• They were seven - And they fought like seven hundred!

• 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 Kurosawa's film 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 fifty 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.

• With the death of Charles Bronson (Bernardo O'Reilly) on 30 August 2003, Robert Vaughn (Lee) is the last survivor of the seven main stars. His character, Lee, was also the last of the seven to be "recruited".

• 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.

• 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 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, John Ireland was also approached for the role of Britt as well as Sterling Hayden.

• Continuity: In the opening scene, when Calvera is complaining about religion, he takes the cup to drink in his left hand. As he sits at the table and finishes complaining, the cup is switches to his right hand.

• Continuity: As Chris and Vin ride the hearse back from the cemetery you can see one of the tassels fall from the head of the horse on the left. In the next shot the horses are coming around a corner and the tassel is back in place.

• Continuity: Just before the first confrontation with Calvera, Chris removes the loop holding his six-gun in his holster twice.

• Continuity: When Calvera gives the "adios" command to send the seven out of town, he waves his right hand and starts walking away from a pole. In the very next shot (from behind) he is shown still leaning against the pole.

• Continuity: Just before Vin walks away from the craps table in the bar, the cowboy at the end of the table rolls the dice. In the very next shot the same cowboy is shown throwing the dice again without having retrieved them.

• Continuity: After Britt throws the knife into the cowboy in the rail yard, two train engineers are seen leaning out of the engine's window observing the scene. In the next shot, one of the engineers has moved to the platform between the engine and the tender car.

• Continuity: The first man Calvera kills near the beginning of the movie has no wounds on his back after being shot and falling to the ground. When the villagers run to the body to look at the man, there are two wounds on his back.

• Continuity: After Chris delivers the final line, Vin and Chris turn around and ride over the hill - Chris is riding on the right. After a brief cut away, the camera cuts back to them riding into the distance and Chris is now on the left.

• Boom mike visible: The boom shadow can clearly be seen moving from right to left as Sotero turns while addressing his fellow villagers after Calvera's first visit near the opening of the movie.

• Continuity: When Calvera and his gang first ride into town in the beginning of the movie, they are seen taking chickens and food. When they ride out of town, they do not have any of the loot with them.

• Continuity: After Calvera and his men are driven from the village the first time, there is a sequence in which three of his men start taking potshots at the villagers from the trees. One of these shots strikes Chico's hat and knocks it off his head. He even sticks a finger through the hole after retrieving it, however in a scene just a couple minutes later, Petra (the Mexican girl) is talking with Chico. We can see there is no bullet hole in the front of his hat and at one point, he turns his head 180 degrees in order to look behind him and there is clearly no bullet hole in the back of his hat, either. It has simply disappeared.

• Factual errors: Chris tells Harry Luck that the job pays a gold eagle plus room and board. But the payment offered was $20. An eagle was the $10 gold coin; the $20 gold coin was the "double eagle."