Before the new Magnificent Seven came galloping onto the big screen, there were some other cowboys who first claimed the title. The 1960 version of The Magnificent Seven—itself based on the 1954 Japanese classic Seven Samurai—featured an all-star cast of Hollywood he-men in a tale about a group of rogues who come together to protect a Mexican village besieged by bandits.
Yul Brynner played Chris Larabee Adams, a veteran Cajun gunslinger. A Russian-born actor known for his distinctive, shaved head, Brynner appeared in dozens of other screen and stage roles, most notably as Rameses II in The Ten Commandments and King Mongkut of Siam in The King and I. He died of lung cancer in 1985 at the age of 65.
Steve McQueen starred as Vin Tanner, a broke, drifting gambler. By the mid-1970s, McQueen was one of the highest-paid actors in the world, with an Oscar nomination for The Sand Pebbles and acclaimed performances in Bullitt, The Getaway, Papillon, The Great Escape and The Towering Inferno. He died at age 50 in 1980 of cancer.
Charles Bronson played the Irish-Mexican Bernardo O’Reilly, who bonds with the young boys of the village. In a long career that stretched through the ’70s and ’80s, Bronson went on to play a spectrum of tough guys, most notably in The Dirty Dozen, The Mechanic and the Death Wish series. He died at age 81 in 2003 of pneumonia.
Robert Vaughn, who would go on to become a household name as the star of the 1960s TV series The Man From U.N.C.L.E., was cast as an on-the-run, out-of-confidence gunslinger named Lee, haunted by nightmares and comforted by the residents of the town. Vaughn, 83, went on to a long and varied acting career, including a nearly decade-long run on TV’s Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. He lives with his wife in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
James Coburn played the cowboy Britt, handy with a knife and always up for a challenge. Coburn would go on to win an Oscar (for Affliction in 1997) and become a major macho actor in movies like Hell Is for Heroes, Our Man Flint, The Great Escape and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. He died in 2002 at age 74 of a heart attack.
Brad Dexter played Harry Luck, who thinks there may be treasure hidden somewhere in the town. Once married to singer Peggy Lee, Dexter mostly played supporting roles on TV and in movies including The Asphalt Jungle, Johnny Cool, House Calls and Run Silent, Run Deep. He died in 2002 at age 85 from emphysema.
Horst Buchholz, who in his younger Hollywood days was often called “the German James Dean,” was the inexperienced hothead Chico, whose Mexican heritage makes it possible for him to infiltrate the bandit camp. A versatile, multilingual actor, Buckholtz appeared in many films and TV shows, especially in his native Germany, up until his death in 2003 at age 69 after surgery for a broken thighbone.
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