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Lee Van Cleef |
Lee Van Cleef was a legendary western actor with great screen presence and menacing eyes. His tall lean stature, low scratchy voice and hawk like nose made him an icon of the western genre. His first major film role was in the academy award winning western High Noon, as one of the outlaws terrorizing Gary Cooper. On the strength of that performance he was in demand in many 50s films as the tough guy on the range, at war and in many film noirs. His most prominent 50s performances include: The Tin Star, Gunfight at the OK Corral, Ride Lonesome, Dawn at Socorro, The Nebraskan, Kansas City Confidential, and The Young Lions.
With the 60s came less film projects and more western television performances, until the renowned Italian director Sergio Leone cast Lee in the taut, brutal western For a Few Dollars More. Lee was perfectly cast as the cold and calculating man- in-black; where the use of exotic guns became synonymous with Lee’s man-in-black persona. This role was a departure for the actor as Colonel Mortimer was actually a good guy alongside Clint Eastwood’s bounty hunter. This screen team proved to be a worldwide box office phenomenon which vaulted Lee’s overseas career to superstardom, sadly the American film industry did not pay attention. For a Few Dollars More became a model film and to this day its desolate and violent vision remains a pillar of the euro-western genre. Leone again cast Lee in the ultra-classic The Good the Bad and the Ugly, which relied heavily on the sadistic killer image that he had honed in many westerns up to this point. “The man with the gun-sight eyes” as he was known in Europe, starred in many great spaghetti westerns such as: Day of Anger,
Death Rides a Horse, and the classic The Big Gundown.
As the western genre begin to decline in 70s, Hollywood tried to resurrect it by casting Lee in such sad offerings as Take a Hard Ride, The Magnificent Seven Ride and the spaghetti western influenced Barquero. His last great screen role was as Kurt Russell’s commander in the sci-fi flick Escape from New York. Later, he starred in the short-lived kung fu series The Master. Lee Van Cleef died of a heart attack in 1989 he was only 64. -Biography by Blondie |
