GOOD, BAD AND UGLY, AND WE MEAN THAT IN THE BEST WAY

The piercing eyes. The big mustache. The even BIGGER gun. These images come to mind when you think of actor Lee Van Cleef.

Clarence Leroy Van Cleef Jr. was born in 1925 in New Jersey, of parents of Dutch ancestry. While performing in a touring theater company’s production of “Mr. Roberts”, Van Cleef was discovered by Stanley Kramer, who cast him in High Noon, and Van Cleef was officially on the map. He is perhaps best remembered as a badass in spaghetti westerns such as For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Van Cleef also overcame three accidents—two by fate, one by birth—that most people would probably never notice unless they were pointed out. He lost a kneecap in a car accident, but recovered sufficiently to ride a horse again; another accident took the last joint of his middle finger; and colored contact lenses disguised the fact that he was born with one blue eye and one green eye.

Lee Van Cleef died in 1989, at the age of 64.