American actor Lee Marvin is famous for his outstanding external data: two meters tall, very low and loud voice, which is usually called the “afterlife”, albino hair, athletic physique, behind which there is an inhuman force, ready to be used at any time.
Lee Marvin: biography, beginning
The actor was born on February 19, 1924 in New York, in the respectable family of the merchant Lamont Marvin and Courtney Washington, his wife. Lee's childhood passed in endless violin lessons, horseback riding and hunting for small game, partridge and wild turkeys.
As a young man, Lee Marvin left school and asked for an allied front, which was opened immediately after the outbreak of World War II. He was assigned to the fourth division of the Marines, where Marvin began to serve as a sniper. After being wounded, he was commissioned and awarded the Purple Heart.
Cinema
After the war ended, Lee Marvin got a job as an auxiliary in the public theater of upstate New York. Once he was asked to go on stage instead of a suddenly ill actor. So Marvin became the backup performer of roles.
In 1950, the aspiring actor moved to Hollywood. External data helped him immediately find a job. Marvin began to play secondary roles in all films indiscriminately, focusing on war films and westerns. Being a true war veteran, the actor looked very convincing in the roles of soldiers and officers. In addition, he provided invaluable services to directors, advising them on the most delicate issues related to hostilities.
Carier start
In a big movie he made his debut as a performer of supporting roles, a pronounced negative property. His characters were all criminals, villains, crippled soldiers and "sullen guys" of all stripes.
The debut film in 1951 was the film "Now you are in the Navy", the role was microscopic, they were not indicated in the titles of Marvin.
However, after only one year, Lee Marvin appears in films where he already plays prominent characters. The role of Tinhon Burges, small, but memorable, immediately raised the actor to the next step. More and more serious heroes began to trust him.
The military drama "Eight Iron Men" reinforced the image of Lee Marvin as a reliable performer. Westerns - it was the actor’s skate. In 1953, the actor starred in the film directed by Fritz Lang, "Heatwave", where he played together with Gloria Graham, acting as her friend.
"Bad" characters
For moviegoers, Lee Marvin was remembered for the small but characteristic role of the leader of the Zhukov gang in the acclaimed film Savage with Marlon Brando in the title role, Westerns of Weapons and Rage and Seminol. A major success for the actor was the character of Hector in the movie "Bad Day at Black Rock", created in 1955 by director John Sturges. The main role was played by Spencer Tracy, Lee Marvin was played by Hector David.
The end of the fifties was for the actor a period of creative dawn, he starred in such films as “Attack!”, “Team M”, “Traveling Missouri”. Especially the actor proved himself as a police lieutenant in the series "Team M", for his inflexible character he was nicknamed Steel Nail.
In the sixties of the last century, Lee Marvin, whose films still did not make a proper impression on the public, starred in three westerns, which became truly stellar for the actor. It was the Donovan Reef movies with John Wayne, The Man Who Shot Liberty Wellans, where Marvin played Wellans himself. And Western Comancheros, also starring John Wayne . Lee's role was small on the scale of the whole film, he played Tulli Krov, a man appearing here and there.
Hemingway's story
In 1964, director Don Siegel invited Lee Marvin to star in his film Killers. It was a film adaptation of the eponymous story by Ernest Hemingway, who subsequently acknowledged that the version of Seagal with Lee Marvin in the title role was the best in history. The film also became famous because Ronald Reagan, the future president of the United States, played his last role in it.
First Golden Figurine
In 1966, Lee Marvin won the Academy Award for his comic role in a Western parody called Kat Ballu with Jane Fonda.
The last two films with the participation of Marvin - “The Dirty Dozen” (1967) and “Professionals” (1966) - won success with the audience and were awarded with many awards. The next film, entitled "Point-blank Shot," Lee completely took control, since he was immediately approved for the main role. The actor carefully selected a team from the performers he knew, the director also chose to his taste. And he played a classic gangster, of which there were many in Los Angeles in the sixties of the last century.
In 1968, Lee Marvin’s collaboration with director John Burman continued, and they shot the movie Hell in the Pacific. Critics' feedback gathered a good picture, but the public film was not successful.
In 1969, Lee Marvin played the main role - the character of Ben Ramson in the film "California Gold" directed by Joshua Logan. The film failed at the box office, the creators lost about six million dollars.
Lee Marvin described his participation in the film industry as follows: "The first forty years of your life you try to get into the movie business, and the next forty years you try to get out of it with all your might."
The Ship of Fools, a film by Stanley Kramer
One day, Lee Marvin received an invitation to participate in the film project of the famous director Stanley Cramer. They were already familiar from the film "This Crazy, Crazy, Crazy World." In 1965, Kramer directed The Ship of Fools, a film based on the eponymous work by writer Catherine Anne Porter. The film was the last work of Hollywood superstar Vivien Leigh. Marvin played one of the supporting roles.
A notable role in Lee Marvin’s career came in 1980, when he played in the film directed by Samuel Fuller "The Big Red Unit". Then there were several minor characters, and the last time the actor appeared on the big screen in 1986, in the movie "Division" Delta ".
Personal life
Lee Marvin was married twice, his first wife was Betty Ebeling, the marriage took place in 1951, the marriage lasted sixteen years. A divorce was filed in January 1967.
A few years later, Marvin married Pamela Fili, with whom he lived until his death, which followed on August 29, 1987.