Everything about Lee Marvin totally explained
Lee Marvin (
February 19,
1924,
New York City –
August 29,
1987,
Tucson,
Arizona) was an
American film actor. Known for his gravelly voice, white hair and 6`2" stature, Marvin at first did supporting roles, mostly villains, soldiers, and other hard-boiled characters, but after winning a
Best Actor Oscar for his part in
Cat Ballou, he landed more heroic and sympathetic leading roles.
Biography
Early life and World War II
Lee Marvin (his birth name, contrary to some sources) was the son of Lamont Waltman Marvin, an advertising executive and the head of the New York and New England Apple Institute, and his wife Courtenay Washington Davidge, a fashion writer and beauty consultant. His father was a direct descendant of Matthew Marvin, Sr., who emigrated from
Great Bentley,
Essex,
England in 1635 and helped found
Hartford, Connecticut. By his mother, Lee descended from Augustine Washington, brother to President
George Washington.
Marvin attended St. Leo Preparatory College in
St. Leo,
Florida (now known as
St. Leo University) after being expelled from several schools for bad behavior. He left school to join the
U.S. 4th Marine Division, serving as a
sniper. He was wounded in action during the
WWII Battle of Saipan, eight months prior to the
Battle of Iwo Jima. Most of his
platoon were killed during the battle. This had a significant effect on Marvin for the rest of his life. He was awarded the
Purple Heart medal and was given a medical discharge with the rank of
PFC.
Acting career
While working as a plumber's assistant, repairing a toilet at a local community theater in upstate New York, Marvin was asked to replace an actor who had fallen ill during rehearsals. He then began an amateur
off-Broadway acting career in
New York City and served as an
understudy in Broadway productions.
In 1950, Marvin moved to
Hollywood. He quickly found work in supporting roles, and from the beginning was cast in various Western films and WWII or Korean War films. As a decorated combat veteran, Marvin was a natural in war dramas, where he frequently assisted the director and other actors in realistically portraying infantry movement, arranging costumes, and even adjusting war surplus military prop firearms. His debut was in
You're in the Navy Now (1951), and in 1952 he appeared in several films, including
Don Siegel's
Duel at Silver Creek,
Hangman's Knot, and the war drama
Eight Iron Men. He played
Gloria Grahame's vicious boyfriend in
Fritz Lang's
The Big Heat (1953). Marvin had a small but memorable role in
The Wild One (1953) opposite
Marlon Brando (Marvin's gang in the film was called "The Beetles"), followed by
Seminole (1953) and
Gun Fury (1953). He was again praised for his role as Hector the small town hood in
Bad Day at Black Rock with
Spencer Tracy (1955).
During the mid-1950s, Marvin gradually began playing more substantial roles. He starred in
Attack (1956), and
The Missouri Traveler (1958) but it took over one hundred episodes as Chicago cop Frank Ballinger in the successful 1957-1960 television series
M Squad to actually give him name recognition. One critic described the show as "a hyped-up, violent
Dragnet... with a tough-as-nails Marvin" playing a police lieutenant.
In the 1960s, Marvin was given prominent co-starring roles such as
The Comancheros (1961),
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962; Marvin played Liberty Valance) and
Donovan's Reef (1963), all with
John Wayne. Marvin also guest-starred in
Combat! "The Bridge at Chalons" (Episode 34, Season 2, Mission 1), and
The Twilight Zone episodes #72
The Grave (1961), in which he played a fearless gunman investigating the haunted grave of a man who swore to get revenge on him, and #122
Steel (1963), in which he played a former boxer who gets into the ring with a
boxing robot.
Thanks to director
Don Siegel, Marvin appeared in the groundbreaking
The Killers (1964) playing an organized, no-nonsense, efficient, businesslike professional assassin whose character was copied to a great degree by
Samuel L. Jackson in the 1994
Quentin Tarantino film
Pulp Fiction. This film was also the first time Marvin received top billing in a movie and the only time
Ronald Reagan played a villain.
Marvin won the 1965
Academy Award for Best Actor for his comic role in the offbeat western
Cat Ballou starring
Jane Fonda. Following roles in
The Professionals (1966) and the hugely successful
The Dirty Dozen (1967), Marvin was given complete control over his next film. In
Point Blank, an influential film with director
John Boorman, he portrayed a hard-nosed criminal bent on revenge. In that film Marvin, who had selected Boorman himself for the director's slot, had a central role in the film's development, plot line, and staging. In 1968, Marvin also appeared in another Boorman film, the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful
Hell in the Pacific, co-starring famed Japanese actor
Toshirō Mifune. He had a hit song with "
Wand'rin' Star" from the western musical
Paint Your Wagon (1969).
Marvin had a much greater variety of roles in the 1970s and 1980s, with fewer 'bad-guy' roles than in earlier years. His 1970s films included
Monte Walsh (1970),
Prime Cut (1972),
Pocket Money (1972),
Emperor of the North Pole (1973),
The Iceman Cometh (1973) as Hickey,
The Spikes Gang (1974),
The Klansman (1974),
Shout at the Devil (1976),
The Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday (1976), and
Avalanche Express (1978). Marvin was offered the role of Quint in
Jaws (1975) but declined. He later expressed considerable regret at not accepting this role.
Marvin's last big role was in
Samuel Fuller's
The Big Red One (1980). His remaining films were
Death Hunt (1981),
Gorky Park (1983),
Dog Day
(1984),
The Dirty Dozen: The Next Mission (1985), with his final appearance being in
The Delta Force (1986).
Personal life
A father of four, Marvin was twice married:
In 1971, Marvin was sued by long-time girlfriend
Michelle Triola (who called herself Michelle Marvin at the time). Though the couple never married, she sought financial compensation similar to that available to spouses under California's
alimony and
community property laws. The result was the landmark "
palimony" case,
Marvin v. Marvin 18 Cal. 3d 660 (1976).
On
April 18,
1979, Judge Arthur K. Marshall ordered Marvin to pay $104,000 to Triola for "rehabilitation purposes" but denied her community property claim for one-half of the $3.6 million which Marvin had earned during their six years of cohabitation. In August 1981, however, the
California Court of Appeal reversed this decision, declaring that Triola was entitled to no money whatsoever, in that the co-habitant in an unmarried cohabitative relationship has no community property claim, but merely a contract claim. Without evidence of any contract between Marvin and Triola requiring that Marvin support her should their relationship end, Triola couldn't recover any money.
During the 1970s, Marvin resided off and on in
Woodstock, New York. He died of a coma induced heart attack and is interred at
Arlington National Cemetery.
Marvin enjoyed Marlin Fishing and made frequent trips to Cairns, Australia to engage in the sport.
Lore
When visiting co-star
Vivien Leigh at her home in
London,
England, with
Michelle Triola, he tore up a deck of antique playing cards that they were playing with. Much to Triola's surprise, Leigh wasn't at all disturbed by Marvin's boorish behavior but seemed enchanted by him.
When filming a movie in Las Vegas in 1966, he and others complained that
Vegas Vic's "howdy partner" was too loud. The voice box was removed.
Marvin, who originally was a student of the late
Bruce Lee, once again began training in
martial arts in 1981 with
SeishinDo Kenpo instructor Frank Landers. (
Inside Kung-Fu Magazine, August 1981).
A rumor circulated via the internet in recent years alleges that during an appearance on "The Tonight Show," Marvin told host
Johnny Carson that he'd served in the Marine Corps fighting alongside
Bob Keeshan (later known as
Captain Kangaroo) at the
Battle of Iwo Jima. There is no truth whatsoever to this tale. Marvin never told the story, didn't fight at
Iwo Jima as he'd been invalided out months before, and Keeshan enlisted too late to have seen combat in any form.
Jim Jarmusch relates the following anecdote:
» "A secret organization exists called
The Sons of Lee Marvin - it includes myself,
Tom Waits,
John Lurie, and
Richard Bose... Six months ago, Tom Waits was in a bar somewhere like
Sonoma County in Northern California, and the bartender said:
'You’re Tom Waits, right? A guy over there wants to talk to you.'
» Tom went over to this dark corner booth and the guy sitting there said,
'Sit down, I want to talk to you.'
» 'What do you want to talk to me about? I don’t know you.'
'What is this bullshit about the Sons of Lee Marvin?'
» 'Well, it’s a secret organization and I’m not supposed to talk about it.'
'I don’t like it.'
» 'What’s it to you?'
'I’m Lee Marvin’s son', and he really was.
» He thought it was insulting, although its intention is to be completely out of respect for Lee Marvin."
In the 1993
Denis Leary song "I'm an Asshole," Leary states he's going to get the Duke (
John Wayne),
John Cassavetes, Lee Marvin,
Sam Peckinpah and a case of whiskey then drive down to Texas before being cutoff by a bandmate and getting called a asshole.
Partial filmography
You're in the Navy Now (1951) (uncredited film debut)
Hangman's Knot (1952)
The Big Heat (1953)
Gun Fury (1953)
The Wild One (1953)
The Caine Mutiny (1954)
Pete Kelly's Blues (1955)
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Violent Saturday (1955)
Attack (1956)
Seven Men from Now (1956)
Raintree County (1957)
The Comancheros (1961)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Donovan's Reef (1963)
The Killers (1964)
Cat Ballou (1965)
Ship of Fools (1965)
The Professionals (1966)
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Point Blank (1967)
Hell in the Pacific (1968)
Paint Your Wagon (1969)
Monte Walsh (1970)
Prime Cut (1972)
Pocket Money (1972)
Emperor of the North Pole (1973)
The Iceman Cometh (1973)
The Klansman (1974)
Shout at the Devil (1976)
Avalanche Express (1979)
The Big Red One (1980)
Death Hunt (1981)
Gorky Park (1983)
The Delta Force (1986)
The Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday(1976)
Television appearances
M Squad
Climax!
Dragnet (as murder suspect Henry Ellsworth Ross)
Wagon Train
General Electric Theater
Route 66
Bonanza
The Virginian
The Untouchables
The Dick Powell Show
Combat!
The Twilight Zone
Kraft Suspense Theatre
Dr. KildareFurther Information
Get more info on 'Lee Marvin'.
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