Lee Van Cleef
Acting
Born 1925-01-09
Died 1989-12-16
Somerville, New Jersey, USA
146 credits
Read biography
Clarence LeRoy "Lee" Van Cleef Jr. (January 9, 1925 – December 16, 1989) 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.
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".
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Filmography
— top 60 of 146
Acting
48 credits
Perry Mason
Bonanza
The Andy Griffith Show
Wagon Train
The Twilight Zone
Have Gun, Will Travel
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Cheyenne
Rawhide
The Untouchables
Lawman
Four Star Playhouse
Wanted: Dead or Alive
Gunsmoke
The Lone Ranger
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
77 Sunset Strip
The Ford Television Theatre
For a Few Dollars More
State Trooper
The Deputy
Tombstone Territory
Bronco
Trackdown
Escape from New York
The Gene Autry Show
High Noon
The DuPont Show with June Allyson
Studio 57
Riverboat
Black Saddle
Annie Oakley
Mr. Lucky
Yancy Derringer
Cavalcade of America
How the West Was Won
Boston Blackie
Law of the Plainsman
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Stagecoach West
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
Wire Service
The Master
Stories of the Century
The Tin Star
Speed Zone
Casey Jones
The Bravados
Other credits
12 credits
The Rifleman
Maverick
Zorro
Hawaiian Eye
Laredo
Branded
City Detective
The Adventures of Kit Carson
The Alaskans
The Dakotas
My Mother the Car
Buffalo Bill Jr.
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