LEE MARVIN INTERVIEW CONTINUED

By Raymond De Felitta -


Here's more of the American Theater Wing interview with Lee Marvin that I've been posting all week. In this excerpt, Lee remember Henry Hathaway with fondness (instead of the fear and loathing most others recall him with) and dishes Raoul Walsh's propensity for not bothering to watch a dialogue scene while it was being shot, choosing to role a cigarette instead. Marvin also somewhat touchingly reveals that the whole reason he became an actor was due to a childhood infatuation with the movies. It's a refreshingly honest thought, given that actors of Marvin's supposed stripe usually claimed that they became actors because the pay was good or it helped them get laid or they couldn't get a job at the factory etc. etc. This was part of the generation of actors who were secretely embarrassed by their profession. But Marvin came shortly after this generation and was, as I mentioned earlier, well-bred and raised. His tone is always sincere, never self-aggrandizing and--beneath the hard-living exterior--one sees a somewhat old-fashioned 'gentleman', a thoughtful and modest sort who would never throw a cup of scalding hot coffee in a dame's face...

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