Lee Marvin was a movie and television actor for nearly 40 years. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1965 for his offbeat performance in Cat Ballou with Jane Fonda. He appeared in numerous films, starting with You're in the Navy Now in 1951 and ending with The Delta Force in 1986 (he died of a heart attack in 1987 at the age of 63).
His most memorable films included Eight Iron Men, The Big Heat, The Wild One, The Comancheros, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Killers, The Professionals, The Dirty Dozen and Point Blank, plus more than 100 episodes of "M Squad" on television.
He was also known for one of the earliest "palimony" suits. In 1971, he was sued (unsuccessfully) by his long-time girlfriend Michelle Triola for financial support, even though they were never married.
We too have long heard the rumor that Marvin shot at Vegas Vic with a bow and arrow while he was filming the movie The Professionals at Valley of Fire State Park in 1965. The story goes that Marvin, who was staying in a room at the Mint across the street, grew so enraged at the constant "Howdy, pardner," issuing from Vegas Vic that he took a little target practice at the Neon Cowboy's voicebox.
We think it's apocryphal.
First, we've never come up with any evidence of the alleged incident. And second, even Lee Marvin, who was known to be a little, shall we say, impulsive at times (he served as a Marine sniper in World War II and was wounded during the Battle of Saipan, where most of his platoon was killed -- an experience that affected him for the rest of his life), most likely wouldn't have taken the chance of damaging the sign or injuring passersby with a stunt like that.
Marvin did, apparently, raise a stink about the noise. He wasn't the first guest at the downtown casino-hotels to complain about the disturbance caused by Vegas Vic's incessant "Howdy, pardner." Several reports claim that Marvin's high-profile objection, along with the aggregation of other complaints, finally prompted Vegas Vic's owners at the Pioneer Club to disconnect the audio, which wasn't connected again for 20 years.
Photographs appear courtesy of the Las Vegas News Bureau and Don English.
