Lee van Cleef: The Best of The Bad!

 

The actor Lee Van Cleef was first known to me from one of his Italian Western films, 'Sabata.' However, before that, he achieved stardom through Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy films, including the famous one, 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,' with Clint Eastwood. I watched that film during one of its re-runs in Jaffna. For me, 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly' was his best film. All the actors in the film brilliantly performed. It's an iconic film featuring Clint Eastwood (The Good), Lee Van Cleef (The Bad), and Eli Wallach (The Ugly). The director Sergio Leone did a fantastic job, including the music composed by Ennio Morricone and the cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli. 'The Good' still has survived. It's amazing to see that he's still acting in his late nineties.

When the Italian director Sergio Leone made Western films, they were initially ridiculed as Spaghetti Westerns, but they turned out to be good Western films. Now, 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' is considered one of the best Western films. 

Another thing I appreciate about Lee Van Cleef is his distinctive nose. There's an interesting incident related to his unique feature. In his early film career, he was offered a role by the film producer Stanley Kramer under the condition that he should fix his nose. Lee Van Cleef loved his nose and didn't want to alter it. Instead, he declined the role. How many new actors would do this?

I like his smile, talking style, and, of course, his nose. When he died, he was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills, California, with an inscription on his grave that reads 'BEST OF THE BAD'. He is really the best of the bad