Lee Van Cleef (1925-1989)

 

Handsome devil.

�Being born with a pair of beady eyes was the best thing that ever happened to me.�

With Jean Wallace and Earl Holliman in The Big Combo (1955).

 

�I didn�t speak a word in High Noon. In 1951, Stanley and Earl Kramer saw me in a play, Mr. Roberts, and offered me the role eventually played by Lloyd Bridges in the film, providing I would have my nose fixed. I refused and wound up as one of the four villains.�

Still standing in For a Few Dollars More (1965).

 

�I believe in showing real violence, not toy violence. Real violence turns you off because you know it�s not the thing to do. If you show violence realistic enough, people don�t want to do it.� (1970 interview)

Taking aim in The Big Gundown (1966).

 

�Bad guys have always been my bag . . . I look mean without even trying. Audiences just naturally hate me on screen. I could play a role in a tuxedo and people would think I was rotten. You can do much more with a villain part. Movies are full of leading men, most of whom aren�t working. It�s much harder to find a good villain.�

Indelible poster art.

 

�Once I learned what I was doin�, which only took a picture or two, I tried to find some extra dimension to every character, a sympathetic area. Now, right or wrong, I�ve done that all these years. It gives you another thing to do. Sometimes you don�t find �em. But if you can, and use them, it helps; like patting a child on the head instead of kickin� him in the ass.� (1979 interview with William Horner)

My favorite Lee Van Cleef films: The Big Combo (1955), For a Few Dollars More(1965), The Big Gundown (1966), Death Rides a Horse (1967), Day of Anger (1967)