Lee Marvin

[maphillips3]

I feel this is one of the most Charismatic actors of his era. He has been in so many memorable movies, that its hard to say them all(The Dirty Dozen), but what ever he was in, he was great in. I was wondering what your thoughts on this great actor are?

[chaney]

A great actor who could play buffoonery or black villainry with equal skill. Always liked his quiter moments though, especially "Monte Walsh". He was a real-life U.S. Marine who received a Purple Heart in the Pacific. Stayed sinewy his entire life and was reportedly proficient in judo and all kinds of weaponry. Unfortunately, the drink often got the better of him in real life. Believe he delivered the very first punch to the crotch in "Point Blank".

[maphillips3]

Thats impressive! do you know if he ever competed in judo tournaments?

[maphillips3]

I heard he seemed to get into alot of fights, on the sets of movies. Do you of any stories?

[chaney]

There's the story of director Raoul Walsh telling Marvin and Neville Brand to really go at it with Leo Gordon on "Gun Fury". Gordon responded by knocking those two tough guys around for real. William Smith said that Marvin and Brand were both tough guys but when they were drinking they couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag. Smith and stuntman Roy Jenson used to bail Neville and Lee out of a lot of fights in a Pacific Coast Highway bike bar near Malibu. Doubtful Lee and Neville were drunk on set though when Leo Gordon knocked them around. Sober, both were known to be very tough guys.

Remember reading in one of the Marvin bios that he was making a TV show with Sam Peckinpah and got into a fight with Sam. Marvin was slamming Peckinpah against a wall when others pulled him off him. That was Peckinpah though. He used to like to bait people (especially tough guys) to find out who he could manipulate. Word was he later offered the William Holden part in "The Wild Bunch" to Marvin, who turned it down to make "Paint Your Wagon" instead.

Also remember reading somewhere that Marvin got into a fight with Roger Moore, who Marvin thought was a sissy. When Moore landed a solid punch on Marvin, Lee lightened up and the two became good friends. Heard that story attributed to the making of "Shout at the Devil" or as far back as the 1950's when Moore first got to Hollywood.

There's another story of Marvin and John Wayne wrecking a motel room after a night of drink in I believe Bisbee, Arizona. Don't know if the fight got serious or if the two were just partaking in macho horseplay (perhaps rehearsing for "Donovan's Reef"). Anyway, the motel used to advertise that this is the room where Lee Marvin and John Wayne got into a fight and broke the window. Marvin and Wayne were said to be pretty good friends and drinking buddies in real life.

[maphillips3]

Didn't Lee and Charlie come too blows on the Dirty Dozen set?

[chaney]

THE DIRTY DOZEN story involved the climactic shootout. It was a night shoot and Lee was nowhere to be found. Charlie was anxious to finish the scene and get home to Jill. One of the producers found a soused Marvin in a local tavern and hustled him to the location. Charlie was growing angrier by the minute. By the time Lee stumbled onto the set Charlie approached and said something along the lines of "Lee, I'm going to knock your frigging head off." The producer jumped between them begging Charlie not to hit Lee in the face. Charlie backed off and they did the scene. Will have to double check but Lee might even be the one DRIVING the escape vehicle in this scene.

When they were in London there was another incident where Lee said something offensive to an older lady at a party. The woman was some relation of Sean Connery who stalked across the room ready to lay into Lee. The producer again jumped between them begging "Please not the face, Sean. We have close-ups!" Lee sat there grinning and Connery reportedly found the quip amusing after all. Producers used to hire tough guys Robert Phillips and Boyd Cabeen for Marvin movies specifically to jump into fights and keep the star's face from getting damaged.

There was also a columnist who ran a report during the making of THE DIRTY DOZEN that Lee and Jim Brown got into a fight outside of a party. Lee was apparently halfway sober for that one. Don't know who got the better of the exchange. Both later took the diplomatic route and denied there was ever an altercation to the press. Lee praised Brown as an up and coming actor while Brown said Lee gave him a lot of help during the making of the film. Anyway, pretty bold for Marvin to go up against one of professional football's most feared players. Rod Taylor got into a fight with Brown the following year and came out on top.

[arthurbishop]

I just saw Point Blank the other day which is a great movie, very different to what I expected. The fight scene in the nightclub was very good, lol and what a crotch punch it was.

[cloudweller]

I know that Lee Marvin was a "desert rat,"but mr.Bronson chose Vermont for the location of his horse ranch?

[hammer]

Well, I'll say this, I'm a huge Lee Marvin Fan, but he got into with Jim Brown, Lee got his ass kicked! Lee might have been a tuff actor, but Jim Brown was one of the NFL's best players, an athlete who was in shape and had skills. That's a first round knockout there!

[Frank the butcher]

Charles bronson came into my butchers shop in Beccles once
And bought some ham
Curiosly Lee marvin was nowhere to be seen
Don't know if this is significant

[maphillips33]

Very cool stories about one of my favorite actors!

[dapaul]

Yes Lee is one of my favourites,he always has a calming composed presence in his movies-i didn't know about the scraps he was in lol-i seen an interview a while back on YouTube on death hunt where he mentions how far him and Charles go back