Lee Van Cleef

Clarence LeRoy "Lee" Van Cleef Jr. was an American actor best known for his roles in Spaghetti Westerns such as For A Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Hatchet-faced with piercing eyes, he had declined to have his nose altered to play a sympathetic character in his film debut, High Noon, and was relegated to a non-speaking outlaw as a result. For a decade he was typecast as a minor villain, his sinister features overshadowing his acting skills. After suffering serious injuries in a car crash, Van Cleef began to lose interest in his apparently waning career by the time Sergio Leone gave him a major role in For a Few Dollars More. The film made him a box-office draw, especially in Europe. Military service: After basic training and further training at the Naval Fleet Sound School, Van Cleef was assigned to a submarine chaser and then to a minesweeper, USS Incredible, on which he worked as a sonarman. After leaving the Navy, Van Cleef read for a part in Our Town at the Little Theater Group in Clinton, New Jersey and received his first stage role. From there, he continued to meet with the group and audition for parts. The next biggest part was that of the boxer, Joe Pendleton, in the play Heaven Can Wait. During this time, he was observed by visiting talent scouts, who were impressed by Van Cleef's stage presence and delivery. One of these scouts later took him to New York City talent agent Maynard Morris of the MCA agency, who then sent him to the Alvin Theater for an audition. Van Cleef's screen debut came in High Noon. During a performance of Mister Roberts in Los Angeles, he was noticed by film director Stanley Kramer, who offered Van Cleef a role in his upcoming film. Kramer originally wanted Van Cleef for the role of the deputy Harvey Pell, but as he wanted Van Cleef to have his "distinctive nose" fixed, Van Cleef declined the role in favor of the part of the silent gunslinger Jack Colby. He was then cast mostly in villainous roles, due to his sharp cheeks and chin, piercing eyes, and hawk-like nose, from the part of Tony Romano in Kansas City Confidential (1952), culminating 14 years later in Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) Despite suffering from heart disease from the late 1970s and having a pacemaker installed in the early 1980s, Van Cleef continued to work in films until his death on December 16, 1989, at age 64. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Hollywood Hills, California, with an inscription on his grave marker referring to his many acting performances as a villain: "BEST OF THE BAD". Description above from the Wikipedia article Lee Van Cleef, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For: Acting

Born: Somerville, New Jersey, USA, 1925-01-09

Died: 1989-12-16

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1952	High Noon	Jack Colby	77
2	1952	Untamed Frontier	Dave Chittun	72
3	1952	Kansas City Confidential	Tony Romano	71
4	1952	The Lawless Breed	Dirk Hanley	66
5	1953	The Bandits of Corsica	Nerva	58
6	1953	White Lightning	Brutus Allen	60
7	1953	The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms	Corp. Stone	65
8	1953	Arena	Smitty	47
9	1953	Vice Squad	Pete Monty	59
10	1953	Jack Slade	Bolt Mackay	64
11	1953	Tumbleweed	Marv	61
12	1953	The Nebraskan	Pvt. Reno Benton	30
13	1954	Gypsy Colt	Hank	63
14	1954	Rails Into Laramie	Ace Winton	63
15	1954	Arrow In The Dust	Tillotson Henchman	58
16	1954	The Yellow Tomahawk	Fire Knife	60
17	1954	The Desperado	Paul Clayton/Buck Clayton	66
18	1954	Princess of the Nile	Hakar (uncredited)	71
19	1954	Dawn at Socorro	Earl Ferris	72
20	1955	Treasure of Ruby Hills	Frank Emmett	35
21	1955	Ten Wanted Men	Al Drucker	58
22	1955	The Big Combo	Fante	70
23	1955	I Cover the Underworld	Flash Logan	60
24	1955	The Road to Denver	Pecos Larry	60
25	1955	The Naked Street	Harry Goldish (uncredited)	61
26	1955	A Man Alone	Clanton	57
27	1955	The Vanishing American	Jay Lord	40
28	1956	The Conqueror	Chepei	34
29	1956	Tribute to a Bad Man	Fat Jones	70
30	1956	It Conquered the World	Dr. Tom Anderson	48
31	1956	Pardners	Gus	67
32	1956	Accused of Murder	Police Sgt. Emmett Lackey	45
33	1957	The Badge of Marshal Brennan	Shad Donaphin	60
34	1957	China Gate	Maj. Cham	60
35	1957	Gunfight at the O.K. Corral	Ed Bailey	70
36	1957	The Lonely Man	Faro	61
37	1957	Last Stagecoach West	Steve Margolies	43
38	1957	The Quiet Gun	Doug Sadler	64
39	1957	Joe Dakota	Adam Grant	56
40	1957	Gun Battle at Monterey	Kirby	46
41	1957	Raiders of Old California	Damon Pardee	47
42	1957	The Tin Star	Ed McGaffey	70
43	1958	Day of the Badman	Jake Hayes	65
44	1958	The Young Lions	1st Sgt. Rickett	68
45	1958	The Bravados	Alfonso Parral	65
46	1958	Machete	Miguel	59
47	1959	Guns, Girls and Gangsters	Mike Bennett	61
48	1959	Ride Lonesome	Frank	67
49	1960	The Slowest Gun in the West	Sam Bass	20
50	1961	Posse from Hell	Leo	62
51	1962	The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance	Reese	78
52	1962	How the West Was Won	River Pirate (uncredited)	70
53	1965	For a Few Dollars More	Col. Douglas Mortimer	80
54	1966	The Good, the Bad and the Ugly	Sentenza / Angel Eyes	85
55	1967	The Big Gundown	Jonathan Corbett	73
56	1967	Death Rides a Horse	Ryan	70
57	1967	Day of Anger	Frank Talby	70
58	1968	Beyond the Law	Billy Joe Cudlip	58
59	1968	Commandos	MSgt. Sullivan	58
60	1969	Sabata	Sabata	63
61	1970	El Condor	Jaroo	56
62	1970	Barquero	Travis	63
63	1971	Return of Sabata	Sabata / Major	60
64	1971	Captain Apache	Capt. Apache	45
65	1971	Bad Man's River	Roy King	45
66	1972	The Magnificent Seven Ride!	Marshal Chris Adams	55
67	1972	The Grand Duel	Sheriff Clayton	61
68	1973	Mean Frank and Crazy Tony	Frankie	44
69	1974	The Stranger and the Gunfighter	Dakota	53
70	1975	Take a Hard Ride	Kiefer	53
71	1976	God's Gun	Father John / Lewis	52
72	1976	Kid Vengeance	McClain	53
73	1977	Nowhere to Hide	Ike Scanlon	50
74	1977	The Perfect Killer	Harry Chapman	20
75	1978	The Squeeze	Chris Gretchko / Ray Sloan	52
76	1979	When the West Was Fun: A Western Reunion	Self	0
77	1980	The Hard Way	McNeal	56
78	1980	The Octagon	McCarn	50
79	1981	Escape from New York	Police Commissioner Bob Hauk	71
80	1984	Master Ninja II	John Peter McAllister	70
81	1984	Killing Machine	Julot	47
82	1984	Code Name: Wild Geese	Archie 'China' Travers	52
83	1985	The Master Ninja 5	John Peter McAllister	100
84	1985	Master Ninja	John Peter McAllister	47
85	1985	Jungle Raiders	Warren	37
86	1986	Armed Response	Burt Roth	48
87	1988	The Commander	Col. Mazzarini	55
88	1989	Speed Zone	Grandfather	45
89	1990	The Best of the Martial Arts Films	Self (archive footage)	87
90	1990	Thieves of Fortune	Sergio Danielo Christophero	30
91	2000	Klaus Kinski: I'm not an actor	Col. Douglas Mortimer (archive footage)	0
92	2003	Octagon : le combat des maîtres		0
93	2014	Peter Baumgartner, Filmkameramann	(archive footage)	0
94	2024	The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout	Self (archive footage)	80

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1949	The Lone Ranger	Bull Harper	67
2	1949	The Lone Ranger	Jango	67
3	1950	The Gene Autry Show	Hod - Henchman	42
4	1950	The Gene Autry Show	Henchman Ray	42
5	1951	The Adventures of Kit Carson		53
6	1951	The Adventures of Boston Blackie	Captain Jansen	40
7	1951	The Adventures of Boston Blackie	Lou	40
8	1951	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars	Dallas Clancy	73
9	1951	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars	Wink	73
10	1951	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars	Sheriff	73
11	1951	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars	Larkin	73
12	1951	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars	Cowboy	73
13	1952	Four Star Playhouse	Bob Wheeler aka Sonora Kid	63
14	1952	Cavalcade of America		35
15	1952	Cavalcade of America	1st Mate Hawl Finch	35
16	1952	The Ford Television Theatre		73
17	1952	The Ford Television Theatre	Stanley Perrin	73
18	1953	General Electric Theater	Dave Rudabaugh	63
19	1953	City Detective		70
20	1954	Annie Oakley	Amos Belcher	52
21	1954	Annie Oakley	Tim Brennan	52
22	1954	Stories of the Century	Jesse James	57
23	1954	Studio 57		0
24	1954	Studio 57	Tommy	0
25	1955	Buffalo Bill Jr.		50
26	1955	Gunsmoke	Rad	66
27	1955	Gunsmoke	John Hooker	66
28	1955	Gunsmoke	Ike Jeffords	66
29	1955	Cheyenne	Braden	58
30	1955	Cheyenne	Harry Bittercreek Bartender	58
31	1955	The Adventures of Champion	Frank	53
32	1956	State Trooper	Frank Parnessa	50
33	1956	Wire Service	Al Sanders	0
34	1957	Richard Diamond, Private Detective	Ed Murdock	62
35	1957	Have Gun, Will Travel	Golias	74
36	1957	Have Gun, Will Travel	Corbin	74
37	1957	Wagon Train	Rufe Beal	63
38	1957	Perry Mason	Edward Doyle	77
39	1957	Maverick		68
40	1957	Trackdown	Ben Fraser	64
41	1957	Casey Jones	Mort Clio	55
42	1957	Zorro		75
43	1957	Tombstone Territory	Sam Carver	60
44	1958	Wanted: Dead or Alive	Jumbo Kane	69
45	1958	Bronco		52
46	1958	The Rifleman		70
47	1958	Yancy Derringer	Ike Milton	56
48	1958	Lawman		56
49	1958	Lawman	Deputy Clyde Wilson	56
50	1958	77 Sunset Strip		67
51	1958	77 Sunset Strip	Majeski	67
52	1959	Rawhide	Fred Grant	72
53	1959	Rawhide	Deck Sommers	72
54	1959	Black Saddle	Frank Sandoe	60
55	1959	The Deputy	Cherokee Kid	62
56	1959	Bonanza	Appling	75
57	1959	Riverboat	Luke Cragg	62
58	1959	The DuPont Show with June Allyson	Peak	63
59	1959	Law of the Plainsman	Tracey	60
60	1959	The Twilight Zone	Steinhart	85
61	1959	The Alaskans		55
62	1959	Hawaiian Eye		52
63	1959	The Untouchables	Frank Diamond	79
64	1959	Mr. Lucky		64
65	1960	The Andy Griffith Show	Skip	76
66	1960	Stagecoach West	Lin Hyatt	60
67	1963	The Dakotas		57
68	1965	Branded		64
69	1965	My Mother the Car		43
70	1965	Laredo		63
71	1984	The Master	John Peter McAllister	51

Lee Van Cleef

Film

Television