Man with No Name

The Man with No Name refer to the character (or possibly characters) played by American actor Clint Eastwood in what is often called "The Dollars Trilogy" directed by Sergio Leone.

Characteristics

The "Man with No Name", as personified by Eastwood, embodies the archetypical characteristics of the American movie cowboy - toughness, exceptional physical strength or size, independence, and skill with a gun - but departed from the original archetype due to his moral ambiguity. Unlike the traditional cowboy, exemplified by actors John Wayne, Alan Ladd, and Randolph Scott, the Man with No Name will fight dirty and shoot first, if required by his own self-defined sense of justice. Although he tends to look for ways to benefit himself, he has, in a few cases, aided others if he feels an obligation to, such as freeing a couple held captive in A Fistful of Dollars and comforting a dying soldier after the bridge explosion in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

He is generally portrayed as an outsider, a mercenary or bounty hunter, or even an outlaw. He is characteristically soft-spoken and laconic. The character is an oft-cited example of an anti-hero, although he has a soft spot for people in deep trouble. While rescuing the young mother in A Fistful of Dollars, he responds to query about his motives with a curt "I knew somebody like you, once...and there was no one to help". This, along with the comment "I never found home that great", sums up the only personal history the viewer ever receives about the character.
The character's distinctive appearance consists of a battered brown hat with a telescope crown, pale blue shirt, black jeans, tan boots, a sheepskin vest, and a patterned sarape or "poncho". He is usually armed with one revolver with a silver rattlesnake on the grip, which is holstered on a gunbelt. In contrast with other Western heroes of the early- to mid-1960s, The Man is unshaven, almost to the point of sporting a full beard. He habitually smokes a cigarillo while working.

Occasional names

The credits for A Fistful of Dollars list Eastwood's character as "Joe" and though the undertaker in the movie calls him by that name, he is the only character to do so (and it is further worth noting that "Joe" is often used as a generic nickname).

In For a Few Dollars More he is called "Manco", meaning "maimed" (another nickname perhaps), referring to his right hand, which is reserved for shooting. Thus, during an entire incident in the beginning of the film, he uses only his left hand when lighting his cigar, dealing the cards and striking the man he is hunting (keeping the right hand on his gun the whole time). However, he uses both hands equally throughout the rest of the film.

In The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Tuco usually calls him "Blondie" In a scene cut from the international version, a Union Captain asks his name, to which he responds with an "Uhh" imitating Tuco, and the conversation moves elsewhere. When the Captain asks where he hails from, "Blondie" responds "Illinois", although it's not clear whether the response is truthful, or simply to assure The Captain that he's from the Northern States.
Given that Eastwood's character never states his own name and shows no evidence of having visited any of the locations in the three films previously, a possible conclusion from viewing the films alone is that "Joe", "Manco" and "Blondie" are all nicknames given to him by others simply for the sake of having some means of addressing him.