Lee Marvin did not receive his first starring role until he was 40, but in three short years — following the successes of Cat Ballou (for which he won the Academy Award as Best Actor), The Professionals and especially The Dirty Dozen – he was the most popular film actor in America.  Marvin was a fascinating man, a loving husband and father, and one of the most natural, effective actors of his time.

Lee Marvin: His Films and Career is a comprehensive reference of the Oscar-winning actor’s work.  It includes biographical information on Marvin, an analysis of each of his sixty-four movies, chapters on his two television shows (“M Squad” and “Lawbreaker”), a listing of his television appearances, and a complete filmography. The work is supplemented with dozens of photographs and film stills.

The book highlights how Marvin evolved from an extra in his first film (appearing in three different places at the same time!) to becoming the movies’ most menacing villain (The Big Heat) in just three years.  It examines how his military background (he was a Marine wounded in action at Saipan) led to him helping behind-the-scenes in classics like The Caine Mutiny and Attack.  And how television fame from “M Squad” and his association with John Wayne in the early 1960s finally led to co-starring status after years of support.

Marvin hit his peak with The Dirty Dozen and Point Blank in 1967, but the book also traces Marvin’s decline.  He remained a star until his death in 1987 and he made some good, valuable films in those last two decades, but his career surely curved downhill once he took the lead role in Paint Your Wagon instead of accepting Sam Peckinpah’s offer to star in The Wild Bunch.  And, of course, the infamous “palimony” lawsuit, brought against him by Michele Triola, which brought him more notoriety than any of his movies.

While not a biography, the book illustrates how Marvin’s career evolved, documenting his successes and failures both personally and professionally.  It covers his television work — the two aforementioned series plus dozens of assorted episode appearances on shows as varied as “The Medic” and “Bonanza” — in detail and even lists variety and interview show appearances.  It is an inclusive history of a singular Hollywood star, focusing on the work he produced and its legacy.  And in Lee Marvin’s case, that is quite a legacy.

For years I had been searching for a subject interesting to me that I could knowledgeably write about to break into the publishing world.  I tried a book about baseball movies, but by the time I was into it, several others had appeared.  So I looked at personalities, and was surprised that only one biography had ever been written about Lee Marvin, and this back in 1980 (by Donald Zec).

Several factors appealed to me about Lee Marvin.  First, and perhaps most importantly, he was a good actor.  I didn’t want to spend months writing about someone whose work was mediocre or even substandard.  Now, Lee’s films are not always the best, but he’s usually very good in them.  Second, he appeared in quite a few classic films, titles that would be known by the public.  That would help sales. Third, he was an interesting guy, a fact that I tried to get across despite the fact that this would not be a biography.  Fourth, he had won an Oscar.  That accomplishment, in my mind, made him someone no one would criticize me for writing about.  Finally, I was already familiar with much of Lee’s work before I began the book.  That gave me a head start, or so I thought.

After a largely disastrous preparation project through the Writer’s Digest School in the mid-1990s (I may write more about that later), I finally felt confident enough to approach a publisher.  McFarland and Company agreed to take me on and in 1999 I delivered to them a manuscript, which was published the following year.  Since Lee Marvin: His Films and Career was published, both of Lee’s wives have written memoirs, so there is more detail on him now than ever before.  I am happy to have a small part in keeping the memory of Lee Marvin alive.

By the way, the book is in the process of being translated into German at this time; I’ll put up a post and link when the German version becomes available.  My first foreign language edition!