LEE MARVIN (1924 - 1987) was the consummate Hollywood tough guy of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. With his trademark prematurely white hair, perpetually sullen expression, and deep gravelly voice, he broke the traditional mold for a leading man and paved the way for a new generation of mainstream tough guys.

It wasn’t a persona; Marvin was a real-life tough guy through and through. The product of a dysfunctional and abusive home life, the troubled teen bounced from school to school, constantly expelled for bad behavior and fighting. He dropped out for good when he turned 18 in 1942, escaping by enlisting in the Marine Corps.

Marvin was trained as a sniper before being deployed to the Pacific Theatre in the thick of World War II. During a heated battle in 1944, he was severely wounded by machine gun fire in an ambush that killed most of his company. Awarded numerous medals and honors for combat, including the Purple Heart, Marvin was medically discharged, but not before being demoted in rank for “troublemaking”. The veteran would quietly battle PTSD for the rest of his days, developing a lifelong dependence on alcohol and cigarettes. 

So how did this tough guy go from combat hero to actor? Pure happenstance. Following the war, Marvin chose to pursue a trade, apprenticing for a local plumber. An early job had him working on the pipes at a community theatre as the company rehearsed for an upcoming play, and one day, an actor called in sick. Shorthanded and desperate, they asked the young plumber’s assistant to step in and read the part for a scene. Marvin reluctantly agreed, and was quickly discovered as a natural talent. The company never looked back; the dynamic emergency fill-in had seized the role going forward. Having discovered his passion, Marvin promptly quit his job to move to New York City, where he used his G.I. money to study acting full time.

The hungry young actor appeared in numerous plays, eventually earning his first Broadway role in 1951. This got him noticed by Hollywood, and he made his film debut that same year with a bit part in You’re In the Navy. Following his first taste of the silver screen, Marvin elected to stay in California to focus on film and television. In the early 1950s, he landed numerous guest-starring TV roles and small movie parts and became in-demand for war films and Westerns. Though he stole the show with villainous turns in The Big Heat and The Wild One in 1953, his breakout came in 1955 with complex, critically-acclaimed performances in Bad Day at Black Rock and Violent Saturday. Often cast in supporting parts as hoods and outlaws, he finally landed a starring role when he was cast as a hard-nosed police lieutenant in the TV show M Squad, which ran from 1957-1960.

Returning to film in the early 60s, he received top billing for the first time playing an assassin in 1964’s The Killers. He played against type by tackling a comedic role in 1965’s Cat Ballou. The offbeat film was a surprise smash hit and catapulted him to superstardom, with his performance even earning him an Oscar for Best Actor. 

The following year, he played an unforgettable starring role in the hit Western The Professionals, and followed that success up with his biggest film yet, receiving top-billing in the legendary 1967 war epic The Dirty Dozen. In 1968, he wielded his considerable star power to exert tremendous control over his next project, the seminal neo-noir Point Blank. Marvin was heavily involved in developing the film, handpicking the creative team and collaborating with the writer and director on plotting and staging. The result was a massive success that would influence a new generation of hardboiled crime films.

The 1970s saw Marvin take on a greater variety of roles as he tried to get away from “bad guy” typecasting. He played a number of memorable and critically-acclaimed characters, but was never able to recapture the box office success he enjoyed at his 1960s peak. He took a break from Hollywood in the late 70s before enjoying a brief return to glory with an acclaimed starring role in the 1980 war film The Big Red One. It would be his final major role, as the aging star continued to work in the 80s, but was mostly confined to forgettable roles in low-budget films.

In 1987, Lee Marvin died of a heart attack at age 63. He received a funeral with full military honors and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.