On this episode of Our American Stories, Lee Marvin made a name for himself as a Hollywood "tough guy"—starring in films such as The Professionals, The Dirty Dozen, and The Killers. He was initially typecast in imposing roles, but Marvin's tough character wasn't just a product of the silver screen. He was, fundamentally, a Marine—taking part in over 21 assaults on Japanese-held islands in the Pacific and receiving the Purple Heart, Navy Commendation Medal, and a Presidential Unit Citation for his service to his country. Here to tell Lee's story, as part of our ongoing Hollywood Goes to War series, is Roger McGrath.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Near the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and beside the
grave of World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Lewis in Arlington
National Cemetery is the resting place of a film star
who chose to be remembered first and foremost as a
(00:32):
US Marine. For you to tell, another Hollywood goes to
War story is Roger McGrath. McGrath is the author of Gunfighters, Highwman,
and Vigilantes. He's a US Marine, former history professor at UCLA,
and has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries. He's a
regular contributor here on Our American Stories.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Let's take a list leave.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Marvin was one of Hollywood's iconic tough guys. He was
convincing and suchs because he was one. He was a
marine veteran of the Island Hockey campaign in the Central
Pacific during World War two and came home badly wounded.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Like every marine that islanded with on the beaches of
Fladolen and we talked Saipan during World War two. We
were ready to fight before we shipped out to the Pacific,
hammered into fighting shape in the forge of intense training,
pardoned by the fires of marine tradition, galvanized by self discipline, pride,
(01:37):
and patriotism.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Six years later, he appeared in the first of his
sixty movies. He grabbed the attention of movie fans in
nineteen fifty four when he starred opposite Marlon Brando as
the leader of an outlawed motorcycle gang in The Wild One.
Speaker 5 (01:55):
Hi, Sweet, I Hey, what are you doing in this
visible gully?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Johnny Malone? I love you, Johnny. I've been looking for
you in every ditch from Fresno to here, hoping you
was dead. You've been staying out too late at night.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
That's Mitch, you know. Take it off. He won the
Academy Award for Best Actor for the dual roles he
played brilliantly in kat Balloo, half old fashioned Western and
half comedy. Look at your eyes?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
What's wrong with my eyes?
Speaker 5 (02:29):
Well?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
A red bloodshot?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
You want to see him from my side.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Lee Marvin is born in nineteen twenty four to Lamont Marvin,
an advertising executive, and Courtney Davige Marvin, a fashion writer.
Lee is named in honor of a distant relative, Confederate
General Robert E. Lee. Lee and his older brother Robert,
enjoying upper middle class existence, including shooting and I mean
(02:59):
with their fault other a decorated veteran of World War One. However,
Lee has problems in school. In hindsight, it's clear he
had dyslexia and attention deficit disorder at the time, though
he's simply a student who acts up and gets in
trouble for routiness, fighting, and truancy. He doesn't like school
(03:24):
and later says every day it was a toss up
whether I go or skip. He's expelled from several private
schools in New York, mostly for fighting. When his father
goes to Florida for a job, he takes Lee with
him and enrolls him in Saint Leo Preparatory School, a
(03:45):
Catholic boys high school in Lakeland. Saint Leo's has an
excellent athletic program, which makes life at the school tolerable
for Lee. He excels at track, running the hurdles in
quarter mile and throwing the javelin. He also excels at swimming.
(04:05):
He even manages to pass all his academic classes. Lee
still has a wild hare, He and a couple of
his good friends with natures similar to Lee's, sneak out
of the rooms at night and row a small boat
across Lake Jovida, which separates Saint Leo's from Holy Name Academy,
(04:26):
the Catholic girls' school. The schools hold regular dances together,
but for Lee and his buddies, a nighttime row across
the lake for a rendezvous with a girlfriend was high adventure.
He also finds adventure with his father on weekend hunting
trips through Florida's still wild areas home to deer, mountain lions,
(04:50):
faral hogs, and alligators. Lee Marvin is in his senior
year at Saint Lewis when the Japanese launched their sneak
attack on Pearl Harbor on December seventh, nineteen forty one.
This makes school more difficult for Lee. All I can
(05:12):
think about now is joining up to fight the Japanese.
His older brother Robert goes into the Army Air Corps,
and his father, although in his late forties, begins making
plans to serving the army as he had in World
War One. On August twelfth, nineteen forty two, the eighteen
(05:33):
year old Lee Marvin joins the Marine Corps. For someone
who has problems with authority and discipline, it seems like
an odd choice of services. I knew I was going
to be killed, explains Marvin. I just wanted to die
in the very best outfit. There are ordinary corpses and
(05:55):
Marine corpses. I figured on the first class kind and
joined up. The six foot two inch, lean and athletic.
Marvin excels in boot camp at Parris Island and South
(06:16):
Carolina and in further training following graduation by the timing
station to Camp Elliott near San Diego, California. Has been
promoted to corporal in the newly forming twenty fourth Regiment
of the fourth Marine Division, which is being organized at
(06:36):
Camp Pendleton. Marvin is on track to become a sergeant
in the near future, but a brawl gets some busted
back to private, confined to base and assigned to mes
duty for a month.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
And you've been listening to our own Roger McGrath, himself
a US Marine, tell the story of Lee Marvin. He
was a senior in high school when the Japanese struck
Pearl Harbor, and all he said he could think about
was joining the fight. His older brother had joined, his
father was figuring out how to join, and in August
of nineteen forty two, he joined the Marine Corps. His explanation,
(07:14):
I knew I was going to be killed. I wanted
to be killed in the best outfit. When we come back,
more of Lee Marvin's story here on our American Stories.
This is Lee Habib, host of our American Stories. Every
day we set out to tell the stories of Americans
(07:35):
past and present, from small towns to big cities, and
from all walks of life doing extraordinary things. But we
truly can't do this show without you. Our shows are
free to listen to, but they're not free to make.
If you love what you hear, go to our American
Stories dot com and make a donation to keep the
stories coming. That's our American Stories dot com. And we
(08:09):
continue with our American Stories and our Hollywood Goes to
War series with Roger McGrath story. Today, Lee Marvin's let's
pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Marvin's luck changes for the better when he's assigned to
a scout sniper platoon, which after World War Two would
become known in the Cores as a reconnaissance or recotton platoon.
The Scout Snipers are more conducive to Marvin's personality. They
are organized more horizontally and less hierarchically than other outfits
(08:44):
in the Marine Corps. Camaraderie, physical prowess, and the ability
to do one's job are more important than rank and regulations. Marvin,
who starred in track and field at Saint Leo's and
in a spare time undered feral pigs with a bamboo
spear and a forest near the campus, finds a home.
(09:09):
In January nineteen forty four, Marvin ships out with his
unit bound for the Japanese held Marshall Islands.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
It begins with a waiting waiting to go in, waiting
to take off, to move out, to move up, waiting
to go into what one Marine combat veteran calls the savage, brutal, exhausting,
and dirty business of war.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
His first action comes at the northern end of the
quadrillin Atoll, which consists of some ninety small islands and islands.
The Marines concentrate their efforts on Roy and Namur, two
islands joined by a four hundred foot long causeway. On
January thirty one, Marine's Land on five small islands before
(09:59):
at in Number on February one, long before the main
body marines hit the beaches, Teams of scout snipers land
and rubber boots in the dark to recognoiter and gather intelligence.
Then interviewed years later, Marvin made light of his own efforts.
So you'd land with maybe twelve guys, and you'd wander
(10:23):
around and not see a thing because you didn't want
to see anything. All you wanted was to get off.
The next morning, the sun would come up and there
would be the whole United States Navy out there because
it's d Day, and they'd be showing you because if
they saw you, they figured you were jabs, and nobody
told them otherwise. So that you eventually swim out to
(10:47):
a reef and pray and hope that somebody's listening.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Fair a reality of war.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Fear of the always present danger of being killed or wounded,
anticipation of the unexpected apprehension that one may not measure
up as a marine under fire or letting a brother
marine don Fear grips all men going into combat to
some degree or another. But fear does not mean the
(11:17):
lack of courage. Courage means overcoming fear and doing one's
duty in the presence of danger, not being unafraid.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Later, with the main landings out roaring the mirv Marvin
comes upon six Japanese huddled in a trench. They're wearing
uniforms of white that he doesn't recognize. They're not fighting,
but are only hunkered down for protection. Marvin hesitates to fire.
Another marine, A veteran of earlier campaigns, comes up alongside
(11:48):
Marvin and asks, what's going on. I don't know, says Marvin.
They look like Merchant Marine to me. The other marine
gives Marvin a look, curses, and empties his gun into
the trench. For good measure, he throws in a hand grenade.
There are still six Japanese in white uniforms in the trench,
(12:09):
but now they are full of bullets and shrapnel and
are dead. The reality and brutality of war makes an
impression on Marvin. He will never forget. The Marines lose
three hundred and thirteen men on rowing the murr. The
Japanese lose more than thirty five hundred. Marvin is again
(12:32):
in action three weeks later at any We talk, a
coral atoll of some forty small islands, and Islets, about
three hundred and thirty miles west of Roaring the Murr.
The Marine's principal assaults will occur at Angebi and Perry Islands.
On Angebi, Marvin and five others of ordered to destroy
a machine gun and placement that has his platoon been down.
(12:57):
Marvin and his fellow Marines crawled within hand grenade throwing distance,
and then lob in grenades. Several of the Japanese gunners
are killed. Arvin leaps to his feet and rushes to
kill the survivors. His foot catches on a sand covered
trap door, and he's sent sprawling out of the trap door.
(13:18):
Comes to Japanese. He popped out of that hole like
a little animal, said Marvin. For a second, I just
lay there, surprised as hell while he blinked at me.
Then he lunged. He tried to stick his bad in
my eye, so I took it away from him. It
wasn't hard to do, because he was just a little
(13:40):
maybe five foot two or so. I shoved that thing
into his chest all the way to the gun barrel.
The battle for Ngibbi crossed the Marines eighty five dead
and the Japanese two thousand. These major engagements, Marvin is
(14:02):
also involved in more than a dozen riekmmissions with other
Scout snipers to islands and islands. In March nineteen forty four,
Marvin and his outfit are shipped to Hawaii for little
rest and recreation and a lot of training before heading
back out into the Pacific for the assault on Saipan
(14:24):
in the Marianas. The Japanese have occupied Saipan since nineteen
twenties and have built major air and naval bases on
the island. They have also settled some twenty five thousand
Japanese civilians on the island until the Japanese outnumber the
name of Tomorrow five to one. Saipan size about five
(14:46):
miles wide and twenty miles long, and rugged terrain of
volcanic mountains, jagged ridges, and hundreds of caves make an
ideal for a defensive warfare. Moreover, Japan has some thirty
two thousand of her best troops on the island. It
will be a tough nut to crack. The day before
(15:06):
the assault, a Navy medical officer briefs the Marines who
will be landing on Sidpan, warning that they have more
to worry about than the Japanese. He tells the Marines
that on the way to the shore they could encounter sharks, barracuda,
poisonous sea snakes, where's their sharp coral, poisonous fish, and
(15:29):
giant clams. Then once ashore they could contract leprosy, typhus, philariasis, typhoid,
and dysentery. A young marine private, who is listening with
rapt attention, asked the medical officer, Sir, why don't we
just let the jets keep the island. That night, over
(15:53):
the airwaves comes an ominous warning from Tokyo Rose, the
dulcet voiced young woman who broadcast Japanese propaganda aimed at
American troops. I've got some swell recordings for you, just
in from the States. Your Marines better enjoy them while
you can, because tomorrow morning, at six hundred, you're hitting
(16:16):
Saipan and we are ready for you. So while you're
still alive, let's listen to Glenn Miller, Penny Goodman, and
the Dorsey Brothers.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
And you've been listening to our own Roger McGrath tell
the story of Lee Marvin in our continuing series called
Hollywood Goes to War and Lee Marvin. My goodness, what
an assignment he drew in the Pacific Islands, first the
Marshall Islands, and he talked there about the waiting. It
begins with the waiting, he said, years later. Fear grips
(16:53):
all men going into combat in some way or another.
He also said, but courage is the to get past that,
to get through that fear. And then, of course the
dreaded invasion of Saipan after a bit of a hiatus
in Hawaii, and that rough terrain of the island thirty
two thousand strong Japanese army sharks, disease infested and occupied
(17:18):
since the nineteen twenties, and that one young marine sing
to his CEO, why not just let the Japs keep
the island? And of course that ominous message from Tokyo
rose psychological warfare of the worst part, warning them of
what was to come, letting them know they knew, and
(17:42):
then well teasing them by playing their favorite American tunes
from back home. When we continue more of this remarkable story,
the story of Lee Marvin's service to our country here
on our American stories, and we continue with our American
(18:09):
stories and with Roger McGrath's telling the story of actor
and screen legend Lee Marvin and his experience in the
Pacific Islands during World War Two. Let's pick up where
we last left off.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Lee Marvin is among the first Marines to land on
Saipan on d Day, June fifteenth, nineteen forty four. The
fighting is fierce from the minute he hits the shore.
Reaching open fields beyond the beach, Marvin sees a strange
sight hundreds of steaks with sack bottles on top. This
puzzlement ends quickly when artillery fire marines down on the
(18:52):
Marines with deadly accuracies. The steaks and bottles are markers
the Japanese used to pre rech to. In a letter
to us, brother Marvin writes, the first night on the island,
I had a damn close call. We were in a
hell of a barrage and they were knocking the hell
(19:12):
out of us. The hole I was in was about
four feet deep and twelve across. There were four of
us in it. You know, you can hear the mortars coming,
so I would stick my head up and call the shots.
That is, when they were to come within twenty five yards,
I'd better duck. If not, we just let them go
(19:33):
and hope for the best. Well, I watched one of
our batteries fire and heard them go off in the hills,
except it sounded like three times as many, and sure
enough they were nipped guns firing at us. I was
looking at them, and here it comes one. I think
it had our names on it. Man. It sounded like
(19:55):
it was in the hole with us. It hit about
three feet from my head and blew off my pack,
gas mask and canteen. Killed one of the boys and
wounded the next. But what I can't figure out is
why it didn't blow my head off, that it didn't
even scratch me yet it hit all the rest. Damn.
(20:16):
I saw red for the next ten minutes, and it
sounded like Big Ben in my head. On the fourth day,
Marvin finds himself headed into what the Marine's called Death Valley.
Marvin's company is tasked with assaulting fifteen hundred foot high
Mount Tapa Chow that overlooks the valley. Rugged terrain and
(20:37):
hundreds of caves that all thousands of cracked Japanese troops
make the mission near suicidal, says Marvin. We started out
with two hundred and forty seven men and fifteen minutes later,
there were six of us. Marvin lasted only a little longer.
A machine gun bullet rips through his lower back and buttocks,
(20:59):
missing his final cord by a fraction of an inch
and severing his ssiatic nerve. Jesus, I'm hit, yells Marvin.
Shut up, We're all hit, says another marine. Marvin said
he felt like he had been hit by someone swinging
at two by four. He was left with a bloody
(21:20):
gash about eight inches long, three inches wide, and two
inches deep. A Japanese sniper then zeros in on the
stunned Marvin. One round narrowly misses his head, and another
hits him in the foot. Marvin drags himself to better
cover and a corman reaches him. The corman bandages Marvin's
(21:41):
wound and injects him with morphine. Marvin is lifted onto
a stretcher and carried towards the rear. Before he gets there, though,
a nearby Japanese AMMO dump explodes. The shock wave hurls
Marvin off the stretcher, and he lands precisely on his wound.
(22:01):
About nightfall, Marvin is evacuated to the hospital ship a
Saulus while lying on clean sheets and being spoon fed
ice cream. He listens to Glenn Miller's Moonlight serenade. It's heavenly,
he thinks. But then he begins thinking of his fellow Marines,
(22:21):
or still on Saipan, still in hell, still fighting and dying,
and he breaks down and cries.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
The end of a patrol, a battle, a campaign you
can see in the eyes of each survivor, the price
he's pad.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
The Battle of Saipan costs the Marines three thousand killed.
The US Army loses another one thousand. The Japanese lose
more than thirty thousand soldiers and another fifteen thousand civilians.
Marvin has awarded the Purple Art and spends the next
thirteen months in naval hospitals recovering from his wound. He
(23:08):
is also awarded the Navy Commendation Medal with V the
Combat Action Ribbon, the Presidential Unit Citation, the American Campaign Medal,
the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, and the World War II
Victory Medal. Late in July nineteen forty five, Marvin is
(23:29):
honorably discharged from the Marine Corps. Suffering from post traumatic
stress disorder, he has difficulty adjusting to civilian life and
even attempts to reenlist. However, the lingering effects from his
wound disqualifies him from rear entering the Marines. While working
as a plumber, he gets a call to fix a
(23:49):
toilet at a theater. There's a rehearsal in progress on
the theater stage, and Marvin watches with fascination. He says
the give and takes, camaraderie, tension, and direction remind him
of the Marines. It just so happens that an actor
has fallen sick and a tall, strapping, big voice young
(24:10):
man is needed for the actor's role. The director's eyes
fall on Marvin standing there. Suddenly he's no longer a plumber,
but an actor on stage. Although Marvin had performed in
plays back in high school, he's raw and needs training.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
As a kid, and actually always went to the movies
on Saturday fifteen cents, and being in New York in
all the Westerns and Hells Angels and all those great
films of you know, the late twenties, early thirties and
their thirties, And I was an ardent, an a motion
(24:52):
picture fan. Couldn't stand when the guy kissed the girl.
We all went yes, but I grew out of that,
well matured out of however, that one.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
But so that was my great interest was movies.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
And when the war was over and I was up
in Woodstock, New York, I got seduced into a summer
Stock coming and.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Did some acting there. I just found out I loved it,
and that was all I was done.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Usually in the GI bill. He studies at the American
Theater Wing in New York City. Soon he's appearing in
minor roles in stage plays. And then in nineteen fifty
on TV.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
Well that came out of the live New York stuff
because I did about two hundred and fifty shows in
New York before I went to Hollywood and TV, you know,
because they were knocking him out. It was new and
you know the great writers and young actors out of
World War two and you know the big story. You know,
those type of live shows which kind of gave a pace.
So when I went to Hollywood, film was trying to
(25:58):
pick that face up to compete with him. So I
think that's what happened why TV had that new good
start on film. So I was an extra when Henry
Hathaway got me here in New York took me down
in Norfolk and then said come out to Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
I said what for?
Speaker 4 (26:12):
He says, good, I watched it of those things and
I said, look, I said, I can go back to
New York and be a psupernoir marine in king Lear.
And he said what. I said, yeah, because that's class.
He says, what's the thing. I said, thirty five bucks
a week. He said, don't be an idiot. Said I'll
give you one hundred and seventy five weeks from the Hollywood.
And they said, get on the plane and one hundred
(26:36):
and seventy five a week. I took it, and he
got me an age and he set me up in Allywood.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
And you've been listening to our own Roger McGrath himself
a marine, telling the story of Lee Marvin and my goodness,
he's one of the first marines to land on Saipan.
He started with two hundred and forty seven men and
only hours later he said there were six of us.
He was hit and severed his psionic nerve. And when
(27:05):
he's yelled out I've been hit, he heard quickly, back, shut.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Up, We've all been hit.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
The awards that came after the traumatic impact, and then
of course his introduction accidentally to the world of acting
and theater. When we come back more of the story
of Lee Marvin. Here on our American stories, and we
(27:37):
continue with our American stories and with our own Roger
McGrath telling this story of screen legend Lee Marvin.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
He makes his film debut in nineteen fifty one in
You're in the Navy Now starring Gary Cooper. Marvin's role
as a radio man on Cooper's ship unaccredited. But Lee
Marvin has made it to the big screen. Mervin appears
in minor roles in several more movies for his major
(28:11):
role as a motorcycle game leader Chino opposite Marlon Brando
in The Wild One.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
All right, this is a main event, my ladies and gentlemen.
This lovely young lady over here challaul his beautiful object
sing a bying absolutely nothing. Now watch closely see how
the timid maiden of the hill clutches the goal to
a breast, and see how she fights back a tear
while a hero bleeds to death in the street.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
A smash success in nineteen fifty four, with that attention
grabbing role. Marvin is much sought after for both film
and television work. Major roles are his, and he's fast
becoming a star. For the Best Performance by an Actor
in nineteen sixty five, the winner is Lee Marvin. In
(29:08):
nineteen sixty six, Lee Marvin wins the Academy Award for
Best Actor for the dual roles he plays brilliantly in
Cat Blue, a blockbuster hit in nineteen sixty five.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Thank you, thank you all very much. I don't want
to take up so much of your time. There's too
many people to correctly thank for my career. I think though,
the half of this belongs to a horse someplace out
in the via.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Through the nineteen sixties, both before and after Cat Blue,
Marvin is in one hit movie after another. The common Churros,
the man who shot Liberty.
Speaker 6 (29:49):
Balance looking at the new waitress.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
That's my stake.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
Balance, you heard him, dude, O.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Eldrum hold it, I said you balance, You pick it up.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Donovan's Reef, the professionals, the dirty doesn't.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
You've all volunteer for a mission which gives you just
three ways to go. Either you can follow up in
training and be shipped back here for immediate execution of sentence,
or you can file up in combat, in which case
I will personally blow your brains out, or you can
do as you're told, in which case you might just get.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
By point blank paint your wagon. Sometimes he's a bad
guy and sometimes a good guy, but he's always a
tough guy.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Are you tough? No?
Speaker 4 (30:57):
I think I have the opportunity to flight, which is,
you know, saves me a lot of bruises.
Speaker 7 (31:03):
You don't get many fellas coming up to you in
a bar trying to pick fights to.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
You, No that I buy a lot of them drinks
so they don't. It's not the best way to protect yourself.
Speaker 7 (31:13):
Was this a kind of a defense with you really
acting tough?
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Well, it's acting out.
Speaker 4 (31:18):
It saves me from getting locked up or spending a
lot of time in goal, and you get rid of
it on the screen, you know, so you don't have
to do it on the straight.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
But you were a marine.
Speaker 7 (31:27):
Did you have to act tough as a marine to
hide your fear for instance?
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Well, you have to do a lot of acting to
hide that. And I guess that's where I learned how
to act in the man.
Speaker 7 (31:37):
Yeah, Well you picked up a purple heart which is
something we don't hear too often. You're suitably modest about it.
How did you win that?
Speaker 4 (31:45):
You don't win them. You get them when you get hit. So,
in other words, I'd rather not have it.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Did you get hit in a very vulnerable place? Yes?
I got hit in This doesn't give me much to
talk about, right.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
Terry.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Well the nineteen sixties. Lee Marvin is an actor with
great range and a surprising amount of subtlety and nuanced tyn.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
I want to talk to you.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
This can be seen in his role as Chris the
old miner Ben Rumson in Paint Your Wagon.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Get Up Partner.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
His performance is nothing less than brilliant.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
How's your jaw?
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Do you think it's coming off? You want to trust me?
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Ben?
Speaker 4 (32:32):
You're right, because you ain't the kind of a man
to go less than after another man's wife.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
That's right, Ben.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
I wouldn't do that.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
And the only kind of feelings you'd ever have would
be deep ones. And if you had him for Elizabeth,
you'd come and tell me before you would her.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
That's right, Ben, That's what i'd do.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
You're a good man, Partner.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
That's what I was coming to do. Ben. Tell you
that I got some deep feelings for Elizabeth all together.
Marvin appears in sixty movies, often as a leading man,
and in dozens of TV shows.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
That was a good Western dialogue.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
I mean that was that short, terse, almost Sam Spade
dialogue in the Western, because I remember when I, uh,
when Randy Scott the leader or he's down and wounded,
and I finally confront him, right because I'm a baddie,
and he turns up and I know I got him right.
I got two guys. He's got nothing. So he says,
(33:42):
what happened up there? I say, pay bodine, I killed him.
And he said why, And I said why not. I
mean that's you know, that's a childhood dream to be
able to say something like that on film.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:01):
Well.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Enjoying professional success, his personal life is one of high's
and lows in turmoil. He's married to his first wife
for fifteen years and has four children with her. While
living in Rustic Canyon, a neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, California,
he struggles with PTSD and mitigates himself with whiskey and
(34:23):
cigarettes and wild late nights. Takes a toll on him
and on those around him. By the time he marries
his second wife, he's far more emotionally stable.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
My wife is in the audience.
Speaker 7 (34:36):
I think she's probably been that, would you say, one
of the most effective things in your late mellowing.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
She eventually warn you down well, even in my early mellowing. Sorry. Yeah,
She's been around a long time in my life.
Speaker 4 (34:52):
I met her when she was fifteen, I was twenty one,
and justice was finally done.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
She made an honest man of you, did she or
the town did? I've forgotten with her now I'm an
honest man.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
They stay married for seventeen years until his death in
nineteen eighty seven at the age of sixty three. Lee
Marvin is known as a movie star, but he shuns
Hollywood whenever again and enjoys riding motorcycles or fishing with friends.
(35:27):
When his health begins to fail, he makes it clear
he doesn't want some kind of celebrity burial in Hollywood. Instead,
according to his wishes, he's buried with full military honors
at Arlington National Cemetery.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
We forge the bond the time when every race Marine
Corps training taught us to kill efficiently and to try
to survive. But it also taught us loyalty each other,
and he loove the few.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
The brown.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
Other than dates of birth and death and a cross
on his headstone, there is only Lee Marvin, PFC, United
States Marine Corps, World War Two, and.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
A terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling by
our own Greg Hangler, and a special thanks to Roger
McGrath himself a US Marine and a former history professor
at UCLA. He's a regular contributor here at our American
Stories and he's done dozens of these Hollywood goes to
War stories. This one my favorite because Lee Marvin was
(36:45):
my favorite, and my goodness, what a film career. His debut, ironically,
You're in the Navy with Gary Cooper, The Wild One
was his big breakout, alongside a young screen talent named
Marlon Brando. He won an AUSOK in nineteen sixty five
for kat Blow and then The Man Who Shot Liberty
Balanced the Professionals, The Dirty Dozen my favorite, and Paint
(37:09):
Your Wagon. Sometimes the good guy, sometimes the bad guy,
always the tough guy. But the real resume that he
was most proud of were those citations from his service
in World War Two. The Purple Heart Presidential Unit Citation,
the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, the
(37:31):
World War II Victory Medal, and the Combat Action Ribbon.
Lee Marvin dyed in nineteen eighty seven at the age
of sixty three. He shunned a Hollywood burial and funeral,
and in the end, it was him talking about his
Marine life that was most compelling. The Marine Corps training
(37:51):
taught us how to kill efficiently, and it taught us
to try and survive, But it also taught us loyalty
to each other, to love the few the proud. The
story of Lee Marvin his story here on our American
Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Near the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and beside the
grave of World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Lewis in Arlington
National Cemetery is the resting place of a film star
who chose to be remembered first and foremost as a
(00:32):
US Marine. For you to tell, another Hollywood goes to
War story is Roger McGrath. McGrath is the author of Gunfighters, Highwman,
and Vigilantes. He's a US Marine, former history professor at UCLA,
and has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries. He's a
regular contributor here on Our American Stories.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Let's take a list leave.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Marvin was one of Hollywood's iconic tough guys. He was
convincing and suchs because he was one. He was a
marine veteran of the Island Hockey campaign in the Central
Pacific during World War two and came home badly wounded.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Like every marine that islanded with on the beaches of
Fladolen and we talked Saipan during World War two. We
were ready to fight before we shipped out to the Pacific,
hammered into fighting shape in the forge of intense training,
pardoned by the fires of marine tradition, galvanized by self discipline, pride,
(01:37):
and patriotism.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Six years later, he appeared in the first of his
sixty movies. He grabbed the attention of movie fans in
nineteen fifty four when he starred opposite Marlon Brando as
the leader of an outlawed motorcycle gang in The Wild One.
Speaker 5 (01:55):
Hi, Sweet, I Hey, what are you doing in this
visible gully?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Johnny Malone? I love you, Johnny. I've been looking for
you in every ditch from Fresno to here, hoping you
was dead. You've been staying out too late at night.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
That's Mitch, you know. Take it off. He won the
Academy Award for Best Actor for the dual roles he
played brilliantly in kat Balloo, half old fashioned Western and
half comedy. Look at your eyes?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
What's wrong with my eyes?
Speaker 5 (02:29):
Well?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
A red bloodshot?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
You want to see him from my side.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Lee Marvin is born in nineteen twenty four to Lamont Marvin,
an advertising executive, and Courtney Davige Marvin, a fashion writer.
Lee is named in honor of a distant relative, Confederate
General Robert E. Lee. Lee and his older brother Robert,
enjoying upper middle class existence, including shooting and I mean
(02:59):
with their fault other a decorated veteran of World War One. However,
Lee has problems in school. In hindsight, it's clear he
had dyslexia and attention deficit disorder at the time, though
he's simply a student who acts up and gets in
trouble for routiness, fighting, and truancy. He doesn't like school
(03:24):
and later says every day it was a toss up
whether I go or skip. He's expelled from several private
schools in New York, mostly for fighting. When his father
goes to Florida for a job, he takes Lee with
him and enrolls him in Saint Leo Preparatory School, a
(03:45):
Catholic boys high school in Lakeland. Saint Leo's has an
excellent athletic program, which makes life at the school tolerable
for Lee. He excels at track, running the hurdles in
quarter mile and throwing the javelin. He also excels at swimming.
(04:05):
He even manages to pass all his academic classes. Lee
still has a wild hare, He and a couple of
his good friends with natures similar to Lee's, sneak out
of the rooms at night and row a small boat
across Lake Jovida, which separates Saint Leo's from Holy Name Academy,
(04:26):
the Catholic girls' school. The schools hold regular dances together,
but for Lee and his buddies, a nighttime row across
the lake for a rendezvous with a girlfriend was high adventure.
He also finds adventure with his father on weekend hunting
trips through Florida's still wild areas home to deer, mountain lions,
(04:50):
faral hogs, and alligators. Lee Marvin is in his senior
year at Saint Lewis when the Japanese launched their sneak
attack on Pearl Harbor on December seventh, nineteen forty one.
This makes school more difficult for Lee. All I can
(05:12):
think about now is joining up to fight the Japanese.
His older brother Robert goes into the Army Air Corps,
and his father, although in his late forties, begins making
plans to serving the army as he had in World
War One. On August twelfth, nineteen forty two, the eighteen
(05:33):
year old Lee Marvin joins the Marine Corps. For someone
who has problems with authority and discipline, it seems like
an odd choice of services. I knew I was going
to be killed, explains Marvin. I just wanted to die
in the very best outfit. There are ordinary corpses and
(05:55):
Marine corpses. I figured on the first class kind and
joined up. The six foot two inch, lean and athletic.
Marvin excels in boot camp at Parris Island and South
(06:16):
Carolina and in further training following graduation by the timing
station to Camp Elliott near San Diego, California. Has been
promoted to corporal in the newly forming twenty fourth Regiment
of the fourth Marine Division, which is being organized at
(06:36):
Camp Pendleton. Marvin is on track to become a sergeant
in the near future, but a brawl gets some busted
back to private, confined to base and assigned to mes
duty for a month.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
And you've been listening to our own Roger McGrath, himself
a US Marine, tell the story of Lee Marvin. He
was a senior in high school when the Japanese struck
Pearl Harbor, and all he said he could think about
was joining the fight. His older brother had joined, his
father was figuring out how to join, and in August
of nineteen forty two, he joined the Marine Corps. His explanation,
(07:14):
I knew I was going to be killed. I wanted
to be killed in the best outfit. When we come back,
more of Lee Marvin's story here on our American Stories.
This is Lee Habib, host of our American Stories. Every
day we set out to tell the stories of Americans
(07:35):
past and present, from small towns to big cities, and
from all walks of life doing extraordinary things. But we
truly can't do this show without you. Our shows are
free to listen to, but they're not free to make.
If you love what you hear, go to our American
Stories dot com and make a donation to keep the
stories coming. That's our American Stories dot com. And we
(08:09):
continue with our American Stories and our Hollywood Goes to
War series with Roger McGrath story. Today, Lee Marvin's let's
pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Marvin's luck changes for the better when he's assigned to
a scout sniper platoon, which after World War Two would
become known in the Cores as a reconnaissance or recotton platoon.
The Scout Snipers are more conducive to Marvin's personality. They
are organized more horizontally and less hierarchically than other outfits
(08:44):
in the Marine Corps. Camaraderie, physical prowess, and the ability
to do one's job are more important than rank and regulations. Marvin,
who starred in track and field at Saint Leo's and
in a spare time undered feral pigs with a bamboo
spear and a forest near the campus, finds a home.
(09:09):
In January nineteen forty four, Marvin ships out with his
unit bound for the Japanese held Marshall Islands.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
It begins with a waiting waiting to go in, waiting
to take off, to move out, to move up, waiting
to go into what one Marine combat veteran calls the savage, brutal, exhausting,
and dirty business of war.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
His first action comes at the northern end of the
quadrillin Atoll, which consists of some ninety small islands and islands.
The Marines concentrate their efforts on Roy and Namur, two
islands joined by a four hundred foot long causeway. On
January thirty one, Marine's Land on five small islands before
(09:59):
at in Number on February one, long before the main
body marines hit the beaches, Teams of scout snipers land
and rubber boots in the dark to recognoiter and gather intelligence.
Then interviewed years later, Marvin made light of his own efforts.
So you'd land with maybe twelve guys, and you'd wander
(10:23):
around and not see a thing because you didn't want
to see anything. All you wanted was to get off.
The next morning, the sun would come up and there
would be the whole United States Navy out there because
it's d Day, and they'd be showing you because if
they saw you, they figured you were jabs, and nobody
told them otherwise. So that you eventually swim out to
(10:47):
a reef and pray and hope that somebody's listening.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Fair a reality of war.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Fear of the always present danger of being killed or wounded,
anticipation of the unexpected apprehension that one may not measure
up as a marine under fire or letting a brother
marine don Fear grips all men going into combat to
some degree or another. But fear does not mean the
(11:17):
lack of courage. Courage means overcoming fear and doing one's
duty in the presence of danger, not being unafraid.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Later, with the main landings out roaring the mirv Marvin
comes upon six Japanese huddled in a trench. They're wearing
uniforms of white that he doesn't recognize. They're not fighting,
but are only hunkered down for protection. Marvin hesitates to fire.
Another marine, A veteran of earlier campaigns, comes up alongside
(11:48):
Marvin and asks, what's going on. I don't know, says Marvin.
They look like Merchant Marine to me. The other marine
gives Marvin a look, curses, and empties his gun into
the trench. For good measure, he throws in a hand grenade.
There are still six Japanese in white uniforms in the trench,
(12:09):
but now they are full of bullets and shrapnel and
are dead. The reality and brutality of war makes an
impression on Marvin. He will never forget. The Marines lose
three hundred and thirteen men on rowing the murr. The
Japanese lose more than thirty five hundred. Marvin is again
(12:32):
in action three weeks later at any We talk, a
coral atoll of some forty small islands, and Islets, about
three hundred and thirty miles west of Roaring the Murr.
The Marine's principal assaults will occur at Angebi and Perry Islands.
On Angebi, Marvin and five others of ordered to destroy
a machine gun and placement that has his platoon been down.
(12:57):
Marvin and his fellow Marines crawled within hand grenade throwing distance,
and then lob in grenades. Several of the Japanese gunners
are killed. Arvin leaps to his feet and rushes to
kill the survivors. His foot catches on a sand covered
trap door, and he's sent sprawling out of the trap door.
(13:18):
Comes to Japanese. He popped out of that hole like
a little animal, said Marvin. For a second, I just
lay there, surprised as hell while he blinked at me.
Then he lunged. He tried to stick his bad in
my eye, so I took it away from him. It
wasn't hard to do, because he was just a little
(13:40):
maybe five foot two or so. I shoved that thing
into his chest all the way to the gun barrel.
The battle for Ngibbi crossed the Marines eighty five dead
and the Japanese two thousand. These major engagements, Marvin is
(14:02):
also involved in more than a dozen riekmmissions with other
Scout snipers to islands and islands. In March nineteen forty four,
Marvin and his outfit are shipped to Hawaii for little
rest and recreation and a lot of training before heading
back out into the Pacific for the assault on Saipan
(14:24):
in the Marianas. The Japanese have occupied Saipan since nineteen
twenties and have built major air and naval bases on
the island. They have also settled some twenty five thousand
Japanese civilians on the island until the Japanese outnumber the
name of Tomorrow five to one. Saipan size about five
(14:46):
miles wide and twenty miles long, and rugged terrain of
volcanic mountains, jagged ridges, and hundreds of caves make an
ideal for a defensive warfare. Moreover, Japan has some thirty
two thousand of her best troops on the island. It
will be a tough nut to crack. The day before
(15:06):
the assault, a Navy medical officer briefs the Marines who
will be landing on Sidpan, warning that they have more
to worry about than the Japanese. He tells the Marines
that on the way to the shore they could encounter sharks, barracuda,
poisonous sea snakes, where's their sharp coral, poisonous fish, and
(15:29):
giant clams. Then once ashore they could contract leprosy, typhus, philariasis, typhoid,
and dysentery. A young marine private, who is listening with
rapt attention, asked the medical officer, Sir, why don't we
just let the jets keep the island. That night, over
(15:53):
the airwaves comes an ominous warning from Tokyo Rose, the
dulcet voiced young woman who broadcast Japanese propaganda aimed at
American troops. I've got some swell recordings for you, just
in from the States. Your Marines better enjoy them while
you can, because tomorrow morning, at six hundred, you're hitting
(16:16):
Saipan and we are ready for you. So while you're
still alive, let's listen to Glenn Miller, Penny Goodman, and
the Dorsey Brothers.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
And you've been listening to our own Roger McGrath tell
the story of Lee Marvin in our continuing series called
Hollywood Goes to War and Lee Marvin. My goodness, what
an assignment he drew in the Pacific Islands, first the
Marshall Islands, and he talked there about the waiting. It
begins with the waiting, he said, years later. Fear grips
(16:53):
all men going into combat in some way or another.
He also said, but courage is the to get past that,
to get through that fear. And then, of course the
dreaded invasion of Saipan after a bit of a hiatus
in Hawaii, and that rough terrain of the island thirty
two thousand strong Japanese army sharks, disease infested and occupied
(17:18):
since the nineteen twenties, and that one young marine sing
to his CEO, why not just let the Japs keep
the island? And of course that ominous message from Tokyo
rose psychological warfare of the worst part, warning them of
what was to come, letting them know they knew, and
(17:42):
then well teasing them by playing their favorite American tunes
from back home. When we continue more of this remarkable story,
the story of Lee Marvin's service to our country here
on our American stories, and we continue with our American
(18:09):
stories and with Roger McGrath's telling the story of actor
and screen legend Lee Marvin and his experience in the
Pacific Islands during World War Two. Let's pick up where
we last left off.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Lee Marvin is among the first Marines to land on
Saipan on d Day, June fifteenth, nineteen forty four. The
fighting is fierce from the minute he hits the shore.
Reaching open fields beyond the beach, Marvin sees a strange
sight hundreds of steaks with sack bottles on top. This
puzzlement ends quickly when artillery fire marines down on the
(18:52):
Marines with deadly accuracies. The steaks and bottles are markers
the Japanese used to pre rech to. In a letter
to us, brother Marvin writes, the first night on the island,
I had a damn close call. We were in a
hell of a barrage and they were knocking the hell
(19:12):
out of us. The hole I was in was about
four feet deep and twelve across. There were four of
us in it. You know, you can hear the mortars coming,
so I would stick my head up and call the shots.
That is, when they were to come within twenty five yards,
I'd better duck. If not, we just let them go
(19:33):
and hope for the best. Well, I watched one of
our batteries fire and heard them go off in the hills,
except it sounded like three times as many, and sure
enough they were nipped guns firing at us. I was
looking at them, and here it comes one. I think
it had our names on it. Man. It sounded like
(19:55):
it was in the hole with us. It hit about
three feet from my head and blew off my pack,
gas mask and canteen. Killed one of the boys and
wounded the next. But what I can't figure out is
why it didn't blow my head off, that it didn't
even scratch me yet it hit all the rest. Damn.
(20:16):
I saw red for the next ten minutes, and it
sounded like Big Ben in my head. On the fourth day,
Marvin finds himself headed into what the Marine's called Death Valley.
Marvin's company is tasked with assaulting fifteen hundred foot high
Mount Tapa Chow that overlooks the valley. Rugged terrain and
(20:37):
hundreds of caves that all thousands of cracked Japanese troops
make the mission near suicidal, says Marvin. We started out
with two hundred and forty seven men and fifteen minutes later,
there were six of us. Marvin lasted only a little longer.
A machine gun bullet rips through his lower back and buttocks,
(20:59):
missing his final cord by a fraction of an inch
and severing his ssiatic nerve. Jesus, I'm hit, yells Marvin.
Shut up, We're all hit, says another marine. Marvin said
he felt like he had been hit by someone swinging
at two by four. He was left with a bloody
(21:20):
gash about eight inches long, three inches wide, and two
inches deep. A Japanese sniper then zeros in on the
stunned Marvin. One round narrowly misses his head, and another
hits him in the foot. Marvin drags himself to better
cover and a corman reaches him. The corman bandages Marvin's
(21:41):
wound and injects him with morphine. Marvin is lifted onto
a stretcher and carried towards the rear. Before he gets there, though,
a nearby Japanese AMMO dump explodes. The shock wave hurls
Marvin off the stretcher, and he lands precisely on his wound.
(22:01):
About nightfall, Marvin is evacuated to the hospital ship a
Saulus while lying on clean sheets and being spoon fed
ice cream. He listens to Glenn Miller's Moonlight serenade. It's heavenly,
he thinks. But then he begins thinking of his fellow Marines,
(22:21):
or still on Saipan, still in hell, still fighting and dying,
and he breaks down and cries.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
The end of a patrol, a battle, a campaign you
can see in the eyes of each survivor, the price
he's pad.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
The Battle of Saipan costs the Marines three thousand killed.
The US Army loses another one thousand. The Japanese lose
more than thirty thousand soldiers and another fifteen thousand civilians.
Marvin has awarded the Purple Art and spends the next
thirteen months in naval hospitals recovering from his wound. He
(23:08):
is also awarded the Navy Commendation Medal with V the
Combat Action Ribbon, the Presidential Unit Citation, the American Campaign Medal,
the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, and the World War II
Victory Medal. Late in July nineteen forty five, Marvin is
(23:29):
honorably discharged from the Marine Corps. Suffering from post traumatic
stress disorder, he has difficulty adjusting to civilian life and
even attempts to reenlist. However, the lingering effects from his
wound disqualifies him from rear entering the Marines. While working
as a plumber, he gets a call to fix a
(23:49):
toilet at a theater. There's a rehearsal in progress on
the theater stage, and Marvin watches with fascination. He says
the give and takes, camaraderie, tension, and direction remind him
of the Marines. It just so happens that an actor
has fallen sick and a tall, strapping, big voice young
(24:10):
man is needed for the actor's role. The director's eyes
fall on Marvin standing there. Suddenly he's no longer a plumber,
but an actor on stage. Although Marvin had performed in
plays back in high school, he's raw and needs training.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
As a kid, and actually always went to the movies
on Saturday fifteen cents, and being in New York in
all the Westerns and Hells Angels and all those great
films of you know, the late twenties, early thirties and
their thirties, And I was an ardent, an a motion
(24:52):
picture fan. Couldn't stand when the guy kissed the girl.
We all went yes, but I grew out of that,
well matured out of however, that one.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
But so that was my great interest was movies.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
And when the war was over and I was up
in Woodstock, New York, I got seduced into a summer
Stock coming and.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Did some acting there. I just found out I loved it,
and that was all I was done.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Usually in the GI bill. He studies at the American
Theater Wing in New York City. Soon he's appearing in
minor roles in stage plays. And then in nineteen fifty
on TV.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
Well that came out of the live New York stuff
because I did about two hundred and fifty shows in
New York before I went to Hollywood and TV, you know,
because they were knocking him out. It was new and
you know the great writers and young actors out of
World War two and you know the big story. You know,
those type of live shows which kind of gave a pace.
So when I went to Hollywood, film was trying to
(25:58):
pick that face up to compete with him. So I
think that's what happened why TV had that new good
start on film. So I was an extra when Henry
Hathaway got me here in New York took me down
in Norfolk and then said come out to Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
I said what for?
Speaker 4 (26:12):
He says, good, I watched it of those things and
I said, look, I said, I can go back to
New York and be a psupernoir marine in king Lear.
And he said what. I said, yeah, because that's class.
He says, what's the thing. I said, thirty five bucks
a week. He said, don't be an idiot. Said I'll
give you one hundred and seventy five weeks from the Hollywood.
And they said, get on the plane and one hundred
(26:36):
and seventy five a week. I took it, and he
got me an age and he set me up in Allywood.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
And you've been listening to our own Roger McGrath himself
a marine, telling the story of Lee Marvin and my goodness,
he's one of the first marines to land on Saipan.
He started with two hundred and forty seven men and
only hours later he said there were six of us.
He was hit and severed his psionic nerve. And when
(27:05):
he's yelled out I've been hit, he heard quickly, back, shut.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Up, We've all been hit.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
The awards that came after the traumatic impact, and then
of course his introduction accidentally to the world of acting
and theater. When we come back more of the story
of Lee Marvin. Here on our American stories, and we
(27:37):
continue with our American stories and with our own Roger
McGrath telling this story of screen legend Lee Marvin.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
He makes his film debut in nineteen fifty one in
You're in the Navy Now starring Gary Cooper. Marvin's role
as a radio man on Cooper's ship unaccredited. But Lee
Marvin has made it to the big screen. Mervin appears
in minor roles in several more movies for his major
(28:11):
role as a motorcycle game leader Chino opposite Marlon Brando
in The Wild One.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
All right, this is a main event, my ladies and gentlemen.
This lovely young lady over here challaul his beautiful object
sing a bying absolutely nothing. Now watch closely see how
the timid maiden of the hill clutches the goal to
a breast, and see how she fights back a tear
while a hero bleeds to death in the street.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
A smash success in nineteen fifty four, with that attention
grabbing role. Marvin is much sought after for both film
and television work. Major roles are his, and he's fast
becoming a star. For the Best Performance by an Actor
in nineteen sixty five, the winner is Lee Marvin. In
(29:08):
nineteen sixty six, Lee Marvin wins the Academy Award for
Best Actor for the dual roles he plays brilliantly in
Cat Blue, a blockbuster hit in nineteen sixty five.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Thank you, thank you all very much. I don't want
to take up so much of your time. There's too
many people to correctly thank for my career. I think though,
the half of this belongs to a horse someplace out
in the via.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Through the nineteen sixties, both before and after Cat Blue,
Marvin is in one hit movie after another. The common Churros,
the man who shot Liberty.
Speaker 6 (29:49):
Balance looking at the new waitress.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
That's my stake.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
Balance, you heard him, dude, O.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Eldrum hold it, I said you balance, You pick it up.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Donovan's Reef, the professionals, the dirty doesn't.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
You've all volunteer for a mission which gives you just
three ways to go. Either you can follow up in
training and be shipped back here for immediate execution of sentence,
or you can file up in combat, in which case
I will personally blow your brains out, or you can
do as you're told, in which case you might just get.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
By point blank paint your wagon. Sometimes he's a bad
guy and sometimes a good guy, but he's always a
tough guy.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Are you tough? No?
Speaker 4 (30:57):
I think I have the opportunity to flight, which is,
you know, saves me a lot of bruises.
Speaker 7 (31:03):
You don't get many fellas coming up to you in
a bar trying to pick fights to.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
You, No that I buy a lot of them drinks
so they don't. It's not the best way to protect yourself.
Speaker 7 (31:13):
Was this a kind of a defense with you really
acting tough?
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Well, it's acting out.
Speaker 4 (31:18):
It saves me from getting locked up or spending a
lot of time in goal, and you get rid of
it on the screen, you know, so you don't have
to do it on the straight.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
But you were a marine.
Speaker 7 (31:27):
Did you have to act tough as a marine to
hide your fear for instance?
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Well, you have to do a lot of acting to
hide that. And I guess that's where I learned how
to act in the man.
Speaker 7 (31:37):
Yeah, Well you picked up a purple heart which is
something we don't hear too often. You're suitably modest about it.
How did you win that?
Speaker 4 (31:45):
You don't win them. You get them when you get hit. So,
in other words, I'd rather not have it.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Did you get hit in a very vulnerable place? Yes?
I got hit in This doesn't give me much to
talk about, right.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
Terry.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Well the nineteen sixties. Lee Marvin is an actor with
great range and a surprising amount of subtlety and nuanced tyn.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
I want to talk to you.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
This can be seen in his role as Chris the
old miner Ben Rumson in Paint Your Wagon.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Get Up Partner.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
His performance is nothing less than brilliant.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
How's your jaw?
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Do you think it's coming off? You want to trust me?
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Ben?
Speaker 4 (32:32):
You're right, because you ain't the kind of a man
to go less than after another man's wife.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
That's right, Ben.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
I wouldn't do that.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
And the only kind of feelings you'd ever have would
be deep ones. And if you had him for Elizabeth,
you'd come and tell me before you would her.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
That's right, Ben, That's what i'd do.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
You're a good man, Partner.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
That's what I was coming to do. Ben. Tell you
that I got some deep feelings for Elizabeth all together.
Marvin appears in sixty movies, often as a leading man,
and in dozens of TV shows.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
That was a good Western dialogue.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
I mean that was that short, terse, almost Sam Spade
dialogue in the Western, because I remember when I, uh,
when Randy Scott the leader or he's down and wounded,
and I finally confront him, right because I'm a baddie,
and he turns up and I know I got him right.
I got two guys. He's got nothing. So he says,
(33:42):
what happened up there? I say, pay bodine, I killed him.
And he said why, And I said why not. I
mean that's you know, that's a childhood dream to be
able to say something like that on film.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:01):
Well.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Enjoying professional success, his personal life is one of high's
and lows in turmoil. He's married to his first wife
for fifteen years and has four children with her. While
living in Rustic Canyon, a neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, California,
he struggles with PTSD and mitigates himself with whiskey and
(34:23):
cigarettes and wild late nights. Takes a toll on him
and on those around him. By the time he marries
his second wife, he's far more emotionally stable.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
My wife is in the audience.
Speaker 7 (34:36):
I think she's probably been that, would you say, one
of the most effective things in your late mellowing.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
She eventually warn you down well, even in my early mellowing. Sorry. Yeah,
She's been around a long time in my life.
Speaker 4 (34:52):
I met her when she was fifteen, I was twenty one,
and justice was finally done.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
She made an honest man of you, did she or
the town did? I've forgotten with her now I'm an
honest man.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
They stay married for seventeen years until his death in
nineteen eighty seven at the age of sixty three. Lee
Marvin is known as a movie star, but he shuns
Hollywood whenever again and enjoys riding motorcycles or fishing with friends.
(35:27):
When his health begins to fail, he makes it clear
he doesn't want some kind of celebrity burial in Hollywood. Instead,
according to his wishes, he's buried with full military honors
at Arlington National Cemetery.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
We forge the bond the time when every race Marine
Corps training taught us to kill efficiently and to try
to survive. But it also taught us loyalty each other,
and he loove the few.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
The brown.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
Other than dates of birth and death and a cross
on his headstone, there is only Lee Marvin, PFC, United
States Marine Corps, World War Two, and.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
A terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling by
our own Greg Hangler, and a special thanks to Roger
McGrath himself a US Marine and a former history professor
at UCLA. He's a regular contributor here at our American
Stories and he's done dozens of these Hollywood goes to
War stories. This one my favorite because Lee Marvin was
(36:45):
my favorite, and my goodness, what a film career. His debut, ironically,
You're in the Navy with Gary Cooper, The Wild One
was his big breakout, alongside a young screen talent named
Marlon Brando. He won an AUSOK in nineteen sixty five
for kat Blow and then The Man Who Shot Liberty
Balanced the Professionals, The Dirty Dozen my favorite, and Paint
(37:09):
Your Wagon. Sometimes the good guy, sometimes the bad guy,
always the tough guy. But the real resume that he
was most proud of were those citations from his service
in World War Two. The Purple Heart Presidential Unit Citation,
the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, the
(37:31):
World War II Victory Medal, and the Combat Action Ribbon.
Lee Marvin dyed in nineteen eighty seven at the age
of sixty three. He shunned a Hollywood burial and funeral,
and in the end, it was him talking about his
Marine life that was most compelling. The Marine Corps training
(37:51):
taught us how to kill efficiently, and it taught us
to try and survive, But it also taught us loyalty
to each other, to love the few the proud. The
story of Lee Marvin his story here on our American
Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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