Lee Marvin (February 19, 1924 – August 29, 1987) was an American film and television actor. Known for his bass voice and prematurely white hair, he is best remembered for playing hardboiled "tough guy" characters. Although initially typecast as the "heavy" (i.e. villainous character), he later gained prominence for portraying anti-heroes, such as Detective Lieutenant Frank Ballinger on the television series M Squad (1957–1960). Marvin's notable roles in film included Charlie Strom in The Killers (1964), Rico Fardan in The Professionals (1966), Major John Reisman in The Dirty Dozen (1967), Ben Rumson in Paint Your Wagon (1969), Walker in Point Blank (1967), the Sergeant in The Big Red One (1980), Jack Osborne in Gorky Park (1983) and co-starred opposite Chuck Norris in The Delta Force (1986).
Lamont Waltman Marvin Jr. was born in New York City to Lamont Waltman Marvin – a World War I veteran of the Army Corps of Engineers and an advertising executive – and Courtenay Washington (née Davidge), a fashion writer. Confederate General Robert E. Lee was his first cousin, four times removed.[1][2] He was also a second cousin six times removed of first U.S. PresidentGeorge Washington.[3] His father was a direct descendant of Matthew Marvin Sr., who emigrated from Great Bentley, Essex, England, in 1635, and helped found Hartford, Connecticut. Marvin studied violin when he was young.[4] Marvin did not enjoy school and studied poorly. As a teenager, Marvin "spent weekends and spare time hunting deer, puma, wild turkey, and bobwhite in the wilds of the then-uncharted Everglades".[5]
Marvin enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on August 12, 1942. Before finishing School of Infantry, he was a quartermaster. Marvin served in the 4th Marine Division as a scout sniper in the Pacific Theater during World War II,[7] including assaults on Kwajalein,[8]Eniwetok and Saipan-Tinian.[9] While serving as a member of "I" Company, 3rd Battalion, 24th Marines, 4th Marine Division, Marvin participated in 21 amphibious assaults on Japanese-held islands. He was wounded in action on June 18, 1944, while taking part in the assault on Mount Tapochau during the Battle of Saipan, in the course of which most of his company became casualties.[10] He was hit by machine gun fire, which severed his sciatic nerve,[11] and then was hit again in the foot by a sniper.[12] After over a year of medical treatment in naval hospitals, Marvin was given a medical discharge with the rank of private first class. He previously held the rank of corporal, but had been demoted for troublemaking.[12]
After the war, while working as a plumber's assistant in the artist village of Woodstock in upstate New York, Marvin was asked to replace an actor who had fallen ill during rehearsals. He caught the acting bug and got a job with the company for $7 a week. He moved to Greenwich Village and used the G.I. Bill to study at the American Theatre Wing.[14][15]
He appeared on stage in a production of Uniform of Flesh, the original version of Billy Budd (1949).[16] It was performed at the Experimental Theatre, where a few months later, Marvin also appeared in The Nineteenth Hole of Europe (1949).[17]
He had a similar small part in Teresa (1951), directed by Fred Zinnemann. 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 the use of firearms.
Marvin received much acclaim for his portrayal of villains in two films: The Big Heat (1953) where he played Gloria Grahame's vicious boyfriend, directed by Fritz Lang; and The Wild One (1953), opposite Marlon Brando (Marvin's gang in the film was named "The Beetles"), produced by Kramer.[22]
He had a part as Hector, the small-town hood in Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), with Spencer Tracy.[24] Also in 1955, he played a conflicted, brutal bank-robber in Violent Saturday. A critic wrote of the character, "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."[25]
Marvin was the villain in Seven Men from Now (1956) starring Randolph Scott and directed by Boetticher. He was second-billed to Palance in Attack (1956) directed by Robert Aldrich.
Marvin debuted as a leading man in M Squad as Chicago cop Frank Ballinger in 100 episodes of the successful 1957–1960 television series. One critic described the show as "a hyped-up, violent Dragnet ...with a hard-as-nails Marvin" playing a tough police lieutenant. Marvin received the role after guest-starring in a Dragnet episode as a serial killer.[26]
For director Don Siegel, Marvin appeared in The Killers (1964) playing an efficient professional assassin alongside Clu Gulager, grappling with villains Ronald Reagan and Angie Dickinson. The film is a remake of The Killers by Richard Siodmak, made in 1946 and starring Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner. The Killers was the first film in which Marvin received top billing.[29] Originally made as a TV-movie, the film was deemed so entertaining that it was exhibited in theaters instead.
He followed that film with the hugely successful World War II epic The Dirty Dozen (1967) in which top-billed Marvin again portrayed an intrepid commander of a colorful group (played by John Cassavetes, Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, Jim Brown, and Donald Sutherland) performing an almost impossible mission. Robert Aldrich directed.[38] In an interview, Marvin stated his time in the Marine Corps helped shape that role "by playing an officer how I felt it should have been seen, from the bias of an enlisted man's viewpoint".[39]
Point Blank
In the wake of these films and after having received his Oscar, Marvin was a huge star, given enormous control over his next film Point Blank. In Point Blank, an influential film from director John Boorman, he portrayed a hard-nosed criminal bent on revenge. Marvin, who had selected Boorman for the director's slot, had a central role in the film's development, plot, and staging.[40]
Hell in the Pacific and Sergeant Ryker
In 1968, Marvin also appeared in another Boorman film, the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful World War II character study Hell in the Pacific, also starring famed Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune. Boorman recounted his work with Lee Marvin on these two films and Marvin's influence on his career in the 1998 documentary Lee Marvin: A Personal Portrait by John Boorman. The Case Against Paul Ryker with Bradford Dillman, which Marvin shot for TV's Kraft Suspense Theatre and had been telecast in 1963, was released theatrically as Sergeant Ryker in 1968 after the runaway success of The Dirty Dozen.[41]
Paint Your Wagon
Marvin was originally cast as Pike Bishop (later played by William Holden) in The Wild Bunch (1969), but fell out with director Sam Peckinpah and pulled out to star in the Western musical Paint Your Wagon (1969), in which he was top-billed over a singing Clint Eastwood. Despite his limited singing ability, he had a hit with the song "Wand'rin' Star". By this time, he was getting paid $1 million per film, $200,000 less than top star Paul Newman was making at the time, yet he was ambivalent about the movie business, even with its financial rewards:[4]
You spend the first forty years of your life trying to get in this business, and the next forty years trying to get out. And then when you're making the bread, who needs it?
During this time, Marvin was offered the role of Quint in Jaws (1975) but declined, stating "What would I tell my fishing friends who'd see me come off as a hero against a dummy shark?"[45]
In 1976, Marvin co-lead with Roger Moore in the film Shout at the Devil, a World War I adventure, directed by Peter Hunt. While the reviews were mixed, the film was a commercial success. Both stars were offered to return to their roles in a sequel that never happened.[46]
In 1979, Marvin co-lead with Robert Shaw in Mark Robson's Cold War thriller Avalanche Express, his co-star and the director both died from heart related illness shortly after production.[48]
1980s
In 1980, Marvin's last big role was in Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One, a war film based on Fuller's own war experiences.[49] Fuller said that Marvin character was the "carpenter of death, the sergeants of this world have been dealing death to young men for 10,000 years." Matthew Carey Salyer who liked the film said that "it’s one of Lee Marvin’s most brilliant performances, in part because of its restraint."[50]
In 1981, Marvin co-led with Charles Bronson in Peter Hunt's adventure film Death Hunt. It is a fictionalized account of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) pursuit of a man named Albert Johnson.[51] In Vincent Canby's review for The New York Times, he recognized that two old pros were at work. "Mr. Bronson and Mr. Marvin are such old hands at this sort of movie that each can create a character with ease, out of thin, cold air."[52] The film grossed $5,000,000 at the US box-office.[53]
In 1984, Marvin acted in Michael Apted's Gorky Park, which stars William Hurt.[54] Film critic Roger Ebert liked the film and while he felt Marvin was typecast, but perfect as the businessman.[55] The film grossed $15,856,028 at the US box-office.[56]
In 1984, Marvin played an American bank robber in Yves Boisset's French film Canicule. Of the project Marvin said “I pull this job and I get trapped by farmers I have the money on me so that brings out their evil — the evil that lurks in men”.[57]
In 1985, Marvin acted in The Dirty Dozen television film sequel The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission picking up where his character had left off, alongside some other original cast members and newcomers. Fred Rothenberg in his review published in The Grand Island Independent said "Lee Marvin, the gruff, throwout-the-book major, may be nearly 20 years older since the last "Dirty Dozen," but he can still deliver the lines and the goods."[58]
In 1986, Marvin made his final appearance, co-leading with Chuck Norris, in Menahem Golan's action film The Delta Force.[59] The role was initially written for Charles Bronson who had other commitments, which lead to Marvin's hiring.[60] The film grossed $17,768,900 at the US box-office.[61]
Personal life
Marvin was a Democrat. He publicly endorsed John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election.[29] In a 1969 Playboy interview, Marvin said he supported gay rights.[62]
Marriages, children and partners
Marvin married Betty Ebeling in April 1952[63][64] and together they had four children: a son Christopher Lamont (1952 – 2013),[65] and three daughters: Courtenay Lee, Cynthia Louise, and Claudia Leslie (1958 - 2012).[66][67] After a separation of two years, they divorced in January 1967.[68] In her 2010 book, Tales of a Hollywood Housewife: A Memoir by the First Mrs. Lee Marvin, Betty claimed that Lee had an affair with actress Anne Bancroft.[69]
After his famous relationship with Michelle Triola, Marvin reconnected with his childhood sweetheart Pamela Feeley, whom he married in 1970. They remained married until his death in 1987.[70] After his death, Pamela wrote and published Lee: A Romance in 1997.
In 1971, Marvin was sued by Michelle Triola, his live-in girlfriend from 1965 to 1970, who legally changed her surname to "Marvin".[4] Although the couple never married, she sought financial compensation similar to that available to spouses under California's alimony and community property laws. Triola claimed Marvin made her pregnant three times and paid for two abortions, while one pregnancy ended in miscarriage.[71] She claimed the second abortion left her unable to bear children.[71] The result was the landmark "palimony" case, Marvin v. Marvin, 18 Cal. 3d 660 (1976).[72]
In 1979, Marvin was ordered to pay $104,000 to Triola for "rehabilitation purposes", but the court denied her community property claim for one-half of the $3.6 million which Marvin had earned during their six years of cohabitation – distinguishing nonmarital relationship contracts from marriage, with community property rights only attaching to the latter by operation of law. Rights equivalent to community property only apply in nonmarital relationship contracts when the parties expressly, whether orally or in writing, contract for such rights to operate between them. In August 1981, the California Court of Appeal found that no such contract existed between them and nullified the award she had received.[73][74] Michelle Triola died of lung cancer on October 30, 2009, having been with actor Dick Van Dyke since 1976.[75]
Later there was controversy after Marvin characterized the trial as a "circus", saying "everyone was lying, even I lied". There were official comments about possibly charging Marvin with perjury, but no charges were filed.[76]
A heavy smoker and drinker, Marvin had health problems by the end of his life. In December 1986, Marvin was hospitalized for more than two weeks because of a condition related to coccidioidomycosis. He went into respiratory distress and was administered steroids to help his breathing. He had major intestinal ruptures as a result, and underwent a colectomy. Marvin died of a heart attack on August 29, 1987, aged 63.[79] He was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.[80][81]
Welcome to Night Vale, which features Lee Marvin as an integral piece of its mythology and supporting cast.
References
Notes
^The film proved to be Leigh's last film and her anguished portrayal of a desperate older woman was punctuated by her real-life "battle with demons".[32] Leigh's performance was tinged by paranoia and resulted in outbursts that marred her relationship with other actors, although both Simone Signoret and Marvin were sympathetic and understanding.[33] In one unusual instance, she hit Marvin so hard with a spiked shoe, it marked his face.[34]
^ abOfficial Military Personnel File for Lee Marvin. Series: Official Military Personnel Files, 1905 - 1998. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved September 10, 2022 – via National archives catalog.
^Brooks Atkinson (January 31, 1949). "Experimental Theatre Stages Sea Drama Made From One of Herman Melville's Minor Novels". The New York Times. p. 15.
^Brooks Atkinson (March 28, 1949). "At The Theatre: Vivian Connell's 'The Nineteenth Hole of Europe' Put on By the Experimental Theatre". The New York Times. p. 16.
^"'Billy Budd' Makes Its Debut Tonight: Coxe-Chapman Play Based on Melville Novel Will Arrive at the Biltmore Theatre". The New York Times. February 10, 1951. p. 22.
^"Filmland Briefs". Los Angeles Times. February 14, 1952. p. A10.
^"AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved July 25, 2024.
^Ebert, Roger (December 16, 1983). "Gorky Park movie review". www.rogerebert.com/. Retrieved July 25, 2024.
^"Gorky Park". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 25, 2024.
^Mills, Nancy (February 12, 1984). "Too late to be Mr. Nice Guy Actor has to live with the tough image he created". The Kansas City Star. pp. 7E.
^Rothenberg, Fred (February 3, 1985). "If you loved original 'Dirty Dozen,' you'll like 'Dirty Dozen: Next Mission'". The Grand Island Independent. pp. 1–G.
Walker, Alexander. Vivien: The Life of Vivien Leigh. New York: Grove Press, 1987. ISBN0-8021-3259-6.
Wise, James E. and Anne Collier Rehill. Stars in the Corps: Movie Actors in the United States Marines. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1999. ISBN978-1-55750-949-9.
Zec, Donald. Marvin: The Story of Lee Marvin. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1980. ISBN0-312-51780-7.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lee Marvin.