Lee Van Cleef

Van Cleef served in the U.S. Navy during World War II before drifting into acting almost by accident, quickly finding steady work playing villains thanks to his distinctively hawkish features.

A spaghetti-western icon (For a Few Dollars More), he brought the same hooded menace to the corrupt police commissioner running Manhattan's prison island. Best known internationally for his roles in Sergio Leone's western films, he carried that same weathered, morally compromised authority into this very different genre setting.

His casting deliberately traded on the western-outlaw menace audiences already associated with him from his decades of villainous screen work.