Some actors play tough guys, and sometimes, real-life tough guys become actors. Lee Marvin was definitely the latter; labeled "incorrigible" as a child, he joined the Marines at 18 and fought in World War II. He earned a medical discharge after being wounded in the Battle of Saipan, and spent the next few years working odd jobs stateside. In 1946, while fixing a toilet at a New York theater, he was asked to fill in for a sick cast member, and he caught the acting bug.
He performed for several years on the New York theater circuit, eventually making his Broadway debut. At the suggestion of fellow actor James Doohan (who would go on to play the iconic Scotty in Star Trek), he went to Hollywood to break into movies and television. He immediately found minor, uncredited roles in several productions, but by 1952, he was cast in supporting roles in westerns like The Duel at Silver Creek, and the war film Eight Iron Men.
Within a year, he starred in The Wild One with Marlon Brando and Fritz Lang's The Big Heat, and though he continued to work in television, he was getting regular film work, mostly in westerns and a number of World War II films, where his military experience came in handy. A role in 1961's The Comancheros changed his career trajectory, as star John Wayne liked him so much, he recommended him for his next film, John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. By the end of the 1960s, Lee Marvin was both an Oscar-winner and one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.
What follows are the top 10 films of Lee Marvin's career. Rather than rely on critic's scores to rank the films, we chose the 10 films that best highlighted Marvin's presence, charisma, and acting ability.
10 The Delta Force (1986)
Marvin's final film was a passing of the torch of sorts, pairing him with 1980s action star Chuck Norris. Loosely inspired by the TWA 847 hijacking, The Delta Force finds Marvin as the commander of America's elite military unit. Norris plays a former member of Delta who comes out of retirement to lead a rescue mission of the passengers of a hijacked airliner. Marvin was reportedly ill during the making of the film, and he died of a heart attack a year later, so he has limited screen time here. However, that Lee Marvin signature charisma still commands the screen, and he's the only actor we could see Chuck Norris calling "sir."
The film itself isn't great, but it is a fun 1980s actioner that makes the most of Marvin's presence. Norris gets in a few kicks in one of his best action roles, and he even has a motorcycle with mini-rockets on it. The all-star cast includes Robert Forester as the lead Arab terrorist (yes, you read that right) and George Kennedy, who starred with Marvin in The Dirty Dozen. Alan Silvestri's score (produced completely on a synthesizer) is an absolute banger.
9 Paint Your Wagon (1969)
Any movie that offers both Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood singing is worth seeing, and Paint Your Wagon is the only film to offer just that. Based loosely on the Broadway play, the film follows Ben Rumson (Marvin), a California gold rush prospector who decides to share a wife with his prospecting partner (Clint Eastwood, already a western icon at this point).
It's not exactly the type of story you'd see made these days, for obvious reasons, but the focus here is the songs and comedy. Marvin seems to be enjoying himself, and it's likely because he reportedly insisted that he be allowed to drink actual liquor while filming his scenes.
8 The Professionals (1966)
By the late 1960s, westerns had fallen out of favor, and yet on the cusp of it all, The Professionals rode the line between the grand entertainment of old Hollywood and the cynicism of American cinema at the time. Marvin teams with Burt Lancaster on a mission to rescue the wife of a Texas millionaire (Ralph Bellamy) from a Mexican revolutionary (Jack Palance, for some odd reason).
About halfway through, the cynicism takes over with a surprising plot twist, and the film really takes off. Marvin and Lancaster are a great pairing, and the great Woody Strode (Spartacus) and Robert Ryan (who would star with Marvin in The Dirty Dozen the following year) round out the rescue team.
7 The Killers (1964)
Originally made for television, NBC found The Killers too dark and violent for TV and instead released it theatrically, where it gained a reputation as an early example of neo-noir film. A remake of the 1946 Burt Lancaster film, and based on an Ernest Hemingway story, this gritty version makes Lee's hitman Charlie Strom the protagonist, alongside his scene-stealing sidekick Clu Gulager, as the pair try to figure out why their latest target didn't seem to care much about being killed. The two forsake their pledge to never get personally involved in a job and investigate why someone wanted their target dead.
The film is a surprising twist on the original, and highly entertaining, with the great director Don Siegel (Dirty Harry, Escape from Alcatraz) really giving it an edge. The supporting cast is great, including Ronald Reagan in his last film, prophetically playing the scheming bad guy. Angie Dickinson, who would star with Marvin in Point Blank three years later, is the woman at the center of the mystery, and Marvin's future Dirty Dozen co-star John Cassavetes stars as the target of the hit. Gulager, who died in 2022, appeared in a small role Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, as Quentin Tarantino was a fan of his.
6 The Big Red One (1980)
The Big Red One is reportedly one of Lee Marvin's favorite films, as the World War II veteran identified with the epic movie's exploration of the futility of war. Marvin plays a sergeant fighting across northern Africa and Europe with four of his best soldiers, who avoid getting to know new recruits, suspecting they will not last long on the battlefield. Marvin is every bit as tough and ornery as he was in other action films, but here, his character is tinged with regret, weary of the war and questioning the point of endless battles.
The film, the last great movie from noted maverick director Sam Fuller, has a bit of a disjointed feel, although some scenes are particularly striking. When Marvin's character befriends a young survivor of a concentration camp, very little is said, but the moment is incredibly powerful, and it's one of Marvin's finest scenes put to film. The film also features a wonderful performance from Mark Hamill, fresh off his role in the original Star Wars.
5 The Big Heat (1953)
This outstanding film noir thriller from Fritz Lang (Metropolis) is a severely underrated film.The Big Heat stars Glenn Ford as a good cop who gets caught in a web of corruption in the police force. The film is surprisingly dark (even for classic noir), and Ford is fantastic as a man driven to find the truth, who then suffers a great personal loss for it, leading him on a path of righteous vengeance.
Marvin plays a brutal gangster out to stop Ford, and as it was his first big film, it hinted to the impressive screen presence he carried throughout his career. Gloria Grahame, best known today for her role in It's a Wonderful Life, has a memorable role as Lee's girlfriend, who regrets her life choices.
4 Point Blank (1967)
John Boorman's Point Blank is a simple revenge tale elevated with a trippy but cool 1960s style, a gritty urban aesthetic, and Marvin's memorable performance. He plays Walker, a man double-crossed and left for dead by his partner (John Vernon) after a heist. Angry and out for revenge, Walker works his way through the lurid Los Angeles underworld and a hierarchy of gangsters, until he finds someone that will pay him the $93,000 he's owed, and exact some revenge on the man who shot him.
The plot is admittedly a bit thin, but Point Blank is more than just one of the best revenge movies ever made. It's one of the first great neo-noir films, but in the hands of director Boorman (Deliverance, Hope and Glory) and editor Henry Berman, it has a distinctly European feel, full of unusual flashbacks, unique camera angles, and long reaction shots, where Marvin's steely demeanor shines.
3 Cat Ballou (1965)
Lee Marvin only won one Academy Award during his career, and believe it or not, it was for Cat Ballou, an odd western comedy from director Elliot Silverstein (A Man Called Horse). Jane Fonda stars as a schoolteacher who becomes an outlaw after her father is murdered. Marvin, however, steals the movie in dual roles, as both the bad guy (who wears a metal nose prosthetic) and a drunken gunfighter who joins Cat on her exploits. Although one could argue he really played two supporting roles, he was nominated for and won the Oscar for Best Actor.
Up until Cat Ballou, Marvin had usually played deeply serious roles, and this was his first chance to show his comedic side. He not only took home the Oscar, he won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for the role as well, so he was a popular, yet surprising, choice that year. Although the film is a bit uneven, Marvin is fantastic, and routinely hilarious. Watch for a memorable scene in which a drunken Marvin is leaning against a building while atop his horse — who has its legs crossed in annoyance at its rider.
2 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance may have been a vehicle for James Stewart and John Wayne, but as the outlaw Liberty Valance, Marvin absolutely steals the film with his performance. This isn't a traditional western; director John Ford and long-time collaborator John Wayne explored the cost of principle and the weight of responsibility and duty, with the film arguably marking a transition between moralistic Hollywood and the more ambiguous, darker modern era.
Stewart and Wayne play perfectly off of each other, but Marvin, as the loose cannon Valance, adds an unpredictable, wild-dog element that makes him the perfect foil. This arguably may be the best film on this list, although it isn't quite the quintessential Lee Marvin film.
1 The Dirty Dozen (1967)
One could argue that he's given better performances in other films, but Marvin's role in The Dirty Dozen is his most iconic. In 1967, Marvin was at the height of his fame, and the role of Major John Reisman is tailor-made for him, as he exudes the authority necessary to wrangle the larger-than-life cast in one of the best war films of the '60s.
As the leader of a group of military convicts sent on a suicide mission ahead of the D-Day invasion of World War II, Marvin not only gets to play a tough-as-nails major, he gets more than a few laughs, thanks to the fantastic script by Nunnally Johnson and Lukas Heller. It truly is the full realization of Marvin's leading-man persona, and it earned four Oscar nominations, including John Cassavetes for Best Supporting Actor. It won one, for Best Sound Effects, but Marvin arguably deserved an Oscar himself.