One of the great movie villains, Lee Van Cleef started out as an accountant. He served in the U.S. Navy aboard minesweepers and subchasers during World War II. After the war, he worked as an office administrator, becoming involved in amateur theatrics in his spare time. An audition for a professional role led to a touring company job in "Mr. Roberts". His performance therein was seen by Stanley Kramer, who cast him as henchman Jack Colby in High Noon (1952), a role that brought him great recognition despite having no dialogue. For the next decade, he played a long string of memorably villainous characters, primarily in Westerns but also in crime dramas such as The Big Combo (1955). His hawk nose and slit eyes seemed destined to keep him always in the realm of heavies, but in the mid-Sixties Sergio Leone cast him as the tough but decent Colonel Mortimer opposite Clint Eastwood in Per qualche dollaro in più (1965). A new career as a Western hero (or at least anti-hero) opened up, and Van Cleef became an international star, though in films of decreasing value. In the Eighties he moved easily into action and martial-arts movies, and starred in "The Master", a TV series featuring almost non-stop martial arts action. He died of a heart attack in December 1989, and was buried at Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills.