Feb. 19: Lee Marvin, born on this day 90 years ago, spent a wild summer in this Oregon home
Lee Marvin, the late gravelly-voiced, white-haired film star, would have been 90 today. He was born on Feb. 19, 1924.
Known for playing tough guys in detective shows, war flicks and westerns, Marvin’s defining role (or at least one of them) was drunk wreck, philanderer and gold prospector Ben Rumson in “Paint Your Wagon,” a film that is part Western and part musical.
Apparently, Marvin took his debaucherous role seriously and even carried on his Rumson-like antics off the site, according to a family selling the home where Marvin stayed while filming “Paint Your Wagon” in Baker City, Ore.
Marvin lived in the four-bedroom, three-bathroom home at 2595 Main during the summer of 1968 and he managed to dust up quite a bit of attention while there. Urban legends still surround his stay: Some say he rode his motorcycle up the front steps, through the house and out the back door. He partied at the yellow Victorian with co-star Clint Eastwood. All this led to substantial damage to the home, but the owners apparently didn’t care because they were handsomely compensated, the listing says.
The home is currently on sale for $285,000. Besides its notoriety as the temporary home of a movie star, the home also has notes written by the home’s former owners hidden underneath one of the three staircases.
Marvin died in August 1987.
Ilyce Glink is an award-winning, nationally syndicated real estate columnist, blogger and radio talk show host, and managing editor of the Equifax Finance Blog. Follow her on Twitter @Glink.
