10 Deadliest Gunslingers In Western Movie History, Ranked

One of the most enduring pop culture archetypes to ever grace the silver screen is that of the Wild West gunslinger. Ready to dispense death from a quickdraw revolver, these figures defined the lawlessness of the American frontier and its lethal form of justice. The best Western movies of all time provide their own spin on this archetype, with the ones that stand out the most being larger-than-life heroes and antiheroes. Keeping that in mind, we're highlighting the gunslinger characters in Western cinema that are the roughest and toughest to take aim during the Wild West.

For this particular list, we're keeping the gunslingers to conventional Western movies, so there are no space Westerns or other genre blends here. Something else to keep in mind is that the deadliest don't necessarily translate to the biggest body count seen on-screen but just how lethal they are. The characters that we're listing here are willing to kill and exceedingly good at it as evidenced by their respective stories. 

These are the 10 deadliest gunslingers in Western movie history, ranked down to the most efficient killer of them all.

One outlaw whose reputation still carries weight over a century later is William Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid. The 1988 Western "Young Guns" offers its own incredibly stylized take on gunfighter and his role in the real-life Lincoln County War. Played by Emilio Estevez, the movie has Billy lead a group of fellow young gunfighters when their mentor is murdered by a local land baron. Portrayed as an impulsively violent hothead, Billy is constantly looking for any excuse to gun down anyone he deems to be a threat.

"Young Guns" presents Billy as a petty brat, but he has the gunslinging skills to back up his claims. The movie's 1990 sequel only adds to Billy's infamous reputation and, of course, his Wild West body count. At the end of the day, we tend to root for Billy in these movies because he's always pit against even more despicable figures, but he's still no hero. But you'll find that this list is chock full of frontier antiheroes and Billy the Kid certainly fits that bill in the "Young Guns" movies.

Another historical figure with a lethal reputation as one of the real-life gunslingers of the Wild West, Wyatt Earp is arguably the period's most famous lawman. The 1993 movie "Tombstone" takes significant creative liberties with history as its dramatizes Wyatt's exploits, with Kurt Russell playing the famous marshal. Wyatt's full deadly nature is unveiled in the latter portion of the film, when he seeks revenge against those who attacked his brothers after the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. While Wyatt isn't operating alone, he takes point on this vendetta, wading directly into enemy fire and still emerging victorious in a number of skirmishes.

Kevin Costner played Wyatt Earp in an eponymous biopic the year after "Tombstone," but when it comes to Kurt Russell versus Kevin Costner in the role, Russell wins. A big part of that is how lethally cool Russell approaches his performance, another gunfighter trying at peace before being dragged back into violence. Like the rest of the movie, Wyatt is presented larger than life and that includes how he holds his own in gunfights, ready and willing to kill if necessary. If "Wyatt Earp" is about the life and times of Wyatt, "Tombstone" is about the legend, and that legend carries a more pronounced deadliness.

Clint Eastwood has made an entire career out of playing and directing deadly gunfighters, including the 1964 movie "A Fistful of Dollars." The first collaboration between Eastwood and filmmaker Sergio Leone, Eastwood stars as a character referred to as Joe in the movie. Riding into a border town, Joe quickly identifies two local factions at odds and manipulates them to violently go to war with each other. After one group of rivals is eliminated and the truth of Joe's deception comes to light, he eventually guns down the last group of crooks.

Though Clint Eastwood wasn't Sergio Leone's first choice for the "Dollars" trilogy, it's virtually impossible to see anybody else in the role. Joe is one of Eastwood's more strategic gunfighters, able to hold his own in a showdown but more interested in pitting his enemies against each other. This emphasis on tactics extends to Joe observing where the town's most violent gunslinger, Ramón (Gian Maria Volonté), aims at his targets, exploiting that trend to emerge victorious. Eastwood's performance in "A Fistful of Dollars" sets the template for Leone's Western work moving forward, providing audiences with a calculating, dangerous, and cool antihero, outdrawing and outthinking his opponents.

John Wayne became a timeless Hollywood icon largely from playing classic gunslingers for the bulk of his 50-year career. For his last film, "The Shootist," Wayne plays legendary gunfighter J.B. Books at the dawn of the 20th century. Suffering from terminal cancer, Books comes to Carson City attempting to spend his final days in relative peace. However, Books' reputation and bloody history lead several challengers to try and kill him either out of revenge or to their own shot at glory.

J.B. Books is one of John Wayne's best roles, drawing heavily from Wayne's own well-established silver screen image. The movie opens with a montage of action sequences from Wayne's past movies, repositioning Wayne's character in those stories as Books, building his legend and body count. Even in his older age and suffering from a terminal illness, Books is able to hold his own against three men trying to kill him in the climactic shootout. In his prime, Books epitomized the enduring gunslinger archetype, and even at the twilight of his life, he is a force to be reckoned with.

Just as John Wayne ended his career playing a gunfighter with lifetime of slain rivals, Clint Eastwood similarly played a gunman contending with his own history of violence in "Unforgiven." Eastwood stars as Will Munny, a notorious outlaw who ditched his wicked ways to raise a family as a single father. Agreeing to pursue a bounty to reverse his farm's fortunes, Munny tracks down and kills assailants named in the contract. When this puts Munny on a collision course with the sheriff (Gene Hackman) defending the cowboys, Munny's lethal proficiency resurfaces in full force.

"Unforgiven" is one of Clint Eastwood's favorite Westerns that he directed, deconstructing the genre that made him a global icon. Like "The Shootist," Eastwood's 1992 masterpiece is all about violent legacy, but goes about meditating on its subject matter very differently. John Wayne's Books is trying to be at peace with his reputation while Eastwood's Munny tries running from it until he can't. That fuels a climax with a bigger body count and a reminder that, when he pushed, an Eastwood gunslinger feels like death incarnate, giving "Unforgiven" its big closing shootout.

Any Quentin Tarantino Western is sure to have a big body count and the 2012 movie "Django Unchained" doesn't disappoint on that score. Jamie Foxx plays the titular bounty hunter, freed from slavery by traveling dentist King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) and trained to become a gunfighter. Django quickly proves himself to be a natural, both a quickdraw and a crackshot as he hunts dangerous outlaws across the frontier. When his initial effort to free his enslaved wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) fails, he mounts a one-man assault on the plantation holding her.

The ending of "Django Unchained" subverts the white savior trope, rightfully making Django the hero of his own narrative. Django gets several moments in the movie's final act where he showcases just how lethal he's become, temporarily forced to surrender only when Broomhilda is held at gunpoint. But once he frees himself again, Django resumes his killing spree, tactically eliminating a host of trackers before blowing up the vile plantation and its owners. "Django Unchained" makes Jamie Foxx's character a one-man army, constantly outgunning and outmaneuvering his enemies and we're here for it.

The first Western movie that Clint Eastwood directed was 1973's "High Plains Drifter," also starring in project as a very different man with no name. Referred to simply as the Stranger, the gruff gunslinger rides into a remote mining town menaced by a group of outlaws who murdered its marshal. While the Stranger agrees to defend the town, it becomes clear that he has an axe to grind for most of the community. This involves the Stranger literally having the town painted red and dynamiting portions of the town before avenging the marshal from the outlaws and complicit townspeople.

Clint Eastwood made a key change to "High Plains Drifter," making the movie suggest that the Stranger was a supernatural figure. That alteration works well, positioning the protagonist as a spirit of vengeance ready to upend an entire town in violent retribution. Even the way that the Stranger operates seems paranormal, unscathed after being shot at in a bathtub and preternaturally staying ahead of his enemies. One of the most sinister characters that Eastwood has ever played, the Stranger is as lethal as he is mysterious.

Filmmaker Sam Peckinpah had a penchant for depicting the world as a mean and nasty place where only the strong survive, something most clearly articulated by "The Wild Bunch." Set in 1913, the movie follows a group of aging outlaws at the twilight of the Wild West era. Fleeing to Mexico after a botch heist, the ensemble becomes embroiled during the ongoing revolutionary movement. Led by the wily Pike Bishop (William Holden), this quartet makes their last stand against the entire Mexican army in a gruesome shootout.

In terms of actual on-screen carnage, Pike Bishop has the visibly highest body count of any character on this list. Manning a machine gun, Bishop mows down dozens of soldiers before he and his compatriots are eventually gunned down themselves. This serves as a fittingly graphic end to an outlaw who's achieved a lifetime of infamy killing God knows how many other people that we don't get to see. "The Wild Bunch" is one of the best Western movies of the 1960s, a bloody capper to a decade that saw the genre in a state of transition.

The Stranger isn't the only vaguely supernatural Western gunslinger that Clint Eastwood has played across his extensive film career. Eastwood plays another ghostly gunfighter out for revenge from beyond the grave in the 1985 movie "Pale Rider," which he also directed and produced. Nicknamed the Preacher for a clerical collar that he often wears, the ephemeral figure arrives at a mining town used and abused by a murderous baron. Virtually singlehandedly, the Preacher wipes out the small army of gunmen that have been terrorizing the town.

The Preacher earns a higher spot than the Stranger because, while he's less volatile in his vengeance, he's also more explicitly paranormal. Appearing after a prayer for a miracle, the Preacher bears the exact same six wounds that he gives to his final opponent, while many of his lines are spiritually inclined. In that sense, the Preacher comes off like a holy enforcer of righteous justice, lethally helping those unable to help themselves. "Pale Rider" was Eastwood's only '80s Western and critical and commercial success, in no small part due to its esoteric story and gunslinging hero.

Yes, a comedy Western character tops this list, but to be clear, it's not just any comical gunslinger. The 1974 Mel Brooks' comedy "Blazing Saddles" features Gene Wilder as laconically hard-drinking gunfighter the Waco Kid, known to his friends as Jim. When Sheriff Bart (Cleavon Little) first meets Jim, he finds the legendary quickdraw coming off a boozy bender. Jim reveals that his reputation as the Waco Kid led every two-bit gunfighter to challenge him to a duel, with Jim haunted by all the death he's caused.

The Waco Kid's comedically high body count is played for laughs, but nobody said this list was compromised only of gunslingers who were deadly serious. By his own admission, Jim has killed more men than actor and filmmaker Cecile B. DeMille, quite the claim. Later in the movie, Jim is seen to be just as quick a draw as ever, disarming a small army in the blink of an eye without breaking a sweat. "Blazing Saddles" implies that there is no deadlier a gunman in the Wild West than the Waco Kid, and we're inclined to agree with the movie.