Pulp Features

Fernando Sancho would be best known for his role as a Mexican bandit in those Spaghetti Westerns in the 1960s. A rotund man, who oozed repulsiveness on the screen, he menaced many a gunfighter in “The Return of Ringo”, “A Pistol for Ringo”, “The Man from Nowhere”, “Seven Dollars on the Red” and many more. Though he made a convincing bandito, however, he wasn’t even from the same continent. He was born in Spain, lived there and died there.

Aside from the westerns for which he was best known, Sancho played in several horror films as well. One of the most often overlooked would be “Folds In the Flesh”, where he was a motorcycle-riding bandit, just escaped from captivity, who hid out with a rich, but crazed family in rural Spain, until the heat died off. Essentially, he took his bandito role and jazzed it up here. In the end though, he learned too late, the people he terrorized were even crazier than he was and he got his eternal reward, in a bathtub of all places. While splashing about like a fool, a cuckoo clock above him chimed, the bird came out, and with it dropped a poisonous pill, which fell into the water, giving off deadly gas. Well, it beat being shot in so many films, by Gilliano Gemma.

Rarely, Sancho was allowed to play a good guy, one such role being a police inspector in Armando de Ossorio’s “Demon Witch Child”, the plot involving a little girl possessed by a dead witch, with for the time, impressive special effects.

Outside the film world, Sancho was well liked by everyone. He was also big on promoting Spanish culture. When American actors worked on films, he would always take them to bullfights, as he, himself, was a major fan. Far too heavy to ever be a matador, he expressed great admiration for those facing the horns, knowing he could, by nature of his build, never be a part of this world as a participant. He was a frequent visitor to the El Callejon as well, a fancy bar in Madrid, known for bullfighting decor. Aside from acting, the bullfight was his passion and he was quick to take offence when actors watching were not enthused or pointed out animal cruelty. In his logic, and the logic of many of his countrymen, this was the purpose the bull was designed for. He was also quick to point out, as few visiting actors realized, the bull in the ring stood a better chance of living then an animal sent to the slaughterhouse. In the stockyards, the bull’s destiny was set, but in the ring, an animal that “fought well” would not be killed by the matador, but would have its life spared. Pity the associate who complained about the moral aspects of the bullfight to this man.

Sancho also had a massive appetite for food, making his Mexican bandito characters and some of his psychos an inside joke, where he was playing himself. One note in regard to this may still be seen in “Folds in the Flesh”, where after taking the aforenoted people hostage; he ordered one of the women, “Whip me up dinner…a half a dozen eggs!”

Sancho died several years ago while being operated on for cancer. It was not the cancer what killed him, however. His heart gave out while surgery was being performed.

He was well liked by all who knew him and his death was considered a major loss to the Spanish film industry. During his long career, he had worked for many famous European directors, including Ossorio, as mentioned already, and Ducio Tessari. Occasionally, but not often, he got to live in his movies, such as the “Big Gundown”, where he appeared as a corrupt Federale, and in “Django Shoots First”, where he played a sidekick role.

During this long career, he acted alongside stars from many different countries, including Lee Van Cleef, Tomas Milian, Guilliano Gemma, and more.

There are no websites that I know of, devoted to this actor, though many pages exist which cover him, within the horror and western realms.

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