Lee Van Cleef - Career

Career

His first acting experiences were on stage, including a small role in the original Broadway production of Mister Roberts. His first film was the classic Western High Noon, in which he played a villain. He also had a bit part as the sharpshooter in the climax of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms around the same time. In 1956 he co-starred with Peter Graves in the B-grade science fiction movie It Conquered the World.

In addition to Westerns and the science fiction films, three of his early major roles were in noir films, Kansas City Confidential (1952), Vice Squad (1953) and The Big Combo (1955). All have attained status as classic noir films of the 1950s and Van Cleef's roles, though as secondary characters and villains, were memorable.

Van Cleef appeared six times between 1951 and 1955 as Burt Tanner on the children's western The Adventures of Kit Carson, starring Bill Williams. In 1954, he appeared as Jesse James in the Jim Davis syndicated series Stories of the Century. He played different minor characters on four episodes of ABC's The Rifleman between 1959 and 1962 and twice on ABC's Tombstone Territory. He appeared with Chuck Connors and Pippa Scott in the 1960 episode "Trial by Fear" of CBS's The DuPont Show with June Allyson.

He guest starred on the CBS western series Have Gun - Will Travel, on the NBC western series Cimarron City and Laramie and on Rod Cameron's syndicated crime dramas, City Detective and State Trooper. He guest starred in an episode of John Bromfield's syndicated series Sheriff of Cochise. Van Cleef starred as minor villains and henchmen in various westerns, including The Tin Star and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

In 1959, a severe alcohol related car crash nearly cost Van Cleef his career as a resulting knee injury had doctors telling him he would never ride a horse again. This injury was to plague him for the rest of his life, causing him great pain. His recovery was long and arduous and did take him away from acting for a time. During his time away from acting, Lee began a business in interior decoration with wife Joan, as well as pursuing his talent for painting, primarily of sea and landscapes. While building a studio off his house in Granada, Lee cut off the tip of his finger on his right hand. This would later become rather a trademark for him. He described his down time from acting jobs as unhealthy dry spells. His acting career, it seemed, had run its course ending with many TV appearances. It took his career some time to recover from this blow and in contrast to his earlier major roles, he for some years had only occasional small parts. He appeared as a villainous swindler in the Bonanza episode, "The Bloodline" (December 31, 1960). He played one of Lee Marvin's villainous henchmen in the 1962 John Ford classic The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, with James Stewart and John Wayne. He also had a small, uncredited role as one of the river pirates in 1962's How the West Was Won. In 1963, Van Cleef made a rare TV appearance on Perry Mason in "The Case of the Golden Oranges."

However, in 1965, there was an opportunity waiting for him that was to change his life. His career revival began when the young Italian director Sergio Leone boldly cast Van Cleef, whose career was still in the doldrums, as one of the two protagonists, alongside Clint Eastwood, in Leone's second western, For a Few Dollars More. Leone then chose Van Cleef to appear with Clint Eastwood again, this time as the primary villain in the classic The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. With his roles in Leone's films, Van Cleef became a major star of Spaghetti Westerns, playing central roles in films such as Death Rides a Horse, Day of Anger, The Big Gundown and The Sabata Trilogy. Van Cleef also had a supporting role in John Carpenter's cult film Escape from New York. In 1984, Van Cleef was cast as a ninja master in the NBC adventure series The Master, but it was canceled after 13 episodes. All in all, he is credited with 90 movie roles and 109 other television appearances over a 38-year span.

In the early 1980s, Van Cleef appeared in a very popular series of commercials for Midas mufflers, in which he played up his gunfighter persona, playing opposite many character actors of the time, including Jack Palance.