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And the drivers, they're like chess grandmasters at 200 miles per hour. You've got to see it. Trust me. You'll be hooked.
Follow Formula E. Live on Roku. Next race, Miami, April 12th. Hey, it's Amy Brown from The Bobby Bones Show. Join me in supporting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for a chance to win a trip to meet Megan Maroney at the 2025 I Heart Country Festival in Austin, Texas, on May 3rd, hosted by Bobby Bones. We're going to hook you up with tickets, flights, hotel, food credits, and a meet and greet with Megan Maroney. Take action now to support St. Jude and help cure childhood cancer. And you're going to be entered for a chance to win. Visit IHeartCountryTrip.com to learn more.
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Shop now for family favorites. This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. Near the tomb of the unknown soldier and beside the grave of world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis in Arlington National Cemetery is the resting place of a film star who chose to be remembered first and foremost as a U.S. Marine. Here to tell another Hollywood goes to war story is Roger McGrath.
McGrath is the author of Gunfighters, Highwaymen and Vigilantes. He's a U.S. Marine, former history professor at UCLA and has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries. He's a regular contributor here on Our American Stories.
Let's take a listen. Lee Marvin was one of Hollywood's iconic tough guys. He was convincing in such roles because he was one. He was a Marine veteran of the island hopping campaign in the central Pacific during World War II and came home badly wounded. Like every Marine that I landed with on the beaches of Kwajalein, Enewetok, Saipan during World War II, we were ready to fight before we shipped out to the Pacific.
Hammered into fighting shape in the forge of intense training, hardened by the fires of Marine tradition, galvanized by self-discipline, pride and patriotism. Six years later he appeared in the first of his 60 movies. He grabbed the attention of movie fans in 1954 when he starred opposite Marlon Brando as the leader of an outlaw motorcycle gang in The Wild One. Hi, sweetheart. Hey, what are you doing in this miserable gully, Johnny Malone?
I love you, Johnny. I've been looking for you in every ditch from Fresno to here hoping you was dead. You've been staying out too late at night. That's mine, Chino. Take it off.
He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the dual roles he played brilliantly in Cat Ballou, half old-fashioned western and half comedy. Look at your eyes. What's wrong with my eyes? Well, they're red. Bloodshot.
You ought to see them from my side. Lee Marvin is born in 1924 to Lamont Marvin, an advertising executive, and Courtney Davidge Marvin, a fashion writer. Lee is named in honor of a distant relative, Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Lee and his older brother, Robert, enjoy an upper middle class existence, including shooting and hunting with their father, a decorated veteran of World War I. However, Lee has problems in school. In hindsight, it's clear he had dyslexia and attention deficit disorder. At the time, though, he's simply a student who acts up and gets in trouble for routiness, fighting, and truancy.
He doesn't like school and later says, every day it was a toss-up, whether I'd go or skip. He's expelled from several private schools in New York, mostly for fighting. When his father goes to Florida for a job, he takes Lee with him and enrolls him in St. Leo Preparatory School, a Catholic boys high school in Lakeland. St. Leo's has an excellent athletic program, which makes life at the school tolerable for Lee. He excels at track, running the hurdles in quarter mile, and throwing the javelin. He also excels at swimming.
He even manages to pass all his academic classes. Lee still has a wild hair. He and a couple of his good friends with nature similar to Lee's sneak out of the rooms at night and row a small boat across Lake Jovita, which separates St. Leo's from Holy Name Academy, a Catholic girls school. The schools hold regular dances together, but for Lee and his buddies, a nighttime row across the lake for a rendezvous with a girlfriend was high adventure.
Lee also finds adventure with his father on weekend hunting trips through Florida's still wild areas, home to deer, mountain lions, feral hogs, and alligators. Lee Marvin is in his senior year at St. Leo's when the Japanese watched their sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. This makes school more difficult for Lee.
All I can think about now is joining up to fight the Japanese. His older brother, Robert, goes into the Army Air Corps and his father, although in his late 40s, begins making plans to serve in the Army as he had in World War I. On August 12, 1942, the 18-year-old Lee Marvin joins the Marine Corps.
For someone who has problems with authority and discipline, it seems like an odd choice of services. I knew I was going to be killed, explains Marvin. I just wanted to die in the very best outfit. There are ordinary corpses and marine corpses, I figured, on the first-class kind and joined up. The six-foot-two-inch, lean and athletic Marvin excels in boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina and in further training following graduation. By the time he's stationed at Camp Elliot, near San Diego, California, he's been promoted to corporal in the newly forming 24th Regiment of the 4th Marine Division, which is being organized at Camp Pendleton. Marvin is on track to become a sergeant in the near future, but a brawl gets him busted back to private, confined to base and assigned to mess duty for a month. And you've been listening to our own Roger McGrath, himself a U.S. Marine, tell the story of Lee Marvin. He was a senior in high school when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor and all he said he could think about was joining the fight. His older brother had joined, his father was figuring out how to join, and in August of 1942, he joined the Marine Corps. His explanation, I knew I was going to be killed.
I wanted to be killed in the best outfit. When we come back more of Lee Marvin's story here on Our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host of Our American Stories. Every day we set out to tell the stories of Americans, past and present, from small towns to big cities and from all walks of life doing extraordinary things. But we truly can't do this show without you. Our shows are free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love what you hear, go to our American stories dot com and make a donation to keep the stories coming.
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Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. You know how we're always talking about what's next? Well, I found it. It's called Formula E. Forget everything you think you know about racing. This isn't just cars going fast. It's like a super computer on wheels.
The tech is insane and the drivers, they're like chess grandmasters at 200 miles per hour. You've got to see it. Trust me, you'll be hooked.
Follow Formula E live on Roku. Next race, Miami, April 12th. Hey, it's Amy Brown from the Bobby Bone Show. Join me in supporting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for a chance to win a trip to meet Megan Maroney at the 2025 iHeart Country Festival in Austin, Texas on May 3rd hosted by Bobby Bones. We're going to hook you up with tickets, flights, hotel, food credits and a meet and greet with Megan Maroney. Take action now to support St. Jude and help cure childhood cancer and you're going to be entered for a chance to win. Visit iHeartCountryTrip.com to learn more.
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That's selectquote.com. Okay, real talk. We're all kind of hooked on our phones. It's full of shiny apps designed to keep your attention captive forever but there's real life stuff to do other than scrolling and I'm here to help. I'm Christina Quinn, the host of Try This, a podcast from the Washington Post. The show explores solutions for life's common problems and this season we're learning to tame the dopamine beast and reclaim our attention in this noisy and distracting world.
So let's tame the beast together. Find Try This from the Washington Post wherever you listen. And we continue with our American stories in our Hollywood Goes to War series with Roger McGrath. Story today, Lee Marvin's.
Let's pick up where we last left off. Marvin's luck changes for the better when he's assigned to a scout sniper platoon which after World War II would become known in the core as a reconnaissance or recon platoon. The scout snipers are more conducive to Marvin's personality. They are organized more horizontally and less hierarchically than other outfits in the Marine Corps.
Comradery, physical prowess and the ability to do one's job are more important than rank and regulations. Marvin, who started in track and field at St. Leo's and in his spare time hunted feral pigs with a bamboo spear in a forest near the campus, finds a home. In January 1944, Marvin ships out with his unit bound for the Japanese held Marshall Islands. It begins with a waiting, waiting to go in, waiting to take off, to move out, to move up, waiting to go into what one Marine combat veteran calls the savage, brutal, exhausting and dirty business of war. His first action comes at the northern end of the Kwajalein atoll which consists of some 90 small islands and islets. The Marines concentrate their efforts on Roi and Namur, two islands joined by a 400 foot long causeway. On January 31, Marines land on five small islands before assaulting Roi and Namur on February 1. Long before the main body Marines hit the beaches, teams of scout snipers land in rubber boats in the dark to reconnoiter and gather intelligence.
When interviewed years later, Marvin made light of his own efforts. So you'd land with maybe 12 guys and you'd wander around and not see a thing because you didn't want to see it. All you wanted was to get off. The next morning the sun would come up and there would be the whole United States Navy out there because it's D-Day and they'd be shelling you because if they saw you they figured you were Japs and nobody told them otherwise. So you eventually swim out to a reef and pray and hope that somebody's listening. Fear, a reality of war, fear of the always present danger of being killed or wounded, anticipation of the unexpected, apprehension that one may not measure up as a Marine under fire or letting a brother Marine down. Fear grips all men going into combat to some degree or another. But fear does not mean the lack of courage.
Courage means overcoming fear and doing one's duty in the presence of danger, not being unafraid. Later, with the main landing on Roi and Namur, Marvin comes upon six Japanese huddled in a trench. They're wearing uniforms of white that he doesn't recognize.
They're not fighting but are only hunkered down for protection. Marvin hesitates to fire. Another Marine, a veteran of earlier campaigns, comes up alongside Marvin and asks what's going on.
I don't know, says Marvin. They look like merchant Marines to me. The other Marine gives Marvin a look, curses, and empties his gun into the trench.
For good measure, he throws in a hand grenade. There are still six Japanese in white uniforms in the trench, but now they are full of bullets and shrapnel and are dead. The reality and brutality of war makes an impression on Marvin he will never forget. The Marines lose 313 men on Roi and Namur.
The Japanese lose more than 3,500. Marvin is again in action three weeks later at Eniwetok, a coral atoll of some 40 small islands and islands about 330 miles west of Roi and Namur. The Marines' principal assaults will occur at Engebi and Perry Islands. On Engebi, Marvin and five others are ordered to destroy a machine gun emplacement that has his platoon pinned down. Marvin and his fellow Marines crawl to within hand grenade throwing distance and then lob in grenades.
Several of the Japanese gunners are killed. Marvin leaps to his feet and rushes to kill the survivors. His foot catches on the sand-covered trap door and he's sent sprawling.
Out of the trap door comes the Japanese. He popped out of that hole like a little animal, said Marvin. For a second, I just lay there surprised as hell while he blinked at me. Then he lunged. He tried to stick his bayonet in my eye, so I took it away from him. It wasn't hard to do because he was just a little maybe five foot two or so.
I shoved that thing into his chest all the way to the gun barrel. The battle for Engebi cost the Marines 85 dead and the Japanese 2,000. Besides these major engagements, Marvin is also involved in more than a dozen recon missions with other scout snipers to islands and islands.
In March 1944, Marvin and his outfit are shipped to Hawaii for a little rest and recreation and a lot of training before heading back out into the Pacific for the assault on Saipan in the Marianas. The Japanese have occupied Saipan since the 1920s and have built major air and naval bases on the island. They have also settled some 25,000 Japanese civilians on the island until the Japanese outnumber the native Chamorro five to one. Saipan's size, about five miles wide and 20 miles long, and rugged terrain of volcanic mountains, jagged ridges, and hundreds of caves make it ideal for defensive warfare. Moreover, Japan has some 32,000 of her best troops on the island.
It will be a tough nut to crack. The day before the assault, a Navy medical officer briefs the Marines who will be landing on Saipan, warning that they have more to worry about than the Japanese. He tells the Marines that on the way to the shore they could encounter sharks, barracuda, poisonous sea snakes, razor sharp coral, poisonous fish, and giant clams. Then once ashore, they would go to Japan and find leprosy, typhus, filariasis, typhoid, and dysentery. A young Marine private who is listening with rapt attention asks the medical officer, sir, why don't we just let the Japs keep the island? That night over the airwaves comes an ominous warning from Tokyo Rose, the dulcet-voiced young woman who broadcasts Japanese propaganda aimed at American troops. I've got some swell recordings for you just in from the states.
You Marines better enjoy them while you can because tomorrow morning at 0600 you're hitting Saipan and we are ready for you. So while you're still alive, let's listen to Glenn Miller, Penny Goodman, and the Dorsey brothers. And you've been listening to our own Roger McGrath tell the story of Lee Marvin in our continuing series called Hollywood Goes to War. And Lee Marvin, my goodness, what an assignment he drew in the Pacific Islands, first the Marshall Islands. And he talked there about the waiting. It begins with the waiting, he said years later. Fear grips all men going into combat in some way or another, he also said.
But courage is the ability to get past that, to get through that fear. And then, of course, the dreaded invasion of Saipan after a bit of a hiatus in Hawaii. And that rough terrain of the island, 32,000 strong Japanese Army sharks, disease-infested and occupied since the 1920s. And that one young Marine saying to his CO, why not just let the Japs keep the island? And of course, that ominous message from Tokyo Rose, psychological warfare of the worst part, warning them of what was to come, letting them know they knew, and then, well, teasing them by playing their favorite American tunes from back home.
When we continue more of this remarkable story, the story of Lee Marvin's service to our country here on Our American Stories. Tired of spills and stains on your sofa? Wash away your worries with Anibay. Anibay is the only machine washable sofa inside and out, where designer quality meets budget-friendly prices. That's right, sofas start at just $699. Enjoy a no-risk experience with pet-friendly, stain-resistant and changeable slipcovers made with performance fabric. Experience cloud-like comfort with high-resilience foam that's hypoallergenic and never needs fluffing.
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Offers are subject to change, and certain restrictions may apply. You know how we're always talking about what's next? Well, I found it. It's called Formula E. Forget everything you think you know about racing. This isn't just cars going fast. It's like a supercomputer on wheels. The tech is insane, and the drivers?
They're like chess grandmasters at 200 miles per hour. You've got to see it. Trust me. You'll be hooked.
Follow Formula E, live on Roku. Next race, Miami, April 12th. Hey, it's Amy Brown from The Bobby Bone Show. Join me in supporting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for a chance to win a trip to meet Meghan Maroney at the 2025 iHeart Country Festival in Austin, Texas on May 3rd, hosted by Bobby Bones. We're going to hook you up with tickets, flights, hotel, food credits, and a meet and greet with Meghan Maroney.
Take action now to support St. Jude and help cure childhood cancer, and you're going to be entered for a chance to win. Visit iHeartCountryTrip.com to learn more. You've been hitting the gym, taking the stairs, and running that extra mile, but did you know that improving your health is also a step toward lower life insurance rates? At Select Quote, we make sure you're rewarded for your healthy lifestyle. For 40 years, we've helped more than 2 million customers secure over $700 billion in life insurance coverage, and our healthiest customers are covered by the time they hang up with an experienced licensed insurance agent. That's right, qualifying customers can get up to $5 million in life insurance with no medical exam required. A medical exam can add weeks onto the approval process for life insurance, but our exclusive no medical exam policy ensures you're covered by the time you hang up. Plus, many policies are less than a dollar per day.
Being fit doesn't just feel good, it pays off. See what you could save on life insurance with Select Quote. Go to SelectQuote.com for your free quote today. SelectQuote.com.
That's SelectQuote.com. And we continue with our American Stories and with Roger McGrath telling the story of actor and screen legend Lee Marvin and his experience in the Pacific Islands during World War II. Let's pick up where we last left off. Lee Marvin is among the first Marines to land on Saipan on D-Day, June 15, 1944. The fighting is fierce from the minute he hits the shore. Reaching open fields beyond the beach, Marvin sees a strange sight, hundreds of steaks with sake bottles on top. His puzzlement ends quickly when artillery fire rains down on the Marines with deadly accuracy.
The steaks and bottles are markers the Japanese used to pre-register their fire. In a letter to his brother, Marvin writes, The first night on the island, I had a damn close call. We were in a hell of a barrage, and they were knocking the hell out of us. The hole I was in was about four feet deep and 12 across.
There were four of us in it. You know you can hear the mortars coming, so I would stick my head up and call the shots. That is, when they were to come within 25 yards, I'd better duck.
If not, we'd just let them go and hope for the best. Well, I watched one of our batteries fire and heard them go off in the hills, except it sounded like three times as many, and sure enough, they were nip guns firing at us. I was looking at them, and here comes one.
I think it had all our names on it. Man, it sounded like it was in the hole with us. It hit about three feet from my head and blew off my pack, gas mask, and canteen. Killed one of the boys and wounded the next.
But what I can't figure out is why it didn't blow my head off, that it didn't even scratch me, yet it hit all the rest. Damn, I saw red for the next 10 minutes, and it sounded like Big Ben in my head. On the fourth day, Marvin finds himself headed into what the Marines call Death Valley. Marvin's company is tasked with assaulting 1,500-foot-high Mount Tapacho that overlooks the valley. Rugged terrain and hundreds of caves that halt thousands of cracked Japanese troops make the mission near suicidal, says Marvin.
We started out with 247 men, and 15 minutes later, there were six of us. Marvin lasted only a little longer. A machine gun bullet rips through his lower back and buttocks, missing his spinal cord by a fraction of an inch and severing his sciatic nerve. Jesus, I'm hit, yells Marvin.
Shut up, we're all hit, says another Marine. Marvin said he felt like he'd been hit by someone swinging a 2x4. He was left with a bloody gash about 8 inches long, 3 inches wide, and 2 inches deep. A Japanese sniper then zeroes in on the stunned Marvin.
One round nearly misses his head, and another hits him in the foot. Marvin drives himself to a better cover, and a corpsman reaches him. The corpsman bandages Marvin's wound and injects him with morphine. Marvin is lifted onto a stretcher and carried towards the rear. Before he gets there, though, a nearby Japanese ammo dump explodes.
The shockwave hurls Marvin off the stretcher, and he lands precisely on his wound. About nightfall, Marvin is evacuated to the hospital ship Solace. While lying on clean sheets and being spoon-fed ice cream, he listens to Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serenade.
It's heavenly, he thinks. But then he begins thinking of his fellow Marines who are still on Saipan, still in hell, still fighting and dying. And he breaks down and cries. The end of a patrol, a battle, a campaign. You can see in the eyes of each survivor the price he's paid. The Battle of Saipan costs the Marines 3,000 killed. The U.S. Army loses another 1,000.
The Japanese lose more than 30,000 soldiers and another 15,000 civilians. PFC Lee Marvin is awarded the Purple Art and spends the next 13 months in naval hospitals recovering from his wound. He is also awarded the Navy Commendation Medal with V, the Combat Action Ribbon, the Presidential Unit Citation, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal. Late in July 1945, Marvin is honorably discharged from the Marine Corps. Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, he has difficulty adjusting to civilian life and even attempts to re-enlist.
However, the lingering effects from his wound disqualifies him from re-entering the Marines. While working as a plumber, he gets a call to fix a toilet at a theater. There's a rehearsal in progress on the theater stage and Marvin watches with fascination.
He says the give-and-take, quips, camaraderie, tension, and direction remind him of the Marines. It just so happens that an actor has fallen sick and a tall, strapping, big-voiced young man is needed for the actor's role. The director's eyes fall on Marvin standing there. Suddenly, he's no longer a plumber but an actor on stage.
Although Marvin had performed and plays back in high school, he's raw and needs training. As a kid, I actually always went to the movies on Saturday at 15 cents. Being in New York and all the westerns and the Hell's Angels and all those great films of the late 20s, early 30s, mid-30s. I was an ardent motion picture fan. I couldn't stand it when a guy kissed the girl.
We all went ugh. But I grew out of that, or matured out of that, however that one was. So that was my great interest, was movies. When the war was over and I was up in Woodstock, New York, I got seduced into a summer stock company and did some acting there and just found out I loved it.
That was all I was doing. Using the G.I. Bill, he studies at the American Theatre Wing in New York City. Soon, he's appearing in minor roles in stage plays and then in 1950 on TV. Well, that came out of the live New York stuff because I did about 250 shows in New York before I went to Hollywood on TV because they were knocking them out. It was new and the great writers and young actors out of World War II and the big story, those type of live shows, which kind of gave a pace. So when I went to Hollywood, film was trying to pick that pace up to compete with them.
So I think that's what happened why TV had that new good start on film. So I was an expert when Henry Hathaway got me here in New York, took me down to Norfolk and then said, come out to Hollywood. I said, what for? He says, because I want you, you know, one of those things. And I said, look, I said, I can go back to New York and be a supernumer in King Lear. And he said, what? I said, yeah, because that's class. He says, what's it pay?
I said, 35 bucks a week. He said, don't be an idiot. He said, I'll give you 175 a week from the Hollywood.
So I said, get on the plane and 175 a week. I took it and he got me an H and he set me up in Hollywood. And you've been listening to our own Roger McGrath himself, a Marine, telling the story of Lee Marvin. And my goodness, he's one of the first Marines to land on Saipan.
He started with 247 men and only hours later, he said there were six of us. He was hit and severed his sciatic nerve. And when he's yelled out, I've been hit.
He heard quickly back, shut up. We've all been hit. The awards that came after the traumatic impact. And then, of course, his introduction accidentally to the world of acting and theater.
When we come back, more of the story of Lee Marvin here on Our American Stories. Time for a sofa upgrade. Introducing Anibay sofas, where designer style meets budget friendly prices.
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Liquid simply slide right off. Designed for custom comfort, our high resilience foam lets you choose between a sink and feel or a supportive memory foam blend. Plus, our pet friendly stain resistant fabrics ensure your sofa stays beautiful for years.
Don't compromise quality for price. Visit washablesophas.com to upgrade your living space today. Sofa start at just $699 with no risk returns and a 30-day money back guarantee. Get up to 60% off plus free shipping and free returns. Shop now at washablesophas.com.
Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. You know how we're always talking about what's next? Well, I found it. It's called Formula E. Forget everything you think you know about racing. This isn't just cars going fast. It's like a supercomputer on wheels. The tech is insane.
And the drivers, they're like chess grandmasters at 200 miles per hour. You've got to see it. Trust me, you'll be hooked.
Follow Formula E live on Roku. Next race, Miami, April 12th. Hey, it's Amy Brown from the Bobby Bone Show. Join me in supporting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for a chance to win a trip to meet Megan Maroney at the 2025 I Heart Country Festival in Austin, Texas on May 3rd, hosted by Bobby Bones. We're going to hook you up with tickets, flights, hotel, food credits, and a meet and greet with Megan Maroney. Take action now to support St. Jude and help cure childhood cancer, and you're going to be entered for a chance to win. Visit IHeartCountryTrip.com to learn more.
You've been hitting the gym, taking the stairs, and running that extra mile. But did you know that improving your health is also a step toward lower life insurance rates? At SelectQuote, we make sure you're rewarded for your healthy lifestyle. For 40 years, we've helped more than 2 million customers secure over $700 billion in life insurance coverage, and our healthiest customers are covered by the time they hang up with an experienced licensed insurance agent.
That's right. Qualifying customers can get up to $5 million in life insurance with no medical exam required. A medical exam can add weeks onto the approval process for life insurance, but our exclusive no medical exam policy ensures you're covered by the time you hang up. Plus, many policies are less than a dollar per day.
Being fit doesn't just feel good. It pays off. See what you could save on life insurance with SelectQuote. Go to SelectQuote.com for your free quote today. SelectQuote.com. That's SelectQuote.com.
We've all done it. You see a headline but don't have time to read the whole story, or there's so much news you're not sure what is worth your time. I'm Colby Ekowitz, co-host of Post Reports, the weekday afternoon podcast from The Washington Post. Post Reports brings you what's relevant and revealing, breaking stories, politics, wellness, culture. Each episode goes beyond a headline for the context you need. Find Post Reports now, wherever you're listening. And we continue with our American stories and with our own Roger McGrath telling the story of screen legend Lee Marvin.
Let's pick up where we last left off. InX's film debuted in 1951 in You're in the Navy Now, starring Gary Cooper. Marvin's role as a radioman on Cooper's ship is unaccredited, but Lee Marvin has made it to the big screen. Marvin appears in minor roles in several more movies for his major role as a motorcycle gang leader, Chino, opposite Marlon Brando in The Wild One. A smash success in 1954. With that attention-grabbing role, Marvin is much sought after for both film and television work. Major roles are his and he's fast becoming a star. For the best performance by an actor in 1965, the winner is Lee Marvin.
In 1966, Lee Marvin wins the Academy Award for Best Actor for the dual roles he plays brilliantly in Cat Ballou, a blockbuster hit in 1965. Thank you. Thank you all very much.
I don't want to take up too much of your time. There's too many people to correctly thank for my career. I think, though, that half of this belongs to a horse someplace out in the back.
Through the 1960s, both before and after Cat Ballou, Marvin is in one hit movie after another, The Comancheros, the man who shot Liberty Valance. Looking at the new waitress. That's my steak, Valance. You heard him, dude. Pick it up. Oh, Pilgrim, hold it. I said you, Valance. You pick it up.
Donovan's Reef, The Professionals, The Dirty Dozen. You have all volunteered for a mission which gives you just three ways to go. Either you can file up in training and be shipped back here for immediate execution of sentence, or you can file up in combat, in which case I will personally blow your brains out, or you can do as you're told, in which case you might just get by. Point blank.
Paint your wagon. Sometimes he's a bad guy and sometimes a good guy, but he's always a tough guy. Are you tough? No, I think I have the opportunity to play tough, which saves me a lot of bruises. You don't get many fellows coming up to you in a bar trying to pick fights, do you?
No, but I buy a lot of them drinks so they don't. That's about the best way to protect yourself. So, was this a kind of a defense with you, really, acting tough? Well, it's acting out.
It saves me from getting locked up or spending a lot of time on goal, and you get rid of it on the screen, you know, so you don't have to do it on the street. But you were a Marine. Did you have to act tough as a Marine to hide your fear, for instance? Well, you have to do a lot of acting to hide that, and I guess that's where I learned how to act. In the Marines?
Yeah. Well, you picked up a Purple Heart, which is something we don't hear too often. You're suitably modest about it. How did you win that? You don't win them. You get them when you get hit.
So, in other words, I'd rather not have it. Did you get hit in a very vulnerable place? Yes, I got hit in a... Really? This doesn't give me much to talk about, right, Terry? By the 1960s, Lee Marvin is an actor with great range and a surprising amount of subtlety and nuance. Partner, I want to talk to you. This can be seen in his role as the crusty old miner, Ben Rumsen, in Paint Your Wagon. Get up, partner.
His performance is nothing less than brilliant. How's your jaw? Feels like it's coming off. You ought to trust me, Ben. You're right.
Because you ain't the kind of a man to go lusting after another man's wife. That's right, Ben. I... I wouldn't do that.
And the only kind of feelings you'd ever have would be deep ones. And if you had them for Elizabeth, you'd come and tell me before you would her. That's right, Ben.
That's what I'd do. You're a good man, partner. And that's what I was coming to do, Ben.
Tell you that I got some deep feelings for Elizabeth. Altogether, Marvin appears in 60 movies, often as a leading man, and in dozens of TV shows. That was good Western dialogue. I mean, that was that short terse, almost Sam Spade dialogue in a Western. Because I remember when Randy Scott, the lead, he's down and wounded, and I finally confront him, right? Because I'm a baddie. And he stands up, and I know I got him, right? I got two guns. He's got nothing. So he says, what happened up there?
I say, pay Bodine. I killed him. And he said, why?
And I said, why not? I mean, that's, you know, that's a childhood dream to be able to say something like that on film. Yeah. While enjoying professional success, his personal life is one of highs and lows in turmoil. He's married to his first wife for 15 years, and has four children with her while living in Rustic Canyon, a neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, California. He struggles with PTSD, and medicates himself with whiskey, and cigarettes, and wild late nights. Takes a toll on him, and on those around him.
By the time he marries his second wife, he's far more emotionally stable. My wife is in the audience. I think she's probably been, would you say, one of the most effective things in your late mellowing. Has she eventually worn you down? Well, even in my early mellowing.
Sorry? Yeah, she's been around a long time in my life. I met her when she was 15.
I was 21. And justice was finally done. She made an honest man of you, did she? Or the town did. I've forgotten where.
Now I'm an honest man. They stayed married for 17 years until his death in 1987 at the age of 63. Lee Marvin is known as a movie star, but he shuns Hollywood whenever he can, and enjoys riding motorcycles or fishing with friends.
When his health begins to fail, he makes it clear he doesn't want some kind of celebrity burial in Hollywood. Instead, according to his wishes, he's buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. We forged a bond that time would never erase. Marine Corps training taught us to kill efficiently and to try to survive.
But it also taught us loyalty to each other and love, the few, the proud. Other than dates of birth and death and a cross on his headstone, there is only Lee Marvin, PFC, United States Marine Corps, World War II. And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to Roger McGrath, himself a US Marine and a former history professor at UCLA.
He's a regular contributor here at Our American Stories. And he's done dozens of these Hollywood goes to war stories. This one, my favorite, because Lee Marvin was my favorite. And my goodness, what a film career. His debut, ironically, you're in the Navy with Gary Cooper. The Wild One was his big breakout alongside a young screen talent named Marlon Brando. He won an Oscar in 1965 for Cat Ballou. And then The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Professionals, The Dirty Dozen, my favorite.
And Paint Your Wagon, sometimes the good guy, sometimes the bad guy, always the tough guy. But the real resume that he was most proud of were those citations from his service in World War II. The Purple Heart, Presidential Unit Citation, The American Campaign Medal, The Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, The World War II Victory Medal, and The Combat Action Ribbon. Lee Marvin died in 1987 at the age of 63.
He shunned a Hollywood burial and funeral. And in the end, it was him talking about his marine life that was most compelling. The Marine Corps training taught us how to kill efficiently. And it taught us to try and survive. But it also taught us loyalty to each other, to love the few, the proud.
The story of Lee Marvin, his story here on Our American Stories. And hello to Worry-Free Living. Made with liquid and stain-resistant fabrics, they're kid-proof, pet-friendly, and built for everyday life. Plus, changeable fabric covers let you refresh your sofa whenever you want.
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