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Lee Van Cleef
Age: 64 (passed away Dec. 16th, 1989)
Height: 6' 2"
Birth Place: Somerville, New Jersey, USA
Born: Jan. 9th, 1925
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Lee Van Cleef's Main TV Roles
NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at
IMDB
BIOGRAPHY: One of the great movie villains, Lee Van Cleef started out as an accountant. He served in the U.S. Navy aboard minesweepers and subchasers during World War II. After the war he worked as an office administrator, becoming involved in amateur theatrics in his spare time. An audition for a professional role led to a touring company job in "Mr. Roberts". His performance was seen by Stanley Kramer, who cast him as henchman Jack Colby in High Noon (1952), a role that brought him great recognition despite the fact that he had no dialogue. For the next decade he played a string of memorably villainous characters, primarily in westerns but also in crime dramas such as The Big Combo (1955). His hawk nose and steely, slit eyes seemed destined to keep him always in the realm of heavies, but in the mid-'60s Sergio Leone (I) cast him as the tough but decent Col. Mortimer opposite Clint Eastwood in Per qualche dollaro in pił (1965). A new career as a western hero (or at least anti-hero) opened up, and Van Cleef became an international star, though in films of decreasing quality. In the 1980s he moved easily into action and martial-arts movies, and starred in "The Master" (1984), a TV series featuring almost non-stop martial arts action. He died of a heart attack in December 1989, and was buried at Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills.
TRIVIA:
- He had almost given up his acting career in the mid-'60s and turned to painting when he was cast by 'Sergio Leone (I)' (qv) in _Per qualche dollaro in pił (1965)_ (qv). It made him a superstar in Europe and restarted his career in the US, making him again a recognizable and bankable name.
- According to the book "Weird NJ" (Sceurman, Mark and Mark Moran, Barnes and Noble Books, 2004 ISBN 0-7607-3979-X) he was a descendant of the Morris County Van Cleefs who were infamous in the area for their strange living and "procreational" efforts. In fact, one trait that Lee had was that he had one green eye and one blue eye. According to the book, "this telltale characteristic was corrected in the movies with colored contact lenses".
- Son of Clarence Leroy Van Cleef and wife Maria Lavinia Van Fleet, both mostly of Dutch ancestry.
- During one summer in the early 1950s he was a camp counselor in NYC for Marc Furstenberg.
- Interviewed in "Bad at the Bijou" by William R. Horner (McFarland, 1982).
- Was on the shortlist of actors under consideration for 'Brad Whitaker' (qv) the arms dealer in The Living Daylights (1987).
- He had three children from his first marriage: Deborah, Alan and David.
- Was portrayed as a bounty hunter in the Lucky Luke comic book "The Bounty Hunter".
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