“Lee Marvin” THE LEGENDARY ACTOR

 

“Lee Marvin”

THE LEGENDARY ACTOR

 

Lee Marvin, born in New York City on February 19, 1924, was an American film and television actor. He is best known for playing hardboiled "tough guy" characters and is known for his bass voice and premature white hair. Marvin used to play the violin when he was younger. His father was abusive, and his mother failed to provide the motherly love that children require. Lee Marvin struggled with dyslexia and ADHD as a child. In the then-uncharted Everglades, Marvin "spent weekends and spare time shooting deer, puma, wild turkey, and bobwhite."

During the late 1930s, he attended Manumit School, a Christian socialist boarding school in Pawling, New York, and Peekskill Military Academy in Peekskill, New York. After being expelled from several other schools for bad behavior such as smoking cigarettes and fighting, he later attended St. Leo College Preparatory School, a Catholic school in St. Leo, Florida.

On August 12, 1942, Marvin enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He worked as a quartermaster before enrolling in the School of Infantry. During WWII, Lee served in the 4th Marine Division as a scout sniper in the Pacific Theater, including assaults on Eniwetok and Saipan-Tinian. As a member of "I" Company, 3rd Battalion, 24th Marines, 4th Marine Division, Lee took part in 21 Japanese island landings. On June 18, 1944, he was wounded in battle during the assault on Mount Tapochau in the Battle of Saipan, which resulted in the majority of his company's fatalities. He was hit by machine gun fire, which severed his sciatic nerve, and then a sniper shot him in the foot. Marvin was given a medical discharge with the rank of private first class after more than a year of treatment in naval hospitals. He had previously held the rank of corporal but had been demoted due to misbehavior.

The Purple Heart Medal, the Presidential Unit Citation, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the Second World War Victory Medal, and the Combat Action Ribbon are among Marvin's decorations.

Marvin was asked to replace an actor who had fallen ill during rehearsals after the war while working as a plumber's assistant at a local community theatre in upstate New York. He was bitten by the acting bug and landed a job with the company for $7 per week. He relocated to Greenwich Village and attended the American Theatre Wing on the G.I. Bill.

In 1949, he made his stage debut in Uniform of Flesh, the original version of Billy Budd. It was performed at the Experimental Theatre, where Marvin also appeared a few months later in The Nineteenth Hole of Europe. Marvin began appearing on TV shows such as Escape, The Big Story, and Treasury Men in Action. In February 1951, he made his Broadway debut in a small role in a revival of Uniform of Flesh, now titled Billy Budd.

Marvin made his film debut in 'You're in the Navy Now,' directed by Henry Hathaway, in 1951, alongside Charles Bronson and Jack Warden. This necessitated some shootings in Hollywood. Marvin chose to remain in California. In 1951, he played a similarly minor role in Teresa, directed by Fred Zinnemann. Marvin, a decorated combat veteran, was a natural in war dramas, where he frequently assisted the director and other actors in portraying infantry movements, arranging costumes, and using firearms realistically.

He appeared as a guest star on episodes of Fireside Theatre, Suspense, and Rebound. He appeared in Down Among the Sheltering Palms in 1952, directed by Edmund Goulding, We're Not Married! in 1952, also directed by Goulding, The Duel at Silver Creek in 1952, directed by Don Siegel, and Hangman's Knot in 1952, directed by Roy Huggins.

He appeared as a guest star on Biff Baker, USA, and Dragnet, and had a lead role as the squad leader in the 1952 war film Eight Iron Men, directed by Edward Dmytryk. In 1953, he played a sergeant in Bud Boetticher's Western Seminole, and a corporal in The Glory Brigade, a Korean war film. Marvin appeared as a guest star on The Doctor, The Revlon Mirror Theater, Suspense, and The Motorola Television Hour.

He was now in high demand for Westerns, such as The Stranger Wore a Gun with Randolph Scott in 1953 and Gun Fury with Rock Hudson in 1953. 

Marvin received critical acclaim for his portrayal of a villain in two films: The Big Heat, directed by Fritz Lang in 1953, in which he played Gloria Grahame's vicious boyfriend, and The Wild One, opposite Marlon Brando.

In 1954, he appeared in Gorilla at Large and The Caine Mutiny as smart-aleck sailor Meatball. In the same year, he also appeared in The Raid.

In 1955, he played Hector in Bad Day at Black alongside Spencer Tracy, and in Violent Saturday, he played a conflicted, brutal bank robber. "Marvin brings a multi-faceted complexity to the role and gives a great example of the early promise that launched his long and successful career," one critic said of the character.

Marvin played the villain in Randolph Scott's 1956 film 7 Men From Now. In Attack, directed by Robert Aldrich, he was second to Palance. In 1958, Marvin appeared in Pillars of the Sky alongside Jeff Chandler, The Rack alongside Paul Newman, Raintree Country, and The Missouri Traveler.

Marvin appeared in The Comancheros with John Wayne and Stuart Whitman in 1961. He appeared in two more films alongside Wayne.

In 1964, Marvin appeared in Don Siegel's The Killers as an efficient professional assassin alongside Clu Gulager, battling villains Ronald Reagan and Angie Dickinson. Marvin received top billing in The Killers for the first time. Originally intended for television, the film was deemed so entertaining that it was shown in theaters instead.

Marvin finally broke through as a star in the offbeat Western Cat Ballou, starring Jane Fonda, in 1965. Marvin won the Academy Award for Best Actor for this surprise hit. In 1965, he was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 15th Berlin International Film Festival.

Marvin won the 1966 National Board of Review Award for male actors for his role in Kramer's Ship of Fools in 1965, alongside Vivien Leigh and Simone Signoret.

In 1966, Marvin appeared in the critically acclaimed Western The Professionals, as the leader of a small band of skilled mercenaries rescuing a kidnap victim shortly after the Mexican Revolution. He was the second billing to Lancaster, but his role was nearly as significant.

In 1967, he followed that up with the hugely successful Second World War epic The Dirty Dozen, in which he starred as an intrepid commander of an almost impossible mission. Robert Aldrich directed the film. Marvin was a huge star in the aftermath of these films and after receiving his Oscar, and he was given enormous control over his next film, Point Blank. In John Boorman's influential film Point Blank, he portrayed a hard-nosed criminal bent on vengeance. Marvin, who had chosen Boorman for the director's chair, was heavily involved in the film's development, plot, and staging.

Marvin also appeared in another Boorman film, the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful Second World War character study Hell in the Pacific, which also starred famed Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune, in 1968.

Marvin was originally cast as Pike Bishop in 1969's The Wild Bunch, but fell out with director Sam Peckinpah and left to star in the Western musical Paint Your Wagon. Despite his limited vocal abilities, his song "Wandering Star" became a hit.

Marvin had a much broader range of roles in the 1970s, with fewer 'bad guy' roles than in previous years. Monte Walsh in 1970, a Western with Palance and Jeanne Moreau; the violent Prime Cut in 1972 with Gene Hackman; Pocket Money in 1972 with Paul Newman for Stuart Rosenberg; Emperor of the North in 1973 opposite Ernest Borgnine for Aldrich; The Iceman Cometh in 1973 with Fredric March and Robert Ryan for John Frankenheimer; The Spikes Gang in 1974 with Noah Beery Jr. for Richard Fleischer; The Klansman in 1974 with Richard Burton; Peter Hunt directed Shout at the Devil in 1976, a first World War adventure starring Roger Moore; The Great Scout & Cathouse Thursday in 1976, a comic Western starring Oliver Reed; and Avalanche Express in 1978, a Cold War thriller starring Robert Shaw, who died during production, as did the film's director, both of heart attacks. 

In 1980, Marvin played in Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One, a war film based on Fuller's own war experiences.

Death Hunt, a Canadian action film starring Charles Bonson, Gorky Park, starring William Hurt, and Dog Day, released in 1984, was his final film. In 1986, he appeared in The Delta Force alongside Chuck Norris.

Marvin was a registered Democrat. In the 1960 presidential election, he publicly supported John F. Kennedy. Lee became anti-war and opposed the Vietnam War as a result of his war injuries, which resulted in PTSD.

Marvin married Betty Ebeling in April 1952, and they had four children: Christopher Lamont, Courtenay Lee, Cynthia Louise, and Claudia Leslie. They divorced in January 1967, after a two-year separation.

Following his famous relationship with Michelle Triola, he married Pamela Feeley in 1970. Pamela had four children from previous marriages; they had no children together and were married until his death in 1987.

Marvin, a heavy smoker, and drinker had health issues by the end of his life. Marvin was hospitalized for more than two weeks in December 1986 due to a coccidioidomycosis-related condition. He developed respiratory distress and was given steroids to help him breathe. As a result, he had major intestinal ruptures and had to have a colectomy. Marvin suffered a heart attack and passed away on August 29, 1987, at the age of 63. With full military honors, he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

WATCH THE REVIEW VIDEO FOR MORE...