Talk:Lee Van Cleef

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Height[edit]

Why no height for Actors? Culnacréann 16:09, 13 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

See "Look", section below. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.75.119.235 (talk) 13:29, 15 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Casting[edit]

The article now says, "His sharp features and piercing eyes made him an ideal "bad guy," though he was occasionally cast in a hero's role, such as a bounty hunter in For a Few Dollars More."

Occasionally? Seems to me that he was cast as a hero quite often. For example: "Death Rides a Horse," "The Magnificent Seven Ride," "Captain Apache," "The Big Gundown," "Grand Duel" and the two Sabata movies - and those are just the westerns!

I think it's safe to say be played the good guy as often as the bad. Monkey Bounce (talk) 15:51, 16 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

He played 54 bad guys before he ever played a good guy, and then he played what could be called a good guy (sometimes that's stretching things) 31 times. So it's almost two to one bad guys. Monkeyzpop (talk) 21:54, 16 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ah. That's quite informative, actually. Perhaps it would be best to say that after For a Few Dollars More he started playing heroes. I remember him best from those heroic roles and I'm sure a lot of other people, like myself, are unaware of the depth of his "villainous" career before that.Monkey Bounce (talk) 23:31, 16 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

He is "The Bad". Period. :-) --Andrev (talk) 01:56, 20 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't see any reference in the article to the Twilight Zone episode "The Grave". ?

The Ugly One[edit]

Anyone heard of the song by the trojan reggae artist King Stitt? It is called the Ugly one (aka lee van cleef) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.83.121.172 (talk) 15:17, 5 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi:

Except that 'Ugly' in 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' refers to Eli Wallach's character, not Van Cleef's. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.157.187.103 (talk) 01:28, 9 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Spouses[edit]

Could someone please find out when he was divorced from his first two wives? It looks very un-encyclopediac, seeing a question mark there. 24.60.239.47 (talk) 22:54, 2 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Loss of right middle finger[edit]

I just pulled up his movies and i'm not seeing the finger thing. What are we seeing here. Pull up youtube and take a look. i'll wait.69.122.62.231 (talk) 03:35, 24 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

During the gunfight in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, the missing finger tip is exceedingly obvious. It's somewhat obvious here: http://content6.flixster.com/photo/10/05/85/10058596_tml.jpg. There is a detailed photo from a 1962 TV episode showing Van Cleef's splinted and bandaged finger at http://disc.yourwebapps.com/discussion.cgi?disc=148193;article=16535;;pagemark=75 . From this photo and from a discussion on the Lee Van Cleef web board that includes comments from Van Cleef's son, it's apparent that he lost the tip of his right middle finger in the fall of 1962. Monkeyzpop (talk) 09:28, 24 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yup. I see it. I didn't remember having seen that before. He was cool. Clint was OK but this guy was out there. Thanks for the update.69.122.62.231 (talk) 03:51, 3 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Richard Schickel in the commentary of "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" claims that Lee Van Cleef had intact finger and that they used a body double. Econoglu (talk) 20:37, 29 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

van der cleef?[edit]

in history could it be possible his surname was van der cleef? van cleef seems a bit too short for dutch standards. Markthemac (talk) 06:40, 1 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

More likely, it would be "van Cleef" or "van der Cleef". Why is this article titled "Lee Van Cleef", anyway? In proper Dutch orthography it would be "Lee van Cleef", unless his family deliberately changed it after emigrating to America.—Quicksilver^{T @} 11:02, 15 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Van Cleef was not a Dutchman, he was an American of Dutch extraction, and he and his family spelled the name "Van Cleef," with capitals, which is why the article properly presents the name that way. Monkeyzpop (talk) 09:15, 16 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

We should get a source for this. I've seen many examples of his name in all-caps, but doesn't give one a clue about proper capitalization of the name. The issue is bound to come up here repeatedly until it is authoritatively settled.—Quicksilver^{T @} 22:10, 24 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

One easy way to know for sure how Van Cleef spelled/capitalized his name is to look at his film credits. Actors contractually have final approval of the nature and spelling of their names in film credits. In every one of Van Cleef's billed film appearances, he is billed as Van Cleef, not van Cleef. His name appeared on the masthead of the Screen Actors Guild newsletter for years among the Guild board members, with the name capitalized Van Cleef. SAG is quite precise about "official" spelling and capitalization of names. Monkeyzpop (talk) 08:50, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Look[edit]

Jewish look. Did Lee Van Cleef have a typical Jewish look? —Preceding

No. He looks like a typical Indo-European (of mixed Indonesian and Dutch ancestry in this case). In spited of what's being stated in the article, Van Cleef is obviously not fully Dutch.

unsigned comment added by 130.237.145.83 (talk) 19:56, 12 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What, precisely, constitutes the 'Jewish look'? Uniformity isn't exactly attainable given the extensive distribution of the Jewish population and the myriad of groups which have embraced the faith. Perhaps he was of Sephardi heritage? Was Van Cleef even of Jewish descent? I have noticed that a number of individuals with the surname "Van Cleef" (or Cleef) have been, but a cursory Googling yields only conjectual debate or anti-semitic bile.86.174.4.73 (talk) 15:17, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Van Cleef seems to have been about 6 foot 5 inches tall.

See Indo people. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.153.142.70 (talk) 09:47, 15 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

This article does not state definitively that Lee Van Cleef was of mixed Indonesian and Dutch ancestry - it only states in the "Youth" section that he was "of partial Dutch ancestry." The article as it is now states nothing at all about his apparent Asian ancestry. Clicking on the "Indo People" link in the above comment, that page also does not list him specifically as being of mixed Asian and European ancestry. It would be great to have his Asian ancestry stated more definitively in this article, especially as it was tagged by Wikipedia at the top with a box stating "This November is Wikipedia Asian Month." Thanks, grrlrocks

See https://www.celebheights.com/s/Lee-Van-Cleef-455.html . This says he was 6 foot 2.

See https://gw.geneanet.org/tdowling?n=van%2Bcleef&oc=0&p=clarence%2Bleroy&type=tree . This gives no ancestors for Marion Lavinia van Fleet and no photograph of her. The same site says that the theory she had Indonesian ancestors has been disproved. No details are given of the disproof. No photograph is given of the actor's father. No photograph appears of any of the actor's ancestors, only of the actor.

File:Lee Van Cleef.jpg Nominated for speedy Deletion[edit]

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Video Game----Gunslinger or was it Quick Draw[edit]

There was a Arcade game where you had to quick draw several characters, One was based on Lee Van Cleef and he was fast, real fast. I was able to beat the game (quite a few people not happy with me, setting records on quick draws..you had to with that last try). Can someone do some research on the game. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:E000:1000:4A66:55F7:4F2:7764:E411 (talk) 07:34, 19 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]