Marvin said that he learned to act in the Marines during WWII, trying to act unafraid during ferocious combat, which brought him a Purple Heart during the invasion of Saipan. In 1945, after over 12 months of medical treatment in naval hospitals, he was given a medical discharge with the rank of the private first class.Īfter World War II, while working as a plumber’s assistant at a local community theatre in upstate New York, he was asked to replace an actor who had fallen ill during rehearsals. In addition, he was hit in the foot by a sniper. Lee was hit by machine-gun fire that severed his sciatic nerve (a large nerve that runs from the lower back down the back of each leg). On June 18, 1944, while serving as a member of “I” Company, 3rd Battalion, 24th Marines, 4th Marine Division, Marvin was wounded in action during the assault on Mount Tapochau (the highest point on the island of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands) in the Battle of Saipan.

Marvin served with the Fourth Marine Division in the Pacific Theater during WWII. The United States Marine Corps ReserveĪt age 18, he left school to enlist in the US Marine Corps Reserve. When he was young, Lee also studied the violin. Leo, Florida, after being expelled from a few other schools for bad behavior.Īs a teenager, he spent weekends and spare time hunting puma, deer, bobwhite, and wild turkey, in the wilds of the then-uncharted Everglades. (1600 – 1678), a founding settler of Hartford and Norwalk, Connecticut.ĭuring the late 1930s, Lee attended Manumit School, a Christian socialist boarding school in Pawling, New Marvin attended a Catholic school in St. His father was a direct descendant of Matthew Marvin Sr. Marvin was the son of two working professionals, Courtenay Washington, a well-respected beauty and fashion writer/editor, and Lamont Waltman Marvin, an advertising executive and later the head of the New England and New York Apple Institute. He initially appeared in supporting roles, mostly soldiers, villains, and other hardboiled characters. Marvin routinely stole scenes from his co-stars, folks like Marlon Brando, John Wayne, Jane Fonda, and Paul Newman, to name a few. Lee Marvin was an American television and film actor best known for his prematurely white hair and distinctive voice. What was Lee Marvin’s net worth at the time of his death? Who was Lee Marvin married to? Introduction

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