
Lee Van Cleef
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".
TV Shows(30)

The Master
John Peter McAllister

Laredo

My Mother the Car

Branded

The Dakotas

The Andy Griffith Show
Skip

Stagecoach West
Lin Hyatt

Hawaiian Eye

Rawhide
Fred Grant

The Alaskans

Black Saddle
Frank Sandoe

Law of the Plainsman
Tracey

Riverboat
Luke Cragg

The DuPont Show with June Allyson
Peak

The Deputy
Cherokee Kid

The Untouchables
Frank Diamond

Rawhide
Deck Sommers

Bonanza
Appling

The Twilight Zone
Steinhart

Mr. Lucky
Kruger