Lee Van Cleef Overview:

Character actor, Lee Van Cleef, was born Clarence Leroy Van Cleef Jr. on Jan 9, 1925 in Somerville, NJ. Van Cleef died at the age of 64 on Dec 16, 1989 in Oxnard, CA and was laid to rest in Forest Lawn (Hollywood Hills) Cemetery in Los Angeles, CA.

MINI BIO:

Lean, dark-haired, narrow-eyed American actor, almost entirely confined to westerns. After he switched to acting instead of taking over his father's accountancy business, he spent more than a decade in films as ugly villains (with the occasional American Indian thrown in) with itchy trigger fingers. Then he lost his hair, grew a mustache and, recovered from a severe car crash in 1959, pleasantly surprised his fans by becoming a star of spaghetti westerns in the wake of Clint Eastwood. Died from a heart attack.

(Source: available at Amazon Quinlan's Film Character Actors: an Illustrated Directory).

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Lee Van Cleef Quotes:

Stengel: [Believing he's got Sabata beat] Before you die, you should know that those men with superior talents... and consequently with superior powers... always have one last card to play.
Sabata: You know, Stengel, I wouldn't bet a dollar on that last card.


[after Mortimer opens safe, Indio declares a cooling off time for the loot]
El Indio: [to Mortimer] And you will wait a month to get your share.
Col. Douglas Mortimer: Naturally!... I'll be in the tavern.


Frank Talby: Fourth lesson: punches are like bullets. If you don't make the first ones count, Scotty, you might just be finished.


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Lee Van Cleef Facts
One episode of his short-lived TV series, "The Master" (1984), was titled "The Good, The Bad and the Priceless".

Was on the short list of actors under consideration for arms dealer Brad Whitaker in The Living Daylights (1987).

Was the inspiration for the character Revolver Ocelot in the "Metal Gear" series of games.

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