Lee Marvin: Point Blank

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Lee Marvin: Point Blank Page 29

by Dwayne Epstein


  “He had very keen eyes”: “Ex-Lakelander Lee Marvin’s Name Is Really Lee Marvin,” Larry Vickers, Tampa Tribune, April 21, 1966.

  “He didn’t care much for the academic part”: AI May 8, 1996.

  “We called him ‘Dogface’ ”: Pioneer College: The Centennial History of Saint Leo College, Saint Leo

  Abbey, and Holy Name Priory, James J. Horgan, St. Leo College Press, 1989, page 461.

  “I bopped him one time”: Ibid.

  “This evening I was ‘told’ to go out for track”: Letter to Courtenay, Nov. 4, 1940

  “Making a little wine out of the citrus fruit””: AI, June 15, 1998.

  “Well, Lee won and I came in second”: Ibid.

  “The auditorium was filled to capacity”: “Brother Orchid’s Monks and Gangsters Wow Local Audiences,” St. Leo Chronicle, March 27, 1942.

  “This is the last you will ever see an address…”: Monte to Courtenay, Aug. 1941.

  “I and four other boys”: Letter to parents, Dec. 4, 1941.

  “I think that I have finally come to a decision”: Letter to Courtenay, May, 1942.

  CHAPTER 3: “I HAVE HAD MY FILL OF WAR”

  “It could not be taken by a million men”: World War II: The War in the Pacific, DVD. Writer/Director Don Horan, New Video Distribution, 1993.

  “He gave me his .45”: “Drinks with Liberty Valance,” Robert Ward, Rolling Stone, Sept. 3, 1981.

  “[It was] also then that Monte proceeded to seduce Lee’s girlfriend”: AI Feb. 12, 1995.

  “The war had an effect on me”: “The Star You Love To Hate,” Arnold Hano, Pageant, May 1966.

  “On Kwajalein there were six guys”: “Old Foes with a New View of War,” P.F. Kluge, Life, Sept. 27, 1968.

  “He was assigned to go knock out a foxhole”: AI August 17, 1995.

  “He popped out of the hole like a little animal”: “Hollywood’s Tough Loner” Hollywood Confidential, Tedd Thomey, NY: Pyramid Books, 1967 p.27

  CHAPTER 4: “THESE HORRIBLE, ANIMAL MEN”

  “I won’t repeat exactly what I said…”: “Lee Marvin” Leatherneck, Robert Johnson Jr., July, 1985.

  “Your brother is quite a man”: Letter from Courtenay to Robert, April 11, 1945.

  “It ruined him”: “Drinks with Liberty Valance,” Robert Ward, Rolling Stone, Sept. 3, 1981.

  “Outstandingly meritorious service”: Copy of citation provided by Robert Marvin.

  “I just got home from school,”: Letter to Robert postmarked Oct. 27, 1945.

  “It made no sense”: “The Star You Love To Hate,”: Arnold Hano, Pageant, May, 1966.

  “Natural hazards effecting apple crop”: 1946 resume provided by Robert Marvin.

  “What I am trying to put over here”: Undated story provided by Robert Marvin.

  “The greatest dive I’ve ever seen in my life”: AI Bill Heckeroth, June 12, 1996.

  “When Lee would come home”: AI Robert Marvin, July 21, 1994.

  “You Marines are alot of bullshit”: Ibid.

  “I was wearing a good pair of pants”: Ibid.

  “A guy digging ditches”: “Assorted Blasts From An Angry Man,” Bob Johnson TV Guide, Oct. 3, 1959.

  “It wasn’t long after, the state police arrived”: AI Bill Heckeroth, June 12, 1996.

  “My next film is going to be your life story” Ibid.

  “We fished”: AI David Ballantine, June 14, 1996.

  “I fought WWII in the Zone of the Interior,”: Ibid.

  “I knew Monte and Courtenay,”: Ibid.

  “The gargle”: Ibid.

  “Lee’s performance was the most hilarious,”: “From Maverick to Filmland Marvin Left Them in Aisles,” Tobie Geertsma, Kingston Daily Freeman, April 19, 1966.

  “The director needed a tall loudmouth”: Marvin, Donald Zec, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1980. p. 47

  “Nothing could be further from the truth”: “From Maverick to Filmland Marvin Left Them in

  Aisles,” Tobie Geertsma, Kingston Daily Freeman, April 19, 1966.

  “I got swocked,”: “The Star You Love To Hate,”: Arnold Hano, Pageant, May, 1966.

  “He was a very impressive character”: AI Betty Ballantine, June 14, 1996.

  “It grabbed me just like that!”: “How Getting Shot Saved Lee Marvin’s Life,” Tom Seligman, Parade, April 27, 1986.

  “Lee Marvin as 6’3” ‘Texas’: “At the Maverick,” Ulster County News, June 29, 1947

  “He had such presence on stage”: AI Betty Ballantine, June 14, 1996.

  “It was the closest thing to the Marvin Corp.”:

  “Acting is a search for communication”:

  “Hard work and no crap, no doubt about it”: AI James Doohan, Oct. 5, 1996.

  “When I put on the rags”: “How Getting Shot Saved Lee Marvin’s Life,” Tom Seligman, Parade, April 27, 1986.

  “We slept in cabins”: AI James Doohan, Oct. 5, 1996.

  “Lee was a killer”: AI Betty Ballantine, June 14, 1996.

  “He also of course had an affair with the company’s leading lady”: Ibid.

  “Let me tell you, pal, touring was fuckin’ tough”: “Lee Marvin’s Great, Goddamned Moments of the Big Kavoom,”: Grover Lewis, Rolling Stone Dec. 21, 1972.

  “Lee told my father he wanted to be an actor”: AI Robert Marvin, July 21, 1994.

  “It was marvelous, like a halfway house”: “Marvin is still at it and holding up well,” Chris Chase, LA Herald-Examiner, May 21, 1981.

  “Lee walked in and they showed him the saber”: AI David Ballantine, June 14, 1996.

  “I could turn that part inside out”: Datebook, Dec. 22, 1948.

  “There used to be an agent in New York”: AI Bert Remsen, Nov. 23, 1994.

  “I think he might have very well ended up…”: AI Betty Ballantine, June 14, 1996.

  “New York is a totally different scene”: AI Leo Gordon, Jan. 26, 1999.

  “Look, I’m a trained killer” AI Betty Ballantine, June 14, 1996.

  “PTSD went undiagnosed until 1980”: “Troubled Homecoming,” Thomas Childers, VFW, April, 2009.

  “If veterans of WWII were mentioned at all”: Ibid.

  “I hung around for three days”: “Marvin is still at it and holding up well,” Chris Chase, LA Herald-Examiner, May 21, 1981.

  “Dear Lee, good luck tonight”: Feb. 10, 1951, photocopy provided by Robert Marvin.

  “There I was in a theater,”: “Lee Marvin, Hollywood’s Most Dedicated Hell-Raiser,” Jim Sirmans, Saga, June, 1974.

  “He stood at attention through three acts”: AI David Ballantine, June 14, 1996.

  “I said, ‘Give Hollywood a try’”: AI James Doohan, Oct. 5, 1996.

  “It was a damned bore”: “A Cool Head Hits it Hot,” Martin Cohen, True, Oct. 1965.

  PART II: IN THE TRENCHES

  CHAPTER 5: THE MERCHANT OF MENACE

  “Can’t I take crap on my own time?” AI, July 23, 1994.

  “Let me see him work”: Ibid.

  “Before you showed up”: Ibid.

  “In my first picture I played seven sailors”: “Drunkest Gun in the West,” Life, June 11, 1965.

  “I said to him, ‘Before you go, I want you to do something’”: AI, July 23, 1994.

  “Hollywood is the funniest place”: Undated letter to Monte on Screenland stationery.

  “No, I didn’t have that kind of deal”: AI, July 23, 1994.

  “Things are still going very well for me out here”: Letter to Robert, Dec. 1, 1951.

  “The episode Lee was on was a three-man piece”: “Portrait of a Star: Lee Marvin,” Rick Spalla Productions, 1968.

  “Everything he did in the early days”: AI, July 23, 1994.

  “My offices used to be on Sunset Blvd.”: Ibid.

  “I remember his telling me about a scene”: AI, June 14, 1996.

  “I was very attracted to his one Brooks Brothers jacket” AI, Feb. 12, 1995.

  “Here’s one of the dearest memories I have of
Lee”: Ibid.

  “Lee was very shy as a man with women”: Ibid.

  “Lee from the beginning, knew every method used in acting”: Ibid.

  “I know that Webb made sure a lot of influential people…” : AI June 23, 1996.

  “For instance, when he put on his clothes”: AI Sept. 7, 1996.

  “Oh, he was a wonder”: Ibid.

  “I can’t re-sign with you”: AI, July 23, 1994.

  “He went around and about”: AI, Feb. 12, 1995.

  “We had no witnesses,”: “The Star You Love To Hate,” Arnold Hano, Pageant, May 1966.

  “On our honeymoon”: AI, Feb. 12, 1995.

  “He cried when I had a baby”: Ibid.

  “Did you see the pictures of Christopher?”: Letter to Robert, Dec. 28, 1952.

  “You don’t make friends with the guys who are above you”: “Drinks with Liberty Valance,” Robert Ward, Rolling Stone, Sept. 3, 1981.

  “He would have been with Raoul Walsh and Barrymore”: AI July 13, 1995.

  “That quality of violence in Lee showed up on screen”: AI, June 14, 1996.

  “Meyer had a whole bunch of people who were really busy”: AI July 13, 1995.

  “We met when he was coming up heading toward the bus”: AI April 8, 1997.

  “Fort Lost in the Woods of Misery” Ibid.

  “I think the biggest thing about Lee that stands out”: Ibid.

  “I did ask [Lang] if there was anything that he wanted to tell me”: “Marvin,” Roy Pickard, Photoplay Monthly, July, 1976.

  “We’re sitting around a coffee table between scenes” AI Jan. 15, 1995.

  “Lee’s girlfriend, Gloria Grahame, had a scene”: Ibid.

  “In those days, the [3-D] cameras, weren’t quite as effective”: AI Jan. 26, 1999.

  “He was a pretty muscular gun nut:” Ibid.

  “When he was a young actor and we were just married”: AI, Feb. 12, 1995.

  “There are big things in the wind”: Letter to Robert, Dec. 28, 1952.

  “Lee passed me coming in over at the Columbia Ranch”: AI April 8, 1997

  “When the director [Laslo Benedek] walked down the street”: Ibid.

  “He [Marvin] and Marlon Brando…”: AI Nov. 4, 1994

  “They got along but it was a tolerance” Ibid.

  “Lee was always in the tense scenes” AI, Feb. 12, 1995.

  “When they did The Wild One, he was our son’s baby-sitter”: Ibid.

  “Just don’t make eye contact” Ibid.

  CHAPTER 6: YOU LOOK LIKE YOU NEED A HAND”

  “I was a troubleshooter”: “Maverick Marvin,” Kirk Honeycutt, NY Daily News, Feb. 11, 1986.

  “I caught Lee’s first screen triumph”: AI June 14, 1996.

  “He was a goofball but he was a fun goofball”: AI Sept. 7, 1996.

  “There they were, Admiral this and General that”: AI July 21, 1994.

  “Lee Marvin plays his role more than effectively”: “Films Arrive,” A.O. Scott, New York Times, Aug. 21, 1954.

  “I was mainly hired as the dummy”: Some Enchanted Egos, Donald Zec, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1973, p. 256.

  “We had babies one right after another”: AI, Feb. 12, 1995.

  “The first house we bought was up in Hollywood Knolls”: Ibid.

  “Lee had never sung”: Ibid.

  “Like Lee, he was another guy who did things…”: AI Oct. 4, 1999.

  “I also knew the first time I met him that he was unusually bright”: Ibid.

  “I didn’t have anything in the script about that”: Ibid.

  “See, Lee was the kind of guy that hated gimmicks”: AI April 8, 1997.

  “You look like you need a hand”: Bad Day at Black Rock, Warner Home Video DVD, 2005.

  “I’ll grant you one basically fine actor is Spencer Tracy”: “Lee Marvin: Tuesday’s Story”: Ralph Story, KNXT-TV.

  “One night there was this poker game in his home”: AI April 8, 1997.

  “Like on my birthday he would give me a bicycle…”: AI, Feb. 12, 1995.

  “What’s the matter, don’t you serve servicemen here?”: Forgive Us Our Digressions: An Autobiography, Jim & Henny Backus, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1988.

  “All you had to do was meet Lee”: AI May 5, 1999.

  “If you just ignore Victor Mature,”: “Don’t Just Twinkle, Rise and Shine,” Judith Crist, NY Herald Tribune, Dec. 5, 1965.

  “Sincerity and giving the role a character beyond what was written”: AI Nov. 4, 1994.

  Page 120) “I got to do things on film…”: How Getting Shot Saved Lee Marvin’s Life,” Tom Seligman, Parade, April 27, 1986.

  “I think everybody was certainly in awe of Ella”: AI June 23, 1996.

  “Lee was an amazing actor:” AI Oct. 17, 1994.

  “They even gave me advice on how to treat men”: Ibid.

  “They were the best of friends and always got along”: AI Oct. 11, 1995.

  “Yeah, I guess there were a time or two they’d be in the shop”: AI Aug. 8, 1995.

  “This kid’s good,”: AI Budd Boetticher Oct. 30, 1994.

  “Lee comes out and he’s got this coat on”: AI May 31, 1995.

  “Lee was great”: AI Oct. 30, 1994.

  “He was one of the few actors who really knew how to handle a gun”: Ibid.

  “If I lose another man on account of you,” “Attack” Pressbook, UA, 1956.

  “Well, we made that local…”: AI Oct. 25, 1994.

  “He was totally in charge”: AI Dec. 12, 1997.

  “Lee, in those days, was very much…”: AI June 23, 1996.

  “Ward, what war did you fight in?”: AI Peter Levinson Feb. 2, 1996.

  “After the play”: AI April 22, 1997.

  “I feel very strongly that the longer you stay away from the stage…”: Feb. 12, 1995.

  “There’s a scene in the bar in which he goes kind of wild”: AI Oct. 4, 1999.

  “I think he felt like I did and felt sorry for him”: AI July 26, 1995.

  “Lee was on location so I called our business manager Ed Silver…”: AI, Feb. 12, 1995.

  “If you ever talk to my wife again…”: Ibid.

  CHAPTER 7: MAN IN A STRAITJACKET

  “No matter how fast they are…”: “The Man for Vicaries,” Richard Schickel, TIME, June 4, 1965.

  “Lee is a mythomaniac” “Black Eye,” Rip Torn, TIME, May 6, 1966.

  “The fight was supposed to last about four minutes”: AI Dec. 11, 1997.

  “We would walk down the hall to go to the cafeteria” AI Sept. 25, 1994.

  “In the early days, he was doing a show with Reagan”: AI July 23, 1994.

  “I did ‘Bailout at 43,000’ on ‘Climax!’ in 1956” AI July 13, 1995.

  “He was a terrific personality”: AI Nov. 21, 1994.

  “You must understand that anthology TV is a very difficult form” AI Feb. 19, 1998.

  “The truth is it was Lee Marvin’s show”: Ibid.

  “I’ve sunk in one of these before!” CBS Television [viewed at The Paley Center, 1995]

  “In those days I did a lot of ‘Studio One”: AI Nov. 10, 1995.

  “Everybody knew me….”: “Marvin Says Keep Cool If Goal Is A Real Whopper,” Bob Thomas, Associated Press, May 27, 1965.

  “That kid really smokes”: “‘Angry’ Lee Marvin is Happy With New Dramatic Opportunities,”: Bob Brooks, L.A. Mirror, Oct. 4, 1961.

  “No broads, no mother, no sleep, no eat…”: “The Man for Vicaries,” Richard Schickel, TIME, June 4, 1965.

  “Making movies rather than television”: “Marvin’s ‘Pitching’ in the Majors,” Harold Hildebrand, L.A. Examiner, Oct. 29, 1961.

  “Cops and robbers series sell”: “Lee Marvin Candid Character,” Joe Hyams, Herald Tribune TV Guide, Oct. 27, 1957.

  “They arrested our cameraman twice”: Ibid.

  “I’m never ashamed of anything I do”: Ibid.

  “You never quite knew what he was going to do”: AI Sept. 25, 1994.


  “That is one of my good early jobs”: AI Aug. 2, 2001.

  “We had themes and what not”: AI, Feb. 12, 1995.

  “We got on the subject of the Brooklyn Dodgers” AI July 21, 1994.

  “When Lee became somewhat successful.”: AI Feb. 12, 1995.

  “Lee told me a story during the time of ‘M Squad’”: AI Aug. 26, 1995.

  “I would get out of the series….”: “Man in A Strait Jacket” TV Guide, Feb. 7, 1959.

  “We were really tight it seems to me until ‘M Squad’” AI Feb. 12, 1995.

  “Well, Lee was wined and dined by MCA,”: AI June 26, 1995.

  “He said, ‘I don’t want to do M Squad any more’”: AI Feb. 12, 1995.

  “Creatively, an actor is limited in TV”: “Marvin’s ‘Pitching’ in the Majors,” Harold Hildebrand, L.A. Examiner, Oct. 29, 1961.

  “Ida Lupino was directing that one”: AI Jan. 18, 1998.

  “He called me…” “Re-creating A Footnote To History, TV Guide, Mar. 26, 1960.

  “I regard the series as a public service…”: “He’ll Play It Straight On New TV series, actor Lee Marvin won’t act,” Jack Leahy, Sunday News, Aug. 25, 1963.

  “Violence on the screen is totally different,” “There’s not ENOUGH VIOLENCE on TV!” Lee

  Marvin as told to Peter J. Levinson, TV-Radio Mirror, Dec. 1963.

  “What I remember most was his eyes” AI Nov. 23, 1994.

  “By the time we got back from the hospital all stitched up,”: AI June 23, 1996.

  CHAPTER 8: “LADY, I JUST DON’T HAVE THE TIME”

  “He’s been around this town ten years”: AI Feb. 2, 1996.

  “It will be the site of a huge new housing development”: “The Comancheros,” Pressbook, 20th Century Fox, 1961.

  “Ford gave Lee a piece of direction…”: AI July 13, 1995.

  “I think he’s one of the most intelligent directors…”: “Lee Marvin: Tuesday’s Story”: Ralph Story, KNXT-TV.

  “It was a kick in the head workin’ with Ford…”: “Drinks with Liberty Valance,” Robert Ward, Rolling Stone, Sept. 3, 1981.

  “Here’s how we meet…”: AI Sept. 3, 1994.

  “We were just sitting there bored with the whole thing”: AI April 8, 1997.

  “I move faster on screen,”: “Drinks with Liberty Valance,” Robert Ward, Rolling Stone, Sept. 3, 1981.

  “I can work with tough directors,” “Lee Marvin Shoots Off His Mouth!” Julie Paul, Motion Picture, Nov. 1968:

  “We had a dog named Liberty, too”: AI March 5, 1995.

 

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