Lee Marvin
Lee Marvin Biography
Lee Marvin was born on February 19, 1924, in New York City, USA, to parents Lamont Waltman Marvin, an advertising executive, and Courtenay Washington, a beauty consultant and fashion writer. One of his earliest ancestors was Matthew Marvin Sr., who had emigrated to America from Essex, England, to help found Hartford, Connecticut, in 1635. He was also the first cousin of the Confederate General Robert E. Lee, whom he and his brother Robert are named after.
After being expelled from several schools for misbehaviour, Lee Marvin attended St. Leo College Prep School in Florida. His early interests included music, and he studied the violin, but he could also often be found hunting deer, pumas, and wild turkeys in the as-yet-uncharted Florida Everglades.
In August 1942, when he was 18, Marvin left school and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, seeing action in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. During the assault on Mount Tapochau in the Battle of Saipan on 18 June 1944, he was wounded, along with most of his company, after coming under machine gun and sniper fire. After receiving treatment at various Navy medical hospitals, he was discharged on medical grounds, and as a combat soldier wounded in action, he was awarded a Purple Heart medal.
Lee Marvin’s acting career began by accident after he was asked to replace an actor who had fallen ill during rehearsals at a theatre in New York where he had been working as a plumber’s assistant. Acting seemed to be something he could do, and so in 1950, he moved to Hollywood to pursue a career.
As with many actors at the start of their careers, Lee Marvin found work in supporting roles, many of which were in war movies, where he could also be helpful, as a decorated combat veteran, assisting directors and other actors in accurate portrayals of wartime situations.
In February 1951, he married Betty Ebeling, with whom he had a son, Christopher, and three daughters, Courtenay, Cynthia, and Claudia. Betty and Lee divorced in January 1967.
During the 1950s and into the 1960s, Lee Marvin’s roles began to increase in size and stature, but it was a TV series called M Squad, in which he played a Chicago cop named Frank Ballinger for over 100 episodes, that helped establish his name recognition. His first title role was that of Liberty Vallance in The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance opposite John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart. In 1964, he received his first top billing in a movie for his part in The Killers, for which he received a BAFTA for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
In 1965, Lee Marvin won an Oscar, a BAFTA, and a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his role in the comedy Western film Cat Ballou, opposite Jane Fonda. More top billing would come along in 1967’s The Dirty Dozen and again for the musical Paint Your Wagon in 1969, which also starred Clint Eastwood. Marvin wasn’t a great singer, but that didn’t stop him from having a hit with his song from Paint Your Wagon, “Wand’rin Star”. He was now at the top of his career and being paid $1m per movie.
In October 1970, Lee Marvin married again, this time to Pamela Feeley. During this period, he resided on and off in Woodstock to care for his father. After his father’s death, he and Pamela moved to Tucson, Arizona, in 1975, and the couple remained together until his death.
During the 1970s and 1980s, he took on a greater variety of roles, with fewer of them being ‘bad guys’; however, he continued to work with many household Hollywood names, including Paul Newman, Oliver Reed, Roger Moore, and Richard Burton. His last big role was in another war movie, though, the 1980s Big Red One, which was based on the wartime experiences of its director, Samuel Fuller. Smaller roles followed for the next few years in Death Hunt, Gorky Park, and Dog Day, and there was even a sequel to The Dirty Dozen in The Dirty Dozen: The Next Mission. His final appearance was with Chuck Norris in The Delta Force in 1986.
In the same year that The Delta Force was released, Lee Marvin was admitted to the hospital, suffering from coccidioidomycosis, a fungal infection also known as Valley Fever or California Fever. He was administered steroids to help with his breathing, but as a result, he suffered from a ruptured intestine, causing him to have a colostomy. On August 29, 1987, he suffered a heart attack and died. As a Marine combat veteran, he was entitled to a military funeral, and he is therefore interred at Arlington National Cemetery. His headstone reads Lee Marvin, PFC, US Marine Corps, World War II.
Lee Marvin FAQ
Lee Marvin was an American film and television actor known for his tough-guy persona, deep voice, and roles in classic war and western films. He became a prominent Hollywood star in the 1960s and 70s.
Marvin starred in The Dirty Dozen, Point Blank, Cat Ballou (for which he won an Oscar), and The Big Red One. He was also a frequent presence in television Westerns during the 1950s.
Yes, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II and was wounded in action in the Pacific theatre. His real-life combat experience shaped many of his film roles.
Lee Marvin is remembered as a defining figure in American action cinema, admired for bringing realism and grit to his characters. He helped popularise the anti-hero archetype in mid-century film.
[this article originally appeared on 5MinuteBiographies.com on 22 November 2018]
