Lee Marvin

Lee Marvin, born Lamont Waltman Marvin Jr. on February 19, 1924, in New York City, was an American actor whose career spanned stage, television, and film until his death on August 29, 1987. Recognizable for his bass voice and prematurely white hair, he built a career around hardboiled characters, progressing from villainous supporting roles to leading anti-hero parts. His accolades included an Academy Award for Best Actor, a Golden Globe Award, two BAFTA Awards, a National Board of Review Award, and the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Marvin descended from a lineage with notable historical connections. Confederate General Robert E. Lee was his first cousin four times removed, and he was a second cousin six times removed of President George Washington. His father, Lamont Waltman Marvin, was a World War I veteran of the Army Corps of Engineers who later worked as an advertising executive, while his mother, Courtenay Washington, née Davidge, was a fashion writer. The family's paternal line traced back to Matthew Marvin Sr., who emigrated from Great Bentley, Essex, England, in 1635 and helped found Hartford, Connecticut. As a boy, Marvin studied violin. He attended Manumit School in Pawling, New York, during the late 1930s and Peekskill Military Academy in Peekskill, New York, before enrolling at St. Leo College Preparatory School in St. Leo, Florida, following expulsions from other institutions for smoking, truancy, and fighting.

On August 12, 1942, Marvin enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He served in the 4th Marine Division as a scout sniper in the Pacific Theater, participating in 21 amphibious assaults on Japanese-held islands, including operations at Kwajalein, Eniwetok, and Saipan-Tinian. As a member of India Company, 3rd Battalion, 24th Marines, he was wounded on June 18, 1944, during the assault on Mount Tapochau in the Battle of Saipan, when machine gun fire severed his sciatic nerve and a sniper's bullet struck his foot. Most of his company became casualties in that engagement. After more than a year of treatment in naval hospitals, he received a medical discharge at the rank of private first class, having previously held the rank of corporal before a demotion for misconduct. His military decorations included the Purple Heart Medal, the Presidential Unit Citation, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, and the Combat Action Ribbon.

Marvin's path into acting began after the war while he was working as a plumber's assistant in the artist community of Woodstock, New York, where he was asked to fill in for an ailing actor during rehearsals. He subsequently secured a position with the company at seven dollars a week, relocated to Greenwich Village, and used the G.I. Bill to study at the American Theatre Wing. He appeared in a stage production of Uniform of Flesh, the original version of Billy Budd, in 1949 at the Experimental Theatre, and also appeared there in The Nineteenth Hole of Europe that same year. When the production was retitled Billy Budd and moved to Broadway in February 1951, Marvin appeared in it in a small role, marking his Broadway credit. He was originally from New York, New York.

His film debut came in 1951 with You're in the Navy Now, directed by Henry Hathaway, a production that also marked the screen debuts of Charles Bronson and Jack Warden. Filming in Hollywood led Marvin to settle in California. He followed that with a small part in Teresa, directed by Fred Zinnemann, also in 1951. His background as a decorated combat veteran made him a natural presence in war dramas, and he frequently assisted directors and fellow actors in accurately depicting infantry movement, costuming, and firearms use. Throughout 1952, he appeared in several films including Diplomatic Courier, Down Among the Sheltering Palms, We're Not Married, The Duel at Silver Creek, and Hangman's Knot, while also guest starring on television programs such as Fireside Theatre, Suspense, Rebound, Biff Baker U.S.A., and Dragnet. He took a showcase role as a squad leader in Eight Iron Men, a 1952 war film directed by Edward Dmytryk and produced by Stanley Kramer.

Marvin gained significant attention for his villainous roles in two 1953 films: Fritz Lang's The Big Heat, in which he played Vince Stone, a vicious boyfriend to Gloria Grahame's character, and The Wild One, opposite Marlon Brando, produced by Stanley Kramer, in which his gang was named the Beetles. That same year he appeared in Seminole, The Glory Brigade, The Stranger Wore a Gun with Randolph Scott, and Gun Fury with Rock Hudson. In 1954 he had a notable supporting role in The Caine Mutiny, also produced by Kramer, playing the smart-aleck sailor Meatball. In 1955 he was cast as Hector, a small-town hood, in Bad Day at Black Rock alongside Spencer Tracy, and played a bank robber in Violent Saturday. He also appeared in Not as a Stranger, a medical drama produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, alongside Robert Mitchum and Frank Sinatra. He was the villain in the 1956 Randolph Scott Western Seven Men from Now, directed by Budd Boetticher.

Marvin's television profile rose substantially when he was cast as Detective Lieutenant Frank Ballinger in the series M Squad, which ran from 1957 to 1960, a role that shifted his screen persona toward the anti-hero. His film career continued to build through the early 1960s with roles including Liberty Valance in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance in 1962 and Charlie Strom in The Killers in 1964.

The role that brought Marvin his greatest individual recognition was a dual performance in the 1965 comedy Western Cat Ballou, in which he played both the drunken gunfighter Kid Shelleen and the criminal Tim Strawn alongside Jane Fonda. The film was a surprise commercial hit, and Marvin's performance earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, a National Board of Review Award, and the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival. He followed that success with Rico Fardan in The Professionals in 1966, Major John Reisman in The Dirty Dozen in 1967, and Walker in Point Blank, also in 1967. He played Ben Rumson in the musical film Paint Your Wagon in 1969, the Sergeant in The Big Red One in 1980, and Jack Osborne in Gorky Park in 1983.