
People aren't "obsessed" over Eastwood's hair lol, just wondering why he's called "Blondie".
You need to climb down off that soapbox and relax.
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It's like if a character was called "mustache" but was clean shaven, or a character was named "fatty" but was skinny.
Actually, it's common in my country for bald men to be called curly or fat guys to be called skinny. Lol.
Global Warming, it's a personal decision innit? - Nigel Tufnel
In Clint's young Rawhide days his hair certainly seems to be dark blond at times. And even in the Dollar films his hair sometimes has a yellowish colour to it when the sun is shining on it, although most times it looks brown. As he got older, his hair became darker and darker. But like others here said, maybe any person with light brown hair seems blond to a Mexican like Tuco. BTW, Clint does have very thick hair, the lucky man.
share"Blondie" is slang for somebody who is white and fair skinned... NOT the color of his hair! Tuco, who is hispanic, calls him this. It's not literal... This should be obvious folks... One of the best movies of all time and THIS is the the best thread "film buffs" can come up with? Delete your accounts... You've been voted off the island...
shareI know someone who was born and raised in Rome and I asked her if "blonde" is used to described non-blonde people with light skin and she said no - it's used only to describe hair color. Therefore calling Clint "Blondie" doesn't make sense. This is one of the things that always bothered me about this film.
shareMy family Italian, anybody with fair skin & lighter hair is considered a "biondo" a blond.
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Disagree.
Eastwood, though maybe not golden blond, is certainly fair-haired, in the sandy blond variety, and certainly blonder than anyone else in this film.
Jeez, how do you people define blond? White hair? Give me a break. Eastwood is quite blond in this film.
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"Blondie" is slang for somebody who is white and fair skinned... NOT the color of his hair! Tuco, who is hispanic, calls him this. It's not literal... This should be obvious folks... One of the best movies of all time and THIS is the the best thread "film buffs" can come up with? Delete your accounts... You've been voted off the island...
Eastwood is pretty white, even for a white guy. He really has to wear that hat!
shareAngel Eyes also referred to him as golden haired in the Tuco hanging scene.
Eastwood seems pretty fair to me even amongst white guys, just tan but not tan enough. Look at how dark William Holden or other white guys get when they tan.
Global Warming, it's a personal decision innit? - Nigel Tufnel
chicagoheat21's is the only correct answer in this whole dung heap of a thread.
In Mexico, "Blonde," refers to light skin, not hair color.
TGTB&TU is set in the American Southwest, not Italy so the Italian meaning has no significance in this discussion.
Tuco is Mexican. No name is Caucasian. Tuco would naturally call him Blondie.