Lee Marvin
Encyclopedia
Lee Marvin was an American film actor. Known for his gravelly voice, white hair and 6' 2" (1.88m) stature, Marvin at first did supporting roles, mostly villains, soldiers and other hardboiled
characters, but after winning an Academy Award for Best Actor
for his dual roles in Cat Ballou
(1965), he landed more heroic and sympathetic leading roles.
. He 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. He was named in honor of Confederate
General Robert E. Lee
, who was his first cousin, four times removed. 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. As a teenager, Marvin "spent weekends and spare time hunting deer
, puma
, wild turkey
and bobwhite
in the wilds of the then-uncharted Everglades
." He attended St. Leo Preparatory College in St. Leo, Florida
after being expelled
from several schools for bad behavior.
Marvin left school to join the United States Marine Corps
, serving as a Scout Sniper
in the 4th Marine Division. He was wounded in action during the WWII
Battle of Saipan
, during which most of his platoon
were killed. Marvin's wound (in the buttocks
) was from machine gun
fire, which severed his sciatic nerve
. He was awarded the Purple Heart
and was given a medical discharge with the rank of Private First Class. Contrary to rumors, Marvin did not serve with producer and actor Bob Keeshan
during World War II.
's assistant at a local community theatre 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 found work in supporting roles, and from the beginning was cast in various 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 the use of 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 also had a notable small role as smart-aleck sailor Meatball in The Caine Mutiny
. He had a substantially more important part as Hector, the small town hood in Bad Day at Black Rock
(1955) with Spencer Tracy
.
During the mid-1950s, Marvin gradually began playing more important roles. He starred in Attack
, (1956)
had a good supporting role in the Western
Seven Men from Now
(1956) and starred in 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 hard-as-nails Marvin" playing a tough police lieutenant. Marvin received the role after guest-starring in a memorable Dragnet episode as a serial killer
.
In the 1960s, Marvin was given prominent supporting roles in such films as The Comancheros
(1961), John Ford
's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
(1962), and Donovan's Reef
(1963), all starring John Wayne
, with Marvin's roles getting larger with each film. As the vicious Liberty Valance, Marvin played his first title role and held his own with two of the screen's biggest stars (Wayne and James Stewart
).
For director Don Siegel
, Marvin appeared in The Killers
(1964) playing an efficient professional assassin alongside Clu Gulager
. The Killers was also the first film in which Marvin received top billing and the only time Ronald Reagan
played a villain, rendering an extremely convincing performance in his last movie role before entering politics.
Marvin won the 1965 Academy Award for Best Actor
for his comic role in the offbeat Western Cat Ballou
starring Jane Fonda
. He also won the Silver Bear for Best Actor
at the 15th Berlin International Film Festival
.
Next Marvin performed in the hit Western The Professionals (1966), in which he played the leader of a small band of skilled mercenaries (Burt Lancaster
, Robert Ryan
, and Woody Strode
) rescuing a kidnap victim (Claudia Cardinale
) shortly after the Mexican Revolution
. 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 (future stars John Cassavetes
, Charles Bronson
, Telly Savalas
, Jim Brown
, and Donald Sutherland
) performing an almost impossible mission. In the wake of these two films and after having received an Oscar
, Marvin was a huge star given enormous control over his next film. In Point Blank, an influential film for director John Boorman
, he portrayed a hard-nosed criminal bent on revenge. 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 World War II
character study Hell in the Pacific
, also starring famed Japanese
actor Toshirō Mifune
. 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 in order 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 song with "Wand'rin' Star
". By this time he was getting paid a million dollars per film, $200,000 less than top star Paul Newman
was making at the time; yet he was ambivalent about the film business, even with its financial rewards:
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) with Jeanne Moreau
, the violent Prime Cut
(1972) with Gene Hackman
, Pocket Money
(1972) with Paul Newman
, Emperor of the North Pole
(1973) opposite Ernest Borgnine
, as Hickey in The Iceman Cometh
(1973) with Fredric March
and Robert Ryan
, The Spikes Gang
(1974) with Noah Beery, Jr.
, The Klansman
(1974) with Richard Burton
, Shout at the Devil
(1976) with Roger Moore
, The Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday (1976) with Oliver Reed
, and Avalanche Express
(1978) with Robert Shaw
. 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 a hero against a dummy shark?". Marvin's immediately-previous co-star Robert Shaw accepted the part, which gave Shaw his most prominent role and vaulted the supporting player into mainstream leading man
status.
Marvin's last big role was in Samuel Fuller
's The Big Red One
(1980), a war film
based on Fuller's own war experiences. His remaining films were Death Hunt
(1981) with Charles Bronson
, Gorky Park
(1983), Dog Day
(1984), and The Dirty Dozen: The Next Mission
(1985; a sequel with Marvin, Ernest Borgnine
, and Richard Jaeckel
picking up where they'd left off despite being 18 years older); his final appearance was in The Delta Force (1986) with Chuck Norris
.
and duck hunting along the Mexican border near Mexicali
. He and Ebeling had a son, Christopher (b. 1952), and three daughters: Courtenay (b. 1954), Cynthia (b. 1956) and Claudia (b. 1958).
He was married to Pamela Feeley (who had been his girlfriend in Woodstock, New York
a quarter century earlier) from October 18, 1970 until his death.
During the 1970s, Marvin resided off and on in Woodstock, caring for his dying father, and would make regular trips to Cairns, Australia
to engage in marlin
fishing. In 1975 Marvin and Pamela moved to Tucson, where he lived until his death.
Marvin was a liberal
Democrat
who opposed the Vietnam War
and declared his support for the gay rights movement in a January 1969 interview with Playboy
magazine. He publicly endorsed John F. Kennedy
in the 1960 presidential election.
In December 1986, Marvin underwent intestinal surgery after suffering abdominal pains while at his ranch outside Tucson. Doctors said then that there was an inflammation of the colon
, but that no malignancy was found. He died of a heart attack
on August 29, 1987 after being hospitalized for more than two weeks because of "a run-down condition related to the flu." He is interred at Arlington National Cemetery
where his headstone reads "Lee Marvin, PFC
US Marine Corps, World War II
".
In 1971, Marvin was sued by Michelle Triola
, his live-in
girlfriend from 1965–1970, who legally changed her surname to 'Marvin'. Though 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. She claimed the second abortion left her unable to bear children. The result was the landmark "palimony
" case, Marvin v. Marvin, 18 Cal. 3d 660 (1976). 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 non-marital 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 non-marital relationship contracts when the parties expressly, whether orally or in writing, contract for such rights to operate between them. After the case, Marvin was the subject of controversy when he said that the trial was a "circus" and that "everyone was lying, even I lied."
In August 1981, the California Court of Appeal
found there was no such contract, and thus nullified the award she had been made. Michelle Triola died of lung cancer on October 30, 2009.
This case was used as fodder for a mock
debate skit on Saturday Night Live
called "Point Counterpoint".
M Squad
,
Climax!,
Biff Baker, U.S.A.
,
Dragnet
(as murder suspect Henry Ellsworth Ross),
The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford
,
General Electric Theater
,
The Investigators,
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
,
Route 66
,
The Untouchables
,
Checkmate
,
The Dick Powell Show
,
Combat!,
The Twilight Zone
,
Kraft Suspense Theatre
,
and
Dr. Kildare, as well as
westerns such as Wagon Train
,
Bonanza
, and
The Virginian
.
Hardboiled
Hardboiled crime fiction is a literary style, most commonly associated with detective stories, distinguished by the unsentimental portrayal of violence and sex. The style was pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s, popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the decade, and refined...
characters, but after winning an Academy Award for Best Actor
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for his dual roles in Cat Ballou
Cat Ballou
Cat Ballou is a 1965 comedy/Western film which tells the story of a woman who hires a famous gunman to protect her father's ranch, and later to avenge his murder, but finds that the man she hires is not what she expected...
(1965), he landed more heroic and sympathetic leading roles.
Early life
Marvin was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He 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. He was named in honor of Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
General Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
, who was his first cousin, four times removed. His father was a direct descendant of Matthew Marvin, Sr., who emigrated from Great Bentley
Great Bentley
Great Bentley is a village and civil parish in the Tendring district of North East Essex, England, located midway between the towns of Colchester and Clacton-on-Sea. It is home to the largest village green in the country, at a size of and has won 'Village of the Year' several times...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in 1635 and helped found Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
.
Marvin studied violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
when he was young. As a teenager, Marvin "spent weekends and spare time hunting deer
White-tailed Deer
The white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...
, puma
Florida Panther
The Florida panther is an endangered subspecies of cougar that lives in forests and swamps of southern Florida in the United States. Its current taxonomic status is unresolved, but recent genetic research alone does not alter the legal conservation status...
, wild turkey
Wild Turkey
The Wild Turkey is native to North America and is the heaviest member of the Galliformes. It is the same species as the domestic turkey, which derives from the South Mexican subspecies of wild turkey .Adult wild turkeys have long reddish-yellow to grayish-green...
and bobwhite
Bobwhite Quail
The Northern Bobwhite, Virginia Quail or Bobwhite Quail is a ground-dwelling bird native to the United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean...
in the wilds of the then-uncharted Everglades
Everglades
The Everglades are subtropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large watershed. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee...
." He attended St. Leo Preparatory College in St. Leo, Florida
St. Leo, Florida
St. Leo is a town in Pasco County, Florida, United States. It is a suburb included in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 595 at the 2000 census. As of 2006, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 1,249.It is best known as...
after being expelled
Expulsion (academia)
Expulsion or exclusion refers to the permanent removal of a student from a school system or university for violating that institution's rules. Laws and procedures regarding expulsion vary between countries and states.-State sector:...
from several schools for bad behavior.
Marvin left school to join the United States Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
, serving as a Scout Sniper
United States Marine Corps Scout (Tank) and Sniper Company
The United States Marine Corps Scout and Sniper companies and the Scouts companies of the tank battalions were the first amongst the division's reconnaissance assets. They existed around the same exact moment when 1st and 2nd Marine Division were created. In 1941, each regiment had a scout and...
in the 4th Marine Division. He was wounded in action during the WWII
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Battle of Saipan
Battle of Saipan
The Battle of Saipan was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands from 15 June-9 July 1944. The Allied invasion fleet embarking the expeditionary forces left Pearl Harbor on 5 June 1944, the day before Operation Overlord in Europe was...
, during which most of his platoon
Platoon
A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two to four sections or squads and containing 16 to 50 soldiers. Platoons are organized into a company, which typically consists of three, four or five platoons. A platoon is typically the smallest military unit led by a commissioned officer—the...
were killed. Marvin's wound (in the buttocks
Buttocks
The buttocks are two rounded portions of the anatomy, located on the posterior of the pelvic region of apes and humans, and many other bipeds or quadrupeds, and comprise a layer of fat superimposed on the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles. Physiologically, the buttocks enable weight to...
) was from machine gun
Machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
fire, which severed his sciatic nerve
Sciatic nerve
The sciatic nerve is a large nerve fiber in humans and other animals. It begins in the lower back and runs through the buttock and down the lower limb...
. He was awarded the Purple Heart
Purple Heart
The Purple Heart is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those who have been wounded or killed while serving on or after April 5, 1917 with the U.S. military. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor is located in New Windsor, New York...
and was given a medical discharge with the rank of Private First Class. Contrary to rumors, Marvin did not serve with producer and actor Bob Keeshan
Bob Keeshan
Robert James "Bob" Keeshan was an American television producer and actor. He is most notable as the title character of the children's television program Captain Kangaroo, which became an icon for millions of people during its 30-year run from 1955 to 1984.Keeshan also played the original...
during World War II.
Career
After the war, while working as a plumberPlumber
A plumber is a tradesperson who specializes in installing and maintaining systems used for potable water, sewage, and drainage in plumbing systems. The term dates from ancient times, and is related to the Latin word for lead, "plumbum." A person engaged in fixing metaphorical "leaks" may also be...
's assistant at a local community theatre in Upstate New York
Upstate New York
Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...
, Marvin was asked to replace an actor who had fallen ill during rehearsals. He then began an amateur Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
acting career in New York City and served as an understudy in Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
productions.
In 1950, Marvin moved to Hollywood. He found work in supporting roles, and from the beginning was cast in various 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
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
movement, arranging costumes, and the use of firearms. His debut was in You're in the Navy Now
You're in the Navy Now
You're in the Navy Now is a Hollywood film released in 1951 by Twentieth Century Fox about the United States Navy in the first months of World War II. Its initial release was titled USS Teakettle...
(1951), and in 1952 he appeared in several films, including Don Siegel
Don Siegel
Donald Siegel was an influential American film director and producer. His name variously appeared in the credits of his films as both Don Siegel and Donald Siegel.-Early life:...
's Duel at Silver Creek, Hangman's Knot, and the war drama Eight Iron Men. He played Gloria Grahame
Gloria Grahame
Gloria Grahame was an American Academy Award–winning actress.Grahame began her acting career in theatre, and in 1944 she made her first film for MGM. Despite a featured role in It's a Wonderful Life , MGM did not believe she had the potential for major success, and sold her contract to RKO Studios...
's vicious boyfriend in Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
's The Big Heat
The Big Heat
The Big Heat is a 1953 film noir directed by Fritz Lang, starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, and Lee Marvin. It is about a cop who takes on the crime syndicate that controls his city after the brutal murder of his beloved wife. The film was written by former crime reporter Sydney Boehm based on a...
(1953). Marvin had a small but memorable role in The Wild One
The Wild One
The Wild One is a 1953 outlaw biker film directed by László Benedek and produced by Stanley Kramer. It is famed for Marlon Brando's iconic portrayal of the gang leader Johnny Strabler.-Basis:...
(1953) opposite Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
(Marvin's gang in the film was called "The Beetles"), followed by Seminole (1953) and Gun Fury
Gun Fury
Gun Fury is a 1953 western film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Rock Hudson and Donna Reed. The film is based on the novel Ten Against Caesar by Kathleen B. George and Robert A. Granger...
(1953). He also had a notable small role as smart-aleck sailor Meatball in The Caine Mutiny
The Caine Mutiny (film)
The Caine Mutiny is a 1954 American drama film set during World War II, directed by Edward Dmytryk and produced by Stanley Kramer. It stars Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Van Johnson and Fred MacMurray, and is based on the 1951 Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Herman Wouk The Caine Mutiny. The film...
. He had a substantially more important part as Hector, the small town hood in Bad Day at Black Rock
Bad Day at Black Rock
Bad Day at Black Rock is a 1955 thriller film directed by John Sturges that combines elements of Westerns and film noir. It tells the story of a mysterious stranger who arrives at a tiny isolated town in a desert of the southwest United States in search of a man...
(1955) with Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...
.
During the mid-1950s, Marvin gradually began playing more important roles. He starred in Attack
Attack (1956 film)
Attack, also known as Attack!, is a 1956 American war film. It was directed by Robert Aldrich and starred Jack Palance, Eddie Albert, Lee Marvin, William Smithers, Robert Strauss, Richard Jaeckel, Buddy Ebsen and Peter van Eyck...
, (1956)
had a good supporting role in the Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
Seven Men from Now
Seven Men from Now
Seven Men from Now is a 1956 Western film directed by Budd Boetticher and produced by John Wayne's Batjac Productions.-Plot summary:Ben Stride walks into an encampment in the desert at night during a rainstorm. He encounters two men taking shelter next to a fire and asks to join them...
(1956) and starred in The Missouri Traveler
The Missouri Traveler
The Missouri Traveler is a 1958 American coming-of-age period piece drama film directed by Jerry Hopper starring Brandon De Wilde and Lee Marvin. It is based on the novel by John Burress. The cinematography was by Technicolor developer Winton C. Hoch with harmonica and banjo score by Jack Marshall...
(1958) but it took over one hundred episodes as Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
cop Frank Ballinger in the successful 1957-1960 television series M Squad
M Squad
M Squad is an American police drama television series that ran from 1957 to 1960 on NBC. Its format would later inspire the creation of spoof TV show Police Squad! Its sponsor was the Pall Mall cigarette brand; Lee Marvin, the program's star, appeared in its commercials during the...
to actually give him name recognition. One critic described the show as "a hyped-up, violent Dragnet
Dragnet (series)
Dragnet is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners...
... with a hard-as-nails Marvin" playing a tough police lieutenant. Marvin received the role after guest-starring in a memorable Dragnet episode as a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
.
In the 1960s, Marvin was given prominent supporting roles in such films as The Comancheros
The Comancheros
The Comancheros is a 1961 western Deluxe CinemaScope color film directed by Michael Curtiz and John Wayne based on a 1952 novel by Paul Wellman starring John Wayne and Stuart Whitman. When health troubles prevented Curtiz from finishing the film, Wayne directed the remainder of the movie, though...
(1961), John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a 1962 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring James Stewart and John Wayne. The black-and-white film was released by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay by James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck was adapted from a short story written by Dorothy M...
(1962), and Donovan's Reef
Donovan's Reef
Donovan's Reef is a 1963 American film starring John Wayne. It was directed John Ford and filmed on location on Kauai, Hawaii.The cast included Elizabeth Allen, Lee Marvin, Dorothy Lamour, and Cesar Romero. The film marked the last time Ford and Wayne ever worked together on a...
(1963), all starring John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
, with Marvin's roles getting larger with each film. As the vicious Liberty Valance, Marvin played his first title role and held his own with two of the screen's biggest stars (Wayne and James Stewart
James Stewart
James Stewart was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart may also refer to:-Noblemen:*James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland*James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn James Stewart (1908–1997) was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart...
).
For director Don Siegel
Don Siegel
Donald Siegel was an influential American film director and producer. His name variously appeared in the credits of his films as both Don Siegel and Donald Siegel.-Early life:...
, Marvin appeared in The Killers
The Killers (1964 film)
The Killers, sometimes marketed as Ernest Hemingway's The Killers, is a 1964 crime film released by Universal Studios. It is the second Hollywood adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's short story of the same name, following a version made in 1946 starring Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner. It was directed...
(1964) playing an efficient professional assassin alongside Clu Gulager
Clu Gulager
Clu Gulager is an American television and film actor. He is particularly noted for his co-starring role as William H. Bonney in the 1960–62 NBC TV series The Tall Man and for his role in the later NBC series The Virginian...
. The Killers was also the first film in which Marvin received top billing and the only time Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
played a villain, rendering an extremely convincing performance in his last movie role before entering politics.
Marvin won the 1965 Academy Award for Best Actor
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for his comic role in the offbeat Western Cat Ballou
Cat Ballou
Cat Ballou is a 1965 comedy/Western film which tells the story of a woman who hires a famous gunman to protect her father's ranch, and later to avenge his murder, but finds that the man she hires is not what she expected...
starring Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
. He also won the Silver Bear for Best Actor
Silver Bear for Best Actor
The Silver Bear for Best Actor is the Berlin International Film Festival's award for achievement in performance by an actor.- Awards :- External links :*...
at the 15th Berlin International Film Festival
15th Berlin International Film Festival
The 15th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from June 25 to July 6, 1965.-Jury:* John Gillett * Alexander Kluge* Ely Azeredo* Monique Berger* Kyushiro Kusakabe* Jerry Bresler* Karena Niehoff* Hans Jürgen Pohland...
.
Next Marvin performed in the hit Western The Professionals (1966), in which he played the leader of a small band of skilled mercenaries (Burt Lancaster
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster was an American film actor noted for his athletic physique and distinctive smile...
, Robert Ryan
Robert Ryan
Robert Bushnell Ryan was an American actor who often played hardened cops and ruthless villains.-Early life and career:...
, and Woody Strode
Woody Strode
Woodrow Wilson Woolwine "Woody" Strode was a decathlete and football star who went on to become a pioneering black American film actor. He was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best supporting actor for his role in Spartacus in 1960...
) rescuing a kidnap victim (Claudia Cardinale
Claudia Cardinale
Claudia Cardinale is an Italian actress, and has appeared in some of the most prominent European films of the 1960s and 1970s. The majority of Cardinale's films have been either Italian or French...
) shortly after the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
. He followed that film with the hugely successful World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
epic The Dirty Dozen
The Dirty Dozen
The Dirty Dozen is a 1967 film directed by Robert Aldrich and released by MGM. It was filmed in England and features an ensemble cast, including Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, and Robert Webber. The film is based on E. M...
(1967) in which top-billed Marvin again portrayed an intrepid commander of a colorful group (future stars John Cassavetes
John Cassavetes
John Nicholas Cassavetes was an American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker. He acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen...
, Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series...
, Telly Savalas
Telly Savalas
Aristotelis "Telly" Savalas was an American film and television actor and singer, whose career spanned four decades. Best known for playing the title role in the 1970s crime drama Kojak, Savalas was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Birdman of Alcatraz...
, Jim Brown
Jim Brown
James Nathaniel "Jim" Brown is an American former professional football player who has also made his mark as an actor. He is best known for his exceptional and record-setting nine-year career as a running back for the NFL Cleveland Browns from 1957 to 1965. In 2002, he was named by Sporting News...
, and Donald Sutherland
Donald Sutherland
Donald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the...
) performing an almost impossible mission. In the wake of these two films and after having received an Oscar
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
, Marvin was a huge star given enormous control over his next film. In Point Blank, an influential film for director John Boorman
John Boorman
John Boorman is a British filmmaker who is a long time resident of Ireland and is best known for his feature films such as Point Blank, Deliverance, Zardoz, Excalibur, The Emerald Forest, Hope and Glory, The General and The Tailor of Panama.-Early life:Boorman was born in Shepperton, Surrey,...
, he portrayed a hard-nosed criminal bent on revenge. 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 World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
character study Hell in the Pacific
Hell in the Pacific
Hell in the Pacific is a 1968 World War II film starring Lee Marvin and Toshirō Mifune, the only two actors in the entire film. It was directed by John Boorman....
, also starring famed Japanese
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
actor Toshirō Mifune
Toshiro Mifune
Toshirō Mifune was a Japanese actor who appeared in almost 170 feature films. He is best known for his 16-film collaboration with filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, from 1948 to 1965, in works such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo...
. Marvin was originally cast as Pike Bishop (later played by William Holden
William Holden
William Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...
) in The Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch is a 1969 American Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah about an aging outlaw gang on the Texas-Mexico border, trying to exist in the changing "modern" world of 1913...
(1969), but fell out with director Sam Peckinpah
Sam Peckinpah
David Samuel "Sam" Peckinpah was an American filmmaker and screenwriter who achieved prominence following the release of the Western epic The Wild Bunch...
and pulled out in order to star in the Western musical Paint Your Wagon
Paint Your Wagon (film)
Paint Your Wagon is a 1969 American musical film starring Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood. The movie was adapted by Paddy Chayefsky from the 1951 stage musical by Lerner and Loewe, set in a mining camp in Gold Rush-era California.-Plot:...
(1969), in which he was top-billed over a singing Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
. Despite his limited singing ability, he had a hit song with "Wand'rin' Star
Wand'rin' Star
"Wand'rin' Star" was a UK number one single for Lee Marvin for three weeks in March 1970.It was originally written by Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe for the stage musical Paint Your Wagon in 1951. When the film of the musical was made in 1969, Lee Marvin took the role of prospector Ben Rumson...
". By this time he was getting paid a million dollars per film, $200,000 less than top star Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
was making at the time; yet he was ambivalent about the film business, even with its financial rewards:
- "You spend the first forty years of your life trying to get in this fucking business, and the next forty years trying to get out. And then when you're making the bread, who needs it?"
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
Monte Walsh
Monte Walsh is taken from the title of a 1963 western novel by Jack Schaefer. The movie has little to do with the plot of Schaefer's book. It was directed in 1970 by cinematographer William A. Fraker in his directorial debut, and starred Lee Marvin, Jeanne Moreau and Jack Palance. The movie was set...
(1970) with Jeanne Moreau
Jeanne Moreau
Jeanne Moreau is a French actress, singer, screenwriter and director.She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française...
, the violent Prime Cut
Prime Cut
Prime Cut is a 1972 American film produced by Joe Wizan and directed by Michael Ritchie, with a screenplay written by Robert Dillon. The movie stars Lee Marvin as a mob enforcer from Chicago sent to Kansas to collect a debt from a meatpacker boss played by Gene Hackman...
(1972) with Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman
Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman is an American actor and novelist.Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde...
, Pocket Money
Pocket Money
Pocket Money is a 1972 film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, from a screenplay written by Terrence Malick and based on the novel Jim Kane by Joseph P. Brown...
(1972) with Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
, Emperor of the North Pole
Emperor of the North Pole
Emperor of the North Pole is a 1973 American film starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Keith Carradine. It was re-released under the shorter title Emperor of the North, and is better known under the latter name....
(1973) opposite Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
, as Hickey in The Iceman Cometh
The Iceman Cometh (1973 film)
The Iceman Cometh is a 1973 film directed by John Frankenheimer. The screenplay was written by Thomas Quinn Curtiss, based on Eugene O'Neill's 1939 play of the same name. The film was screened at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, but wasn't entered into the main competition.This was the last film for...
(1973) with Fredric March
Fredric March
Fredric March was an American stage and film actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr...
and Robert Ryan
Robert Ryan
Robert Bushnell Ryan was an American actor who often played hardened cops and ruthless villains.-Early life and career:...
, The Spikes Gang
The Spikes Gang
The Spikes Gang is a 1974 Mirisch Company motion picture adaptation of the Giles Tippette novel The Bank Robber.-Overview:Starring Lee Marvin as an aging bank robber of the American Old West, the film follows his encounters with three coming of age farm boys played by Gary Grimes, Charles Martin...
(1974) with Noah Beery, Jr.
Noah Beery, Jr.
Noah Lindsey Beery , known professionally as Noah Beery, Jr. or just Noah Beery, was an American actor specializing in warm, friendly character parts similar to the ones played by his uncle Wallace Beery, although Noah Beery, Jr., unlike his uncle, seldom broke away from playing supporting...
, The Klansman
The Klansman
The Klansman is a 1974 American motion picture drama based on the book of the same name by William Bradford Huie. It was directed by Terence Young and starred Lee Marvin, Richard Burton, O.J. Simpson,Lola Falana and Linda Evans.-Plot:...
(1974) with Richard Burton
Richard Burton
Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
, Shout at the Devil
Shout at the Devil (film)
Shout at the Devil is a British film directed by Peter R. Hunt and starring Lee Marvin and Roger Moore.The picture is a comedic adventure story set in Zanzibar and German East Africa in 1913-1915 based on a novel written by Wilbur Smith and is very loosely inspired by real events.-Plot:It tells...
(1976) with Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...
, The Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday (1976) with Oliver Reed
Oliver Reed
Oliver Reed was an English actor known for his burly screen presence. Reed exemplified his real-life macho image in "tough guy" roles...
, and Avalanche Express
Avalanche Express
Avalanche Express is a cold war adventure thriller about a defecting Russian general, released in 1979. It starred Lee Marvin, Robert Shaw , Maximilian Schell, and Linda Evans, and was directed by Mark Robson and Monte Hellman...
(1978) with Robert Shaw
Robert Shaw
-Arts and humanities:* Bob Shaw , Irish science fiction writer* Bob Shaw , co-writer for Seinfeld, A Bugs Life and others* Robert J...
. Marvin was offered the role of Quint in Jaws
Jaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
(1975) but declined, stating "What would I tell my fishing friends who'd see me come off a hero against a dummy shark?". Marvin's immediately-previous co-star Robert Shaw accepted the part, which gave Shaw his most prominent role and vaulted the supporting player into mainstream leading man
Leading man
Leading man or leading gentleman is an informal term for the actor who plays a love interest to the leading actress in a film or play. A leading man is usually an all rounder; capable of singing, dancing, and acting at a professional level, but never outshining his female co-star...
status.
Marvin's last big role was in Samuel Fuller
Samuel Fuller
Samuel Michael Fuller was an American screenwriter, novelist, and film director known for low-budget genre movies with controversial themes.-Personal life:...
's The Big Red One
The Big Red One
The Big Red One is a World War II war film starring Lee Marvin and Mark Hamill. Written and directed by Samuel Fuller, it was produced by Lorimar and released by United Artists in the US on July 18, 1980...
(1980), a war film
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...
based on Fuller's own war experiences. His remaining films were Death Hunt
Death Hunt
Death Hunt is a 1981 film starring Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Carl Weathers, Maury Chaykin, Ed Lauter and Andrew Stevens...
(1981) with Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series...
, Gorky Park
Gorky Park (film)
Gorky Park is a 1983 film based on the novel Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith. It was directed by Michael Apted from a screenplay by Dennis Potter ....
(1983), Dog Day
Dog Day (1984 film)
Dog Day is a 1984 film starring Lee Marvin. A criminal shows up at a farmhouse with the law on his heels and several million dollars in his possession. The supporting cast includes Tina Louise and Juliette Mills...
(1984), and The Dirty Dozen: The Next Mission
The Dirty Dozen: The Next Mission
The Dirty Dozen: The Next Mission is a made-for-TV film and sequel to the original Dirty Dozen. It reunited Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine and Richard Jaeckel 18 years after the original hit war film. Marvin returns to lead an all-new dirty dozen on a mission to assassinate an SS General played by...
(1985; a sequel with Marvin, Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
, and Richard Jaeckel
Richard Jaeckel
Richard Hanley Jaeckel was an American actor of film and television.-Life and career:Jaeckel was born in Long Beach, New York. A short, but tough guy, he played a variety of characters during his fifty years in movies & television and became one of Hollywood's best known character actors...
picking up where they'd left off despite being 18 years older); his final appearance was in The Delta Force (1986) with Chuck Norris
Chuck Norris
Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris is an American martial artist and actor. After serving in the United States Air Force, he began his rise to fame as a martial artist and has since founded his own school, Chun Kuk Do...
.
Personal life
A father of four, Marvin was married twice. His first marriage to Betty Ebeling began in February 1951 and ended in divorce on January 5, 1967; during this time his hobbies included sport fishing off the Baja California coastBaja California Peninsula
The Baja California peninsula , is a peninsula in northwestern Mexico. Its land mass separates the Pacific Ocean from the Gulf of California. The Peninsula extends from Mexicali, Baja California in the north to Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur in the south.The total area of the Baja California...
and duck hunting along the Mexican border near Mexicali
Mexicali
Mexicali is the capital of the State of Baja California, seat of the Municipality of Mexicali, and 2nd largest city in Baja California. The City of Mexicali has a population of 689,775, according to the 2010 census, while the population of the entire metropolitan area reaches 936,826.The city...
. He and Ebeling had a son, Christopher (b. 1952), and three daughters: Courtenay (b. 1954), Cynthia (b. 1956) and Claudia (b. 1958).
He was married to Pamela Feeley (who had been his girlfriend in Woodstock, New York
Woodstock, New York
Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 at the 2000 census.The Town of Woodstock is in the northern part of the county...
a quarter century earlier) from October 18, 1970 until his death.
During the 1970s, Marvin resided off and on in Woodstock, caring for his dying father, and would make regular trips to Cairns, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
to engage in marlin
Marlin
Marlin, family Istiophoridae, are fish with an elongated body, a spear-like snout or bill, and a long rigid dorsal fin, which extends forward to form a crest. Its common name is thought to derive from its resemblance to a sailor's marlinspike...
fishing. In 1975 Marvin and Pamela moved to Tucson, where he lived until his death.
Marvin was a liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
who opposed the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
and declared his support for the gay rights movement in a January 1969 interview with Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
magazine. He publicly endorsed John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
in the 1960 presidential election.
In December 1986, Marvin underwent intestinal surgery after suffering abdominal pains while at his ranch outside Tucson. Doctors said then that there was an inflammation of the colon
Colon (anatomy)
The colon is the last part of the digestive system in most vertebrates; it extracts water and salt from solid wastes before they are eliminated from the body, and is the site in which flora-aided fermentation of unabsorbed material occurs. Unlike the small intestine, the colon does not play a...
, but that no malignancy was found. He died of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
on August 29, 1987 after being hospitalized for more than two weeks because of "a run-down condition related to the flu." He is interred at Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...
where his headstone reads "Lee Marvin, PFC
Private First Class
Private First Class is a military rank held by junior enlisted persons.- Singapore :The rank of Private First Class in the Singapore Armed Forces lies between the ranks of Private and Lance-Corporal . It is usually held by conscript soldiers midway through their national service term...
US Marine Corps, World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
".
Community property case
- See also Marvin v. Marvin
In 1971, Marvin was sued by Michelle Triola
Michelle Triola
Michelle Triola was an American actress who was mainly notable for unsuccessfully suing Lee Marvin in 1977, having cohabited with him from 1965-1970. The trial, which brought about the concept of palimony, was widely covered in the media at the time...
, his live-in
Cohabitation
Cohabitation usually refers to an arrangement whereby two people decide to live together on a long-term or permanent basis in an emotionally and/or sexually intimate relationship. The term is most frequently applied to couples who are not married...
girlfriend from 1965–1970, who legally changed her surname to 'Marvin'. Though the couple never married, she sought financial compensation similar to that available to spouses under California's alimony
Alimony
Alimony is a U.S. term denoting a legal obligation to provide financial support to one's spouse from the other spouse after marital separation or from the ex-spouse upon divorce...
and community property
Community property
Community property is a marital property regime that originated in civil law jurisdictions and is now also found in some common law jurisdictions...
laws. Triola claimed Marvin made her pregnant three times and paid for two abortions, while one pregnancy ended in miscarriage. She claimed the second abortion left her unable to bear children. The result was the landmark "palimony
Palimony
Palimony is a popular term used to describe the division of financial assets and real property on the termination of a personal live-in relationship wherein the parties are not legally married. The term is a portmanteau of the words pal and alimony...
" case, Marvin v. Marvin, 18 Cal. 3d 660 (1976). 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
Cohabitation
Cohabitation usually refers to an arrangement whereby two people decide to live together on a long-term or permanent basis in an emotionally and/or sexually intimate relationship. The term is most frequently applied to couples who are not married...
- distinguishing non-marital 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 non-marital relationship contracts when the parties expressly, whether orally or in writing, contract for such rights to operate between them. After the case, Marvin was the subject of controversy when he said that the trial was a "circus" and that "everyone was lying, even I lied."
In August 1981, the California Court of Appeal
California Court of Appeal
The California Courts of Appeal are the state intermediate appellate courts in the U.S. state of California. The state is geographically divided into six appellate districts...
found there was no such contract, and thus nullified the award she had been made. Michelle Triola died of lung cancer on October 30, 2009.
This case was used as fodder for a mock
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
debate skit on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
called "Point Counterpoint".
Partial filmography
- You're in the Navy NowYou're in the Navy NowYou're in the Navy Now is a Hollywood film released in 1951 by Twentieth Century Fox about the United States Navy in the first months of World War II. Its initial release was titled USS Teakettle...
(1951) (uncredited film debut) - Hangman's KnotHangman's KnotHangman's Knot is a 1952 western movie written and directed by Roy Huggins and starring Randolph Scott and Donna Reed.-Plot:Matt Stewart leads an ambush and robbery of a military gold train. It is 1865 in Nevada and Major Stewart's band is a unit of Rebels...
(1952) - We're Not Married (1952)
- Eight Iron MenEight Iron Men-Cast:* Bonar Colleano as Pvt. Collucci* Arthur Franz as Carter* Lee Marvin as Sgt. Joe Mooney* Richard Kiley as Pvt. Coke* Nick Dennis as Pvt. Sapiros* James Griffith as Pvt. Ferguson* Dickie Moore as Pvt. Muller * George Cooper as Pvt...
(1952) - The Big HeatThe Big HeatThe Big Heat is a 1953 film noir directed by Fritz Lang, starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, and Lee Marvin. It is about a cop who takes on the crime syndicate that controls his city after the brutal murder of his beloved wife. The film was written by former crime reporter Sydney Boehm based on a...
(1953) - Gun FuryGun FuryGun Fury is a 1953 western film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Rock Hudson and Donna Reed. The film is based on the novel Ten Against Caesar by Kathleen B. George and Robert A. Granger...
(1953) - The Wild OneThe Wild OneThe Wild One is a 1953 outlaw biker film directed by László Benedek and produced by Stanley Kramer. It is famed for Marlon Brando's iconic portrayal of the gang leader Johnny Strabler.-Basis:...
(1953) - The Caine MutinyThe Caine Mutiny (film)The Caine Mutiny is a 1954 American drama film set during World War II, directed by Edward Dmytryk and produced by Stanley Kramer. It stars Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Van Johnson and Fred MacMurray, and is based on the 1951 Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Herman Wouk The Caine Mutiny. The film...
(1954) - The RaidThe RaidThe Raid is a Technicolor 1954 American film set during the American Civil War. It stars Van Heflin, Anne Bancroft, Richard Boone and Lee Marvin. In 1864 a group of Confederate prisoners held in a Union prison stockade at Plattsburg, New York, not many miles from the Canadian border, escape. They...
(1954) - Pete Kelly's Blues (1955)
- A Life In the Balance (1955)
- Shack Out On 101 (1955)
- Bad Day at Black RockBad Day at Black RockBad Day at Black Rock is a 1955 thriller film directed by John Sturges that combines elements of Westerns and film noir. It tells the story of a mysterious stranger who arrives at a tiny isolated town in a desert of the southwest United States in search of a man...
(1955) - Violent SaturdayViolent SaturdayViolent Saturday is a 1955 American crime drama directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Victor Mature, Lee Marvin, Richard Egan and Stephen McNally. The film, set in a mining town, depicts the planning of a bank robbery as the nexus in the personal lives of several townspeople.Prominent actors...
(1955) - AttackAttack (1956 film)Attack, also known as Attack!, is a 1956 American war film. It was directed by Robert Aldrich and starred Jack Palance, Eddie Albert, Lee Marvin, William Smithers, Robert Strauss, Richard Jaeckel, Buddy Ebsen and Peter van Eyck...
(1956) - Seven Men from NowSeven Men from NowSeven Men from Now is a 1956 Western film directed by Budd Boetticher and produced by John Wayne's Batjac Productions.-Plot summary:Ben Stride walks into an encampment in the desert at night during a rainstorm. He encounters two men taking shelter next to a fire and asks to join them...
(1956) - Raintree CountyRaintree County (film)Raintree County is a 1957 Technicolor film drama about the American Civil War. It was directed by Edward Dmytryk. The film stars Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint, and Lee Marvin....
(1957) - The Missouri TravelerThe Missouri TravelerThe Missouri Traveler is a 1958 American coming-of-age period piece drama film directed by Jerry Hopper starring Brandon De Wilde and Lee Marvin. It is based on the novel by John Burress. The cinematography was by Technicolor developer Winton C. Hoch with harmonica and banjo score by Jack Marshall...
(1958) - The ComancherosThe ComancherosThe Comancheros is a 1961 western Deluxe CinemaScope color film directed by Michael Curtiz and John Wayne based on a 1952 novel by Paul Wellman starring John Wayne and Stuart Whitman. When health troubles prevented Curtiz from finishing the film, Wayne directed the remainder of the movie, though...
(1961) - The Man Who Shot Liberty ValanceThe Man Who Shot Liberty ValanceThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a 1962 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring James Stewart and John Wayne. The black-and-white film was released by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay by James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck was adapted from a short story written by Dorothy M...
(1962) - Donovan's ReefDonovan's ReefDonovan's Reef is a 1963 American film starring John Wayne. It was directed John Ford and filmed on location on Kauai, Hawaii.The cast included Elizabeth Allen, Lee Marvin, Dorothy Lamour, and Cesar Romero. The film marked the last time Ford and Wayne ever worked together on a...
(1963) - The KillersThe Killers (1964 film)The Killers, sometimes marketed as Ernest Hemingway's The Killers, is a 1964 crime film released by Universal Studios. It is the second Hollywood adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's short story of the same name, following a version made in 1946 starring Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner. It was directed...
(1964)
- Cat BallouCat BallouCat Ballou is a 1965 comedy/Western film which tells the story of a woman who hires a famous gunman to protect her father's ranch, and later to avenge his murder, but finds that the man she hires is not what she expected...
(1965) - Ship of FoolsShip of Fools (film)Ship of Fools is a 1965 film drama which tells the overlapping stories of several passengers aboard an ocean liner bound to Germany from Mexico in 1933...
(1965) - The Professionals (1966)
- The Dirty DozenThe Dirty DozenThe Dirty Dozen is a 1967 film directed by Robert Aldrich and released by MGM. It was filmed in England and features an ensemble cast, including Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, and Robert Webber. The film is based on E. M...
(1967) - Point Blank (1967)
- Hell in the PacificHell in the PacificHell in the Pacific is a 1968 World War II film starring Lee Marvin and Toshirō Mifune, the only two actors in the entire film. It was directed by John Boorman....
(1968) - Paint Your WagonPaint Your Wagon (film)Paint Your Wagon is a 1969 American musical film starring Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood. The movie was adapted by Paddy Chayefsky from the 1951 stage musical by Lerner and Loewe, set in a mining camp in Gold Rush-era California.-Plot:...
(1969) - Monte WalshMonte WalshMonte Walsh is taken from the title of a 1963 western novel by Jack Schaefer. The movie has little to do with the plot of Schaefer's book. It was directed in 1970 by cinematographer William A. Fraker in his directorial debut, and starred Lee Marvin, Jeanne Moreau and Jack Palance. The movie was set...
(1970) - Prime CutPrime CutPrime Cut is a 1972 American film produced by Joe Wizan and directed by Michael Ritchie, with a screenplay written by Robert Dillon. The movie stars Lee Marvin as a mob enforcer from Chicago sent to Kansas to collect a debt from a meatpacker boss played by Gene Hackman...
(1972) - Pocket MoneyPocket MoneyPocket Money is a 1972 film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, from a screenplay written by Terrence Malick and based on the novel Jim Kane by Joseph P. Brown...
(1972) - Emperor of the North PoleEmperor of the North PoleEmperor of the North Pole is a 1973 American film starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Keith Carradine. It was re-released under the shorter title Emperor of the North, and is better known under the latter name....
(1973) - The Iceman ComethThe Iceman Cometh (1973 film)The Iceman Cometh is a 1973 film directed by John Frankenheimer. The screenplay was written by Thomas Quinn Curtiss, based on Eugene O'Neill's 1939 play of the same name. The film was screened at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, but wasn't entered into the main competition.This was the last film for...
(1973) - The Spikes GangThe Spikes GangThe Spikes Gang is a 1974 Mirisch Company motion picture adaptation of the Giles Tippette novel The Bank Robber.-Overview:Starring Lee Marvin as an aging bank robber of the American Old West, the film follows his encounters with three coming of age farm boys played by Gary Grimes, Charles Martin...
(1974) - The KlansmanThe KlansmanThe Klansman is a 1974 American motion picture drama based on the book of the same name by William Bradford Huie. It was directed by Terence Young and starred Lee Marvin, Richard Burton, O.J. Simpson,Lola Falana and Linda Evans.-Plot:...
(1974) - The Great Scout & Cathouse ThursdayThe Great Scout & Cathouse ThursdayThe Great Scout & Cathouse Thursday is a 1976 film directed by Don Taylor starring Lee Marvin and Kay Lenz.-Cast:* Lee Marvin as Sam Longwood* Oliver Reed as Joe Knox* Robert Culp as Jack Colby* Kay Lenz as Thursday* Elizabeth Ashley as Nancy Sue...
(1976) - Shout at the DevilShout at the Devil (film)Shout at the Devil is a British film directed by Peter R. Hunt and starring Lee Marvin and Roger Moore.The picture is a comedic adventure story set in Zanzibar and German East Africa in 1913-1915 based on a novel written by Wilbur Smith and is very loosely inspired by real events.-Plot:It tells...
(1976) - Avalanche ExpressAvalanche ExpressAvalanche Express is a cold war adventure thriller about a defecting Russian general, released in 1979. It starred Lee Marvin, Robert Shaw , Maximilian Schell, and Linda Evans, and was directed by Mark Robson and Monte Hellman...
(1979) - The Big Red OneThe Big Red OneThe Big Red One is a World War II war film starring Lee Marvin and Mark Hamill. Written and directed by Samuel Fuller, it was produced by Lorimar and released by United Artists in the US on July 18, 1980...
(1980) - Death HuntDeath HuntDeath Hunt is a 1981 film starring Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Carl Weathers, Maury Chaykin, Ed Lauter and Andrew Stevens...
(1981) - Gorky ParkGorky Park (film)Gorky Park is a 1983 film based on the novel Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith. It was directed by Michael Apted from a screenplay by Dennis Potter ....
(1983) - Dog Day (1984)
- The Dirty Dozen: The Next MissionThe Dirty Dozen: The Next MissionThe Dirty Dozen: The Next Mission is a made-for-TV film and sequel to the original Dirty Dozen. It reunited Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine and Richard Jaeckel 18 years after the original hit war film. Marvin returns to lead an all-new dirty dozen on a mission to assassinate an SS General played by...
(1985) - The Delta Force (1986)
Television appearances
Marvin's appearances on television includedM Squad
M Squad
M Squad is an American police drama television series that ran from 1957 to 1960 on NBC. Its format would later inspire the creation of spoof TV show Police Squad! Its sponsor was the Pall Mall cigarette brand; Lee Marvin, the program's star, appeared in its commercials during the...
,
Climax!,
Biff Baker, U.S.A.
Biff Baker, U.S.A.
Biff Baker, U.S.A. is an American crime drama television series that aired on CBS from November 6, 1952, to March 26, 1953 starring Alan Hale, Jr. as Cold War spy Biff Baker.-Synopsis:...
,
Dragnet
Dragnet (series)
Dragnet is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners...
(as murder suspect Henry Ellsworth Ross),
The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford
The Ford Show
The Ford Show is a half-hour comedy/variety program, starring singer and folk humorist Tennessee Ernie Ford, which aired in color on NBC television on Thursday evenings from October 4, 1956 to June 29, 1961....
,
General Electric Theater
General Electric Theater
General Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald W. Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations.-Radio:...
,
The Investigators,
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
The Barbara Stanwyck Show is an American anthology drama television series which ran on NBC from September 1960 to September 1961. Barbara Stanwyck served as hostess, and starred in all but four of the half-hour productions. The four she did not star in were actually pilot episodes of potential...
,
Route 66
Route 66 (TV series)
Route 66 is an American TV series in which two young men traveled across America. The show ran weekly on CBS from 1960 to 1964. It starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and, for two and a half seasons, George Maharis as Buz Murdock. Maharis was ill for much of the third season, during which time Tod...
,
The Untouchables
The Untouchables (1959 TV series)
The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a...
,
Checkmate
Checkmate (TV series)
Checkmate is an American detective television series starring Anthony George, Sebastian Cabot, and Doug McClure. The show aired on CBS Television from 1960 to 1962 for a total of 70 episodes and was produced by Jack Benny's production company, "JaMco Productions" in co-operation with Revue...
,
The Dick Powell Show
The Dick Powell Show
The Dick Powell Show is an American anthology series that ran on NBC from 1961- 1963, primarily sponsored by the Reynolds Metals Company. It was hosted by longtime film star Dick Powell until his death from lymphatic cancer on January 2, 1963, then by a series of guest hosts until the series ended...
,
Combat!,
The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
,
Kraft Suspense Theatre
Kraft Suspense Theatre
Kraft Suspense Theatre, an anthology series, was telecast from 1963 to 1965 on NBC. Sponsored by Kraft Foods, it was seen three weeks out of every four and was pre-empted for Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall specials once monthly...
,
and
Dr. Kildare, as well as
westerns such as Wagon Train
Wagon Train
Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...
,
Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
, and
The Virginian
The Virginian (TV series)
The Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series...
.
External links
- Profile of Marvin in Film CommentFilm CommentFilm Comment is an arts and culture magazine published by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, of which it is the official publication. Film Comment features critical reviews and in-depth analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world...
- Lessons From Lee Marvin article