Trivia for
The Magnificent Seven (1960) More at IMDbPro »

• Robert Vaughn played the role of Lee in the film. He later came back to star in the TV series "The Magnificent Seven" (1998) playing Judge Oren Travis.
  
  
• Elmer Bernstein, whose score for this movie is one of the best-known ever composed, also wrote the score for the parody of this film, ¡Three Amigos! (1986).
  
  
• Yul Brynner was married on the set; the celebration used many of the same props as the fiesta scene.
  
  
• The film was cast quickly to beat an actor's strike.
  
  
• Mexican censors required the peasants to always be wearing clean clothes.
  
  
• Walter Bernstein did the original adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's film (Shichinin no samurai (1954)) but it wasn't used. Walter Newman wrote the screenplay that is substantially what you see on screen.
  
  
• Steve McQueen wanted to act in this film but couldn't at first because the schedule of his TV series, "Wanted: Dead or Alive" (1958), wouldn't allow it. He crashed a car and while he was "out sick", he shot this film.
  
  
• Composer John Williams was a member of the orchestra that recorded Elmer Bernstein's score; he played the piano.
  
  
• James Coburn's friend Robert Vaughn recommended him to director John Sturges for the last remaining lead, the role of Britt. Sturges said he needed a Gary Cooper type of actor, and Vaughn said Coburn was the actor he needed.
  
  
• James Coburn (Britt) and Robert Vaughn (Lee) have only 11 and 16 lines in the entire film respectively. Although they were close friends for almost 50 years, this is their only film together.
  
  
• Yul Brynner was concerned to make sure he always appeared substantially taller than Steve McQueen, to the point of making a little mound of earth and standing on it in all their shots together. McQueen, for his part, casually kicked at the mound every time he passed by it.
  
  
• Pay close attention to Eli Wallach whenever he handles his gun. Whenever he puts the gun back into his holster, he always looks down at it. That was because Wallach wasn't used to drawing the weapon and didn't want to look foolish by missing the holster while putting his gun back, as Wallach would admit in the DVD Documentary.
  
  
• According to Eli Wallach's autobiography, Yul Brynner had a major problem with what he perceived as Steve McQueen's trying to upstage him. According to Wallach, McQueen would do things when on screen with Brynner to draw attention to his character. Examples were his shaking of the shotgun shells and taking off his hat to check the sun during the hearse scene and leaning off his horse to dip his hat in the river when the Seven cross into Mexico. Brynner was supposedly so worried about McQueen stealing his limelight in scenes that he hired an assistant to count the number of times McQueen touched his own hat when he [Brynner] was speaking.
  
  
• Body count: 55
  
  
• George Peppard was first considered for the role of Vin.
  
  
• Sterling Hayden was originally supposed to play the knife expert, Britt. Hayden dropped out for unknown reasons, so John Sturges sent out an extensive casting call. Robert Vaughn (Lee) recommended his old schoolmate and friend James Coburn for the role. Vaughn and Coburn helped each other get roles throughout the rest of Coburn's life.
  
  
• When filming began in Mexico, problems arose with the local censors, who demanded changes to the ways that the Mexican villagers would be portrayed. Walter Newman, who had written the screenplay, was asked to travel to the location to make the necessary script revisions, but refused. The changes written in by William Roberts were deemed significant enough to merit him a co-writing credit. Newman refused to share the credit, though, and had his name removed from the film entirely.
  
  
• A young Gene Wilder auditioned for the role of Vin.
  
  
• James Coburn was a big fan of Shichinin no samurai (1954) and his favorite role in that film was the character that he ended up playing in the Americanized version.
  
  
• According to the DVD notes, both John Ireland and Sterling Hayden were approached for the role of Britt.
  
  
• Despite some credit listings, Natividad Vacío plays Miguel, not Tomas, and John A. Alonzo (billed as John Alonso) plays Tomas, not Miguel.
  
  
• The "bandit gang" hired for Calvera adopted Eli Wallach as one of their own. In the mornings before shooting started, but after Wallach was in costume, he and the group would go riding together for an hour. Additionally, members of the gang insisted on doing the final checks for Wallach's horse tack and prop gun before he was allowed to use either.
  
  
• Eli Wallach and Robert Vaughn are both killed in this film. In real life, however, they are the last surviving members of the main cast.
  
  
• The first in the original series of four "Magnificent Seven" movies.
  
  

• SPOILER: John Sturges faced a major problem during filming. The screenplay mentioned which of the Seven died, but in no order (the battle was not choreographed), and without being clear as to how. So Sturges came up with the idea to kill off the dying members of the seven in the order they had been cast, which went as follows: Lee (Robert Vaughn), Harry Luck (Brad Dexter), Bernardo O'Reilly (Charles Bronson), and Britt (James Coburn). Vaughn originally lobbied against dying first (because the character was especially created for him), so Sturges came up with a new solution, and the final death sequence which appears on film went as follows: Harry Luck (Dexter) is shot while riding back into town to join the seven who were holed up in the cantina, Lee (Vaughn) is shot after killing three bandits who were holding several villagers prisoner in a farmhouse, Britt (Coburn) is shot in the chest as he prepares to throw his knife and O'Reilly (Bronson) is wounded several times before this, but finally dies after being shot in the stomach while pushing the children to safety.
  
  

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