"Lee Marvin Question" Topic

I know that Marvin quickly became a "featured" actor in most of the 50's movies he played in, ranging from small but strong cameo's to even larger ones.

But I was watching "Seven Men from Now" last night and I noticed something. There are several 50's movies where he might have gotten 4-5th billing, but was actually the lead supporting actor.

At the same time, his fortunes always seemed to wax and wane; sometimes minor roles after a particularly big one just the year previous and then vice versa.

Did Marvin do something wrong in the 50's to hamper his career prior to his breakout role in the Dirty Dozen in the 60's (and was DD his breakout role)?

I know Charles Bronsons' career somewhat modelled Marvins, but I always get the feeling that Marvin was, somehow, always on someone's black list or such.

Any illumination upon the subject would be most welcome.

The bio at TCM isn't very forthcoming on that period; it identifies "Cat Ballou" (1965) as his breakout role.

link

Thanks…off I go.

(Always thought CB was after DD, for some odd reason).

Seems like he was a man who lived life on his own terms, and that probably rubbed some people the wrong way. That could explain something.

Yeah, Marvin wasn't that big untill Cat Ballou, de did a small yet memorable role as Libert Vallance, in the movie that man that shot liberty vallance, and that was in 62 I think, be he was prety big after that.

Shame he died so young, he could have done alot of great roles later on.

Also he turned down a role in the wild bunch to do how to paint your waggon.

I've heard, probably in commentary on TCM, that he had personal difficulties after his experiences in WWII… what might later have been called PTSD. He had troubles with alchohol but I don't know the specifics of when and how much it adversely affected his career. He was said to have eventually overcome those issues though.

Named after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, who was his second cousin three times removed.

IMDB bio has some interesting quotes…
imdb.com/name/nm0001511/bio

I thought the "Big red one" was one of his best.

I do remember reading, probably in his obits 25 years ago, that he could be difficult to work with, partly because of the alcohol, partly because he simply didn't take any crap from anyone.

I think he was a great actor. In addition to his movies, you can catch him on TV Land in many of his guest-starring roles. He was a great heavy in the early days.

I can watch The Professionals, The Dirty Dozen, Hell in the Pacific, The Big Red One, and others over and over again. I also think he was a fine deadpan comic actor, and I really like The Great Scout & Cathouse Thursday. (Kay Lenz might have something to do with that, though.)

On the other hand, I can't watch more than ten seconds of Cat Ballou or Paint Your Wagon. He's not bad in those two, I just think they're both terrible, terrible movies.

Oh, I love Paint Your Wagon… it's one of those movies where I'll stop everything and watch it if it's on the screen somewhere.

One of my favorite bits of his is an old B&W Dragnet episode where he plays a murder suspect. Very simple interrogation episode where Marvin's character becomes increasingly sinister as it plays out.

Point Blank was his best.

No it wasn't.

Paint Your Wagon really made me notice Lee Marvin. It was so untypical of him. It was untypical of Eastwood too, but Marvin stole every shared scene, and Eastwood was forgettable in any scenes he had without Marvin. At least, I only remember Marvin in that movie.

But every great actor has is "dog": imdb.com/title/tt0085289 *brrrr!*

Perhaps my favorite Lee Marvin role is Monty Walsh….

I think there were a lot of very good, up-and-coming actors in the 50's in competition for a relatively small number of roles, any one of them probably had the same off and on career as his if you look into it.

Marvin was just plain cool, simple as that. He was what made Cat Ballou worth watching, and really, without Marvin Paint Your Wagon would have been MOST embarrassing for Eastwood.

I really liked him in an episode of, I think Twilight Zone, but it could have been Outer Limits (too lazy to google), where he played the last human boxer, going up against robots.

Twilight Zone; ep was named "Steel".

And if you bear a resemblance to the man:
link

Never saw him in a bad performance.

I believe he was a pretty heavy drinker. It coulda been that. He was a pretty good actor I guess, but I think he also got himself typecast. I first saw him back in the 50s in "M-Squad," where he starred as Detective Frank Balenger.

I think the until the "Death Wish" movies Marvin was muvh more the household name. But after "Death Wish" Bronson's fame soared. So I think a lot of it is timing.

Thanks MahanMan!

too many great roles

Thanks to everyone here for enlightening me a bit on Mr. Marvin.

Again, all turned out well for him from the mid-60's onwards, but it's a joy to watch him have a lot of juicy roles in all those 50's movies he played in too!

A personal favourite of mine was the 1970's noir "Prime Cut". Marvin plays a retired enforcer for the Irish mob in Chicago who is asked to find out why the cut from a meat works in Kansas, run by an old protege ( Played by Gene Hackman) and an old flame, hasn't been paid. And why several other collectors have either vanished or returned in . . . odd forms.
A rural, full daylight film noir story ensues, with some surprisingly great work from some very surprising actors; Marvin shines as a retired tough guy who can still do the job and knows *how* to do the job right. One great scene in a restaurant looks as though it will end in fists, and Marvin does a brilliantly wordless job of dealing with the situation.
Available on several free downloads sites.

Roger that about "Prime Cut," one of Marvin's best.

Played "Meatball" in "The Caine Mutiny" too. And Chuck Norris' C.O. in "The Delta Force".

"Chino" in The Wild One.