Below is the 1964 contract for an episode of "Rawhide" which LVC guest starred in. The date of August 1964 would indicate this episode would have filmed shortly after Clint Eastwood returned from filming A Fistful of Dollars. They would both famously collaborate the next year in For A Few Dollars More.
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That is very cool. Those episodes I think aired back to back one week apart. Piney has Lee in scenes with Ed Begley (later Hang 'Um High), J. D. Cannon, Tom Reese, Elisha Cook, Jr.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason beginning in 1963 and continuing into 1964 and 1965 Lee's casting in TV episodes fell off dramatically while many actors often cast in similar parts continued to be strong. And in 1963 and 64 Lee was cast in zero feature films. That also happened in 1960 but Lee was in over a dozen TV episodes in 1960.
Because of this downturn in Lee being cast in Hollywood, Lee was out of money and couldn't pay is phone bill it was said when Sergio Leone contacted him about For A Few Dollars More. Suddenly Lee walked out of his meeting with Leone with 15 grand in cash, took it home and through it to his wife, the rubber band broke and money was all over the room. Lee actually gave his agent his cut off the top.
Lee did several TV episodes after For A Few Dollars More including My Mother the Car, Branded and Gunsmoke. But left TV episodic work after he returned to Europe for GB&U and Big Gundown( his first top billing picture). Lee said he decided to stay with the Italian pictures which were paying him by far the best money he had ever made and even had an apartment in Rome for awhile when those pictures were coming at a good pace. Lee later said he may have made a mistake by withdrawing from TV episodic work because if the script and show were good it's good for your career no matter if it's a small screen. That in the 1950's and early 60's many of his best roles were on TV but by 1965 he just didn't work much in Hollywood so he had to pursue this new opportunity in Europe because if he stayed in Hollywood he would starve. And because of Leone for the first time from those Italian pictures he was making very good money. Lee called it a rags to riches story and just in the nick of time.
The next time Lee did work in a so called Hollywood production was with top billing in Barquero in 1969.
For the rest of Lee's life he continued to work more in foregin productions much more than US projects.