Stars launch Marvin lectureship Posted On: Monday, Nov. 9 2009 05:04 AM By Don Bolding
Killeen Daily Herald

SALADO – The Institute for the Humanities at Salado completed its four-part Heritage, Heroes and Home series of programs Sunday night with one of its greatest debuts – the first presentation of the Lee Marvin Lectureship for Word and Image.

It hones the friendship of Marvin and his wife, Pam, and Dr. and Mrs. Harry Wilmer, who founded the institute.

Lee Marvin died in 1987 after a distinguished acting career that followed combat service as a Marine in the Pacific in World War II. Pam Marvin and the Wilmers established the Lee Marvin Lectureship there after his death.

She was present at its debut Sunday, a panel presented by three of Marvin's co-stars in the 1980 release "The Big Red One": Robert Carradine, Bobby Di Cicco and Kelly Ward. Also present were several members of the 3rd Brigade of "The Big Red One," the 1st Infantry Division, from Fort Hood.

The three presenters, young men when the movie was filmed, have since gone on to make prominent careers in cinema.

The movie was written and directed by Sam Fuller as an autobiographical account of his own experiences with the 1st Infantry Division in Europe in World War II. Pam Marvin said the actor intended it as a tribute to the writer as they both tried to depict the horrors of war.

Marvin, Di Cicco told the audience at the Longhorn Conference Center of the Stagecoach Inn, was assigned to reconnaissance in the campaign to take the Pacific islands, and that duty was "the tip of the tip of the spear."

The three actors, using film clips, themed their presentation "word and image" to show the force of dialogue in the intense situation and Marvin's exquisite use of gestures and facial expressions.

Carradine said, "He taught us how to know words well. Dialogue is not one of my favorite things, but when you're working with a star of his caliber, you bring your 'A' game to the set."

Di Cicco said Marvin is "remembered for the variety of his roles but mostly for his violent characters. He was working out his own experiences in the war. He was a method actor, and method actors draw on their own experiences and emotions and study the emotions of their characters."

He said that of 244 men in his company, he was among 38 who remained because he was taken off the line after being wounded and placed on a hospital ship. Marvin visited the site in the 1960s and was amazed that much of the scrap metal, weapons and other debris still remained. "He found that the aftermath of war is nothing," Di Cicco said.

Dr. Wilmer, a psychiatrist, was a co-star in the movie "People Need People," in which Marvin played a disturbed sailor helped by a form of therapy pioneered by Dr. Wilmer.

All three of the actors were visibly moved by reviewing the clips when it came their turn to speak. Ward said, "He felt he had a sacred duty to help Sam tell his story. Lee tried to indoctrinate us from the first week on the job." Their training included shooting the Garand M-1, the standard assault rifle of World War II. Ward fired two rounds, and Marvin grabbed the rifle from his hands and shot the other six bullets into the ground in front of the actors and said, "Now that's war," to give them an idea of how to portray it.

The Marvin lecture series is to be presented "from time to time," institute director Sara Mackie said.

Contact Don Bolding at dbolding@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7557.