One of the great movie villains, Clarence Leroy Van Cleef, Jr. was born in Somerville, New Jersey, to Marion Lavinia , a TV series featuring almost non-stop martial arts action. He died of a heart attack in December 1989 and was buried at Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills.
He was missing the last joint of his middle finger, a disfigurement prominently featured in the climactic gunfight of Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo . He actually lost it while building a playhouse for his daughter, although there were rumors that it happened in a road accident or a bar fight.
He had three children from his first marriage: Alan (B. 1947), Deborah (B. 1948), and David. In 1960, when Lee married his second wife Joan Miller. They adopted a daughter, Denise.
One episode of his short-lived TV series, "The Master" , was titled "The Good, The Bad and the Priceless".
He had almost given up his acting career in the mid-60s and turned to painting when he was cast by Sergio Leone in Per qualche dollaro in pi . It made him a superstar in Europe and restarted his career in the US, making him again a recognizable and bankable name.
According to the book "Weird NJ" (Sceurman, Mark and Mark Moran, Barnes and Noble Books, 2004 ISBN 0-7607-3979-X) he was a descendant of the Morris County Van Cleefs who were infamous in the area for their strange living and "procreational" efforts. In fact, one trait that Lee had was that he had one green eye and one blue eye. According to the book, "this telltale characteristic was corrected in the movies with colored contact lenses".
Was the inspiration for the character Revolver Ocelot in the "Metal Gear" series of games.
During one summer in the early 1950s he was a camp counselor in NYC for Marc Furstenberg.
Son of Clarence Leroy Van Cleef and Maria Lavinia Van Fleet, both mostly of Dutch ancestry. He also had distant French, Swedish, Belgian (Flemish), English, and German, roots.
Was portrayed as a bounty hunter in the Lucky Luke comic book "The Bounty Hunter".
Interviewed in "Bad at the Bijou" by William R. Horner (McFarland, 1982).
Was on the short list of actors under consideration for arms dealer Brad Whitaker in The Living Daylights .
He was involved in a car accident in 1959 in which he lost his left kneecap. Doctors told him he would never be able to ride a horse again because of the injury. Within six months he was back in the saddle.
Producer Stuart Cohen recently revealed that Van Cleef was considered for the role of Garry in John Carpenter s The Thing , since Carpenter had recently worked with him on Escape from New York .
Served in the US Navy from 1942-46.
When still working as an accountant, Van Cleef was offered an acting job "starting on Monday." He protested that he needed to give his employer two weeks notice, only to be told that he started on Monday or didnt start at all. When Van Cleefs employer heard this, he promptly fired him, removing the need for any notice period.
His death certificate gave throat cancer as a secondary cause of death.
His final western Kid Vengeance was actually filmed before his previous western Diamante Lobo , but released afterwards. Although Van Cleef was billed first, in both films he was playing a secondary role to teen idol Leif Garrett.
He slipped out of the limelight during the 1980s, appearing in films that did not have a wide release.
Being born with a pair of beady eyes was the best thing that ever,happened to me.
Bad guys have always been my bag . . . I look mean without even trying.
My story suddenly turned into a rags-to-riches saga. And just in time,too. .
