Who directed the 1964 film 'A Fistful of Dollars'?

The 1964 film A Fistful of Dollars was directed by Sergio Leone. It was Leone's breakthrough Western and starred Clint Eastwood as a nameless gunslinger who manipulates two rival factions in a Mexican border town.

The film is widely recognized as an unofficial remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1961 samurai film Yojimbo. That connection led to a lawsuit by Toho, Yojimbo's production company, which received a share of the film's revenue. Leone transformed the source material into a stark, stylized Western with extreme close-ups, tense pauses, and Ennio Morricone's innovative score.

A Fistful of Dollars launched the Dollars Trilogy, followed by For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Although it was released in Italy in 1964, the film reached U.S. cinemas in 1967. Its success helped make Eastwood an international star and popularized the term “spaghetti Western.”