Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef Jr. (Somerville, Nova Jersey, 9 de gener de 1925 - Oxnard, Califòrnia, 16 de desembre de 1989), conegut com a Lee Van Cleef, fou un actor estatunidenc que aparegué principalment en westerns i pel·lícules d'acció.

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.

Lee Van Cleef, né le 9 janvier 1925 à Somerville, New Jersey, et mort le 16 décembre 1989 à Oxnard, Californie, est un acteur américain.

Surtout connu pour ses rôles dans des westerns, notamment Et pour quelques dollars de plus (1965) et Le Bon, la Brute et le Truand (1966), parmi ses autres films notables on peut citer Colorado (1966), la trilogie Sabata, Le Dernier Jour de la colère (1967), Captain Apache (1971), Le Grand Duel (1972) et New York 1997 (1981).

Contenu soumis à la licence CC-BY-SA 3.0. Source : Article Lee Van Cleef de Wikipédia en français.

Lee Van Cleef (* 9. Januar 1925 in Somerville, New Jersey; † 16. Dezember 1989 in Oxnard, Kalifornien) war ein US-amerikanischer Film- und Fernsehschauspieler. Van Cleef wurde in Hollywood jahrelang als Nebendarsteller eingesetzt, bevor er sich in der zweiten Hälfte der 1960er Jahre als einer der führenden Stars des Italowesterns etablieren konnte.

Quelle: Wikipedia

Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef, Jr. (Somerville-NJ, 9 de janeiro de 1925 – Oxnard-CA, 16 de dezembro de 1989) foi um ator estadunidense. Em toda a sua carreira fez 350 filmes entre produções para o cinema e para a TV. Na década de 1970 era considerado um dos dez atores mais conhecidos na Europa. Teve problemas com o alcoolismo que o afastaram das telas por alguns anos, mas superou-os na época de ouro dos western spaghetti, trabalhando com o diretor Sergio Leone e o ator Clint Eastwood. Faleceu vítima de um colapso cardíaco, aos 64 anos, em sua residência.