Lee Marvin

Lee Marvin (1924-1987)

Lee Marvin was a big name in Hollywood for a few decades. He starred in films with the likes of John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and Clint Eastwood just to name a few.

He won an Academy Award for his role in 'Cat Ballou' with Jane Fonda.

Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou

When I think of Lee Marvin, 3 movies come to mind. In all he played different roles. In 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' he plays the villian Liberty Valance along side John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart. This is one of my all time favorate movies.

Lee Marvin, Jimmy Stewart, and John Wayne in 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'

Another Lee Marvin movie that comes to mind is 'The Dirty Dozen'. This is one of the all time great war movies, and Lee Marvin is in the lead role. He plays an Army officer in WW2 who is assigned the task to take 12 prisoners, most on death role, and train them for a top secret mission.

Lee Marvin in 'The Dirty Dozen'

The third movie that comes to mind is 'Paint Your Wagon'. This is a kind of strange premise for a movie. It is a musical about 2 partners ( Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood) during the Gold Rush who end up sharing the same wife.






'Paint Your Wagon' movie poster

  

Before he made a career in the movies, Lee Marvin was a WW2 war hero who was awarded the Purple Heart. Because of his veteran status he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with a simple soilders gravemarker. I visited his gravesite in June 2010. While my family was waiting for the changing of the guard ceremoney at 'The Tomb of the Unknown Soilders'  (which I had seen many times before), I went on foot with a cemetery map and found a few graves of interest to me in the area. Lee Marvin was one of them. Since I went off on my own I didn't get a picture of me with the grave. Oddly enough Lee Marvin just happens to be buried right next to boxer Joe Louis.




Lee Marvin on the left, Joe Louis on the right







Lee Marvin's gravesite. Arlington National Cemetery Arlington, Virginia