Top 14 Quotes & Sayings by Lee Van Cleef

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American actor Lee Van Cleef.

Last updated on December 22, 2024.

Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef Jr. was an American actor best known for his roles in Spaghetti Westerns such as For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. In his film debut, High Noon, he was asked to have his nose altered to play a sympathetic character. However, after declining this request he was relegated to a non-speaking outlaw cast role. Van Cleef was often typecast as a minor villain for the majority of his career, proposedly due to his physical features. After suffering serious injuries in a car crash, Van Cleef's acting career started to decline. However, Sergio Leone offered him a major role in For a Few Dollars More. The film proved to be a huge hit and cited him as a box-office draw, largely in Europe.

American - Actor | January 9, 1925 - December 16, 1989

Source: Wikipedia

Bad guys have always been my bag... I look mean without even trying.

Lee Van Cleef

Being born with a pair of beady eyes was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Lee Van Cleef

Movies are full of leading men, most of whom aren't working. It's much harder to find a good villain.

Lee Van Cleef

Audiences just naturally hate me on screen. I could play a role in a tuxedo, and people would think I was rotten. You can do much more with a villain part.

Lee Van Cleef

Audiences just naturally hate me on screen. I could play a role in a tuxedo and people would think I was rotten. You can do much more with a villain part.

Lee Van Cleef

I tried to learn the languages - Italian, Spanish, and German - not to successfully. Working on a European set isn't a hell of a lot different from working on an American set.

Lee Van Cleef

One day, something happened. It made life very precious to me.

Lee Van Cleef

I'd like to do more comedy, but i think my forte is still in the heavy. I'd love to do a comic lead, a musical.

Lee Van Cleef

I'll never kick dogs, I'll never hurt a child, I'll never slap a woman - three things I won't do on film.

Lee Van Cleef

If I could direct it [films] I would be very happy. But the economics of business don't always allow you to do what you want.

Lee Van Cleef

I don't care where I work. Films are an international business - not an American institution.

Lee Van Cleef

A lot of actors think that the more lines they have the more attention they get. That's bullshit. I make people look at me. I don't have to say a lot of words.

Lee Van Cleef

You go where the work is. It can be in my own back yard, Israel, Spain, or Yugoslavia. We may have the greatest technical efficiency in the world, but our artistic values are not necessarily the best.

Lee Van Cleef

I think the Europeans are a lot more spontaneous, more artistic to some degree. But I don't think they have the technical talent we do here in the states. Here people have been trained much more specifically - they know exactly what they're doing. The Europeans are perhaps slower, but in the end damn near as good.

Lee Van Cleef

Top 14 Quotes & Sayings by Lee Van Cleef

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