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Parents' names were Marion Lavinia and Clarence Leroy Van Cleef.
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Van Cleef is buried in the Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills Cemetary.
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Van Cleef's family was of Dutch descent.
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Lee once recorded a country song entitled "If All I Ever Do."
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In real life, Lee was quicker on the draw with a gun than For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly co-star Clint Eastwood.
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Director Sergio Leone wanted the original good, bad, and ugly (Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach) to make cameos in his spaghetti western epic, Once Upon a Time in the West. Van Cleef and Wallach were willing but Eastwood declined so they never appeared in the film.
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Lee grew up in a farming family.
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Lee did an interview with Entertainment Tonight about his career shortly before his death.
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Lee appeared in an episode of Perry Mason entitled The Case of the Golden Oranges. His role was very small.
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Lee was living in Oxnard, California at the time of his death. He is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetary in Hollywood.
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Lee did a series of commercials for a potato chip company in the 80's parodying his villainous image.
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Lee co-starred with Kurt Russell in Escape from New York.
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Clint Eastwood recommended Lee to director Sergio Leone for the role of Colonel Mortimer in For a Few Dollars More after Jack Palance pulled out of the movie at the last minute.
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Lee made two guest appearances on Rawhide with future spaghetti western co-star Clint Eastwood.
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Lee appeared with former NFL stars Jim Brown and Fred Williamson in the 1974 film Take a Hard Ride.
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Lee worked as an accountant for a while after leaving military service at the end of World War II.
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Lee's third wife was named Barbara Havelone. He was married to her from 1976 until his death in 1989.
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Lee starred in a short-lived series for NBC entitled The Master which aired in 1984.
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Lee once seriously injured his leg while filming a movie. He carried a slight limp from this injury for the rest of his life.
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After experiencing a career slump in the 1960's, Lee seriously considered giving up acting and going into the painting and interior design business. Then he was cast in For a Few Dollars More which re-ignited his career.
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Lee had one green eye and one blue eye. This was corrected on-screen through the use of colored contact lenses.
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Lee once appeared on an episode of The Andy Griffith Show as a carnival pickpocket.
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There's a scene in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly where Lee's character slaps a woman. Lee really slapped her. The actress insisted he actually do it for the sake of realism.
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Lee once played a real life gangster named Frank Diamond in an episode of The Untouchables entitled The Unhired Assassin.
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Lee's character in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance got knocked out by John Wayne in a bar fight.
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Director Sergio Leone cast Lee Van Cleef as Colonel Mortimer in For a Few Dollars More after Henry Fonda and Jack Palance had turned down the role.
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Lee had three children by his first wife. Their names were Deborah, Alan, and David.
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He served on board a Navy minesweeper during World War II.
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Lee's first professional acting job was in a touring company of Mister Roberts.
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Lee was missing the last joint of his middle finger. According to Hollywood legend he lost it in a bar fight but in reality he lost it building a playhouse for his daughter.
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Lee played a homosexual gunman in the 1954 film noir classic The Big Combo.
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Lee's film debut was in High Noon. He had no dialogue in this role but his looks got him attention.