Lee Van Cleef

  • Name: Lee Van Cleef
  • Date of Birth: January 09, 1925
  • Place of Birth: Somerville, New Jersey, USA
Mini-bio: Following a wartime tour with the Navy, New Jersey-born Lee Van Cleef supported himself as an accountant. Like fellow accountant-turned-actor Jack Elam, Van Cleef was advised by his clients that he ha... read mored just the right satanic facial features to thrive as a movie villain. With such rare exceptions as The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1954), Van Cleef spent most of his early screen career on the wrong side of the law, menacing everyone from Gary Cooper (High Noon) to the Bowery Boys (Private Eyes) with his cold, shark-eyed stare. Van Cleef left Hollywood in the '60s to appear in European spaghetti Westerns, initially as a secondary actor; he was, for example, the "Bad" in Clint Eastwood's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). Within a few years, Van Cleef was starring in blood-spattered action films with such titles as Day of Anger (1967), El Condor (1970), and Mean Frank and Crazy Tony (1975). The actor was, for many years, one of the international film scene's biggest box-office draws. Returning to Hollywood in the late '70s, He starred in a very short-lived martial arts TV series The Master (1984), the pilot episodes of which were pieced together into an ersatz feature film for video rental. Van Cleef died of a heart attack in 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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Lee Van Cleef Wiki Profile

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Lee Van Cleef (January 9, 1925 – December 16, 1989) was an American film actor who appeared mostly in Western and action pictures. His sharp features and piercing eyes led to his casting as a villain in scores of films, though in later years he was often a film's protagonist, such as with his co-lead role as a bounty hunter in For a Few Dollars More.
Replace this image with an actor photoLee Van Cleef bio:

Early life

Van Cleef was born Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef, Jr. in Somerville, New Jersey, the son of Marion Levinia (née Van Fleet) and Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef, Sr.[1][2] Van Cleef served in the United States Navy during World War II and became an actor after a brief career as an accountant. His first acting experiences were on stage, including a small role in the original Broadway production of Mister Roberts. His first film was the classic Western High Noon, in which he played a villain. He also had a bit part as the sharpshooter in the climax of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms around the same time. In 1956 he co-starred with Peter Graves in the B-grade Sci-Fi movie It Conquered the World.

Career

Van Cleef played different minor characters on four episodes of the TV series The Rifleman between 1959 and 1962. He appeared as minor villains and henchmen in various Westerns, including The Tin Star and Gunfight at the OK Corral. He also played one of Lee Marvin's villainous henchmen in the 1962 John Ford classic The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, with James Stewart and John Wayne. He had a small, uncredited role as one of the river pirates in 1962's How the West Was Won. In 1962, Van Cleef was involved in a serious car accident and was forced temporarily to retire from acting. Between 1962 and 1965 Van Cleef worked as a freelance painter and carpenter,[citation needed] after which the actor appeared in several spaghetti Westerns, including For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (both co-starring Clint Eastwood), as well as The Big Gundown and The Sabata Trilogy. Van Cleef also had a supporting role in John Carpenter's cult hit Escape from New York. He also appeared as a villainous swindler in the Bonanza episode, The Bloodline (December 31, 1960), along with 90 movie roles and 109 other television appearances over a 38-year span. In the early 1980s he played John Peter McCallister, the "first Occidental to become a ninja" in NBC's The Master. His last television appearance was in 1984 when he left the show The Master.[3] Episodes of the show were later remarketed as made-for-TV movies (by editing two episodes together), two of which were featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Personal life

Van Cleef lost the tip of his middle finger on his right hand while building a playhouse for his daughter. This can be seen in the close-up shots of his hand during the gunfights in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and in an early scene of The Grand Duel. He died from a heart attack in Oxnard, California and was interred in Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. His gravestone reads "Lee Van Cleef Jan 9, 1925 - Dec 16, 1989 'Best of the Bad' Love and Light".

VITAL STATS

Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef, Jr.:
Eye color: Brown
Height: 6' 2" (1.88 m)
Nickname(s): Lee Van Cleef
Notable feature(s): Piercing Eyes
Personal interests/hobbies: Freelance painter and carpenter



Last update: Aug 24 2008, 6:59 AM EDT by ocsalev (content history
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