Lee Van Cleef
| Lee Van Cleef | |
|---|---|
Lee Van Cleef as Angel Eyes in
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) |
|
| Born |
Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef, Jr. January 9, 1925 Somerville, New Jersey, United States |
| Died |
December 16, 1989 (aged 64) Oxnard, California, United States |
| Cause of death | Heart attack |
| Resting place |
Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery Hollywood Hills, California, United States |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1952–1989 |
| Spouse(s) |
Patsy Ruth (m. 1943; div. 1960) Joan Drane (m. 1960; div. 1974) Barbara Havelone (m. 1976) |
| Children | 4 |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |
 United States
|
| Service/branch |
 United States Navy
|
| Years of service | 1942–1946 |
| Rank | Sonarman First Class (S01) |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Clarence Leroy "Lee" Van Cleef, Jr. (January 9, 1925 – December 16, 1989), was an American actor whose sinister features overshadowed his acting skills and typecast him as a minor villain for a decade before he achieved stardom in Spaghetti Westerns such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Hatchet-faced with piercing eyes, he declined to have his hook nose altered to play a sympathetic character in his film debut, High Noon, and was relegated to a non-speaking outlaw as a result. Van Cleef had suffered serious injuries in a car crash, and had begun 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.
Van Cleef was born on January 9, 1925 in Somerville, New Jersey, the son of Marion Van Fleet (née Levinia) and Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef. At age 17, he obtained his high school diploma early in his senior year in order to enlist in the United States Navy in September, 1942. After basic training and further training at the Naval Fleet Sound School, he was assigned to a submarine chaser and then to a minesweeper, USS Incredible, on which he worked as a sonarman.
The ship initially patrolled the Caribbean, then moved to the Mediterranean, participating in the landings in southern France. In January 1945, Incredible moved to the Black Sea, and performed sweeping duties out of the Soviet Navy base at Sevastopol, Crimea. Afterwards the ship performed air-sea rescue patrols in the Black Sea, before returning to Palermo, Sicily. By the time of his discharge in March 1946, he had achieved the rank of Sonarman First Class (SO1), and earned his mine sweeper patch. He had been awarded the Bronze Star and the Good Conduct Medal. By virtue of his deployments Van Cleef also qualified for the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and American Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal.
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