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Lee Van Cleef
Life Time
9 January 1925 - 16 December 1989
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Lee Van Cleef was born on December 14, 1925 in Somerville, New Jersey, USA. He began his career in the theater of the city of Clinton (New Jersey), then played on the New York stage, where he was noticed by director Stanley Kramer, who offered Van Cliff the role of Jack Colby in the film “At Noon Exactly” (1952). Over the next seven years, Van Cleef played in dozens of films, mostly Westerns. In 1959, the actor was in a car accident, having received a severe knee injury, for a long time put him
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Lee Van Cleef was born on December 14, 1925 in Somerville, New Jersey, USA. He began his career in the theater of the city of Clinton (New Jersey), then played on the New York stage, where he was noticed by director Stanley Kramer, who offered Van Cliff the role of Jack Colby in the film “At Noon Exactly” (1952). Over the next seven years, Van Cleef played in dozens of films, mostly Westerns. In 1959, the actor was in a car accident, having received a severe knee injury, for a long time put him out of action. Lee Van Cleef returned only in 1965 in the series "spaghetti - westerns". Sergio Leone, among which stands out the masterpiece of this genre “The Good, the Bad, the Evil” (1966), in which the main roles were also played by Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach. In the 60s and 70s, Van Cleef starred in European westerns, becoming the most successful actor in the genre, and bought a house in Rome and a ranch in Spain. In 1974, having married for the third time, the actor returned to the States, where he starred in action films and films about martial arts. Lee Van Cleef entered the history of cinema as one of the best screen villains (largely due to his unique appearance). He died on December 14, 1989 at his home in Oxnard, California.