The Sons of Lee Marvin is a tongue-in-cheek secret society devoted to iconic American actor Lee Marvin. [1] The sole entry requirement for the club is that one must have a physical resemblance to plausibly look like a son of Marvin. [2]
Founding member and film director Jim Jarmusch explained, "If you look like you could be a son of Lee Marvin, then you are instantly thought of by the Sons of Lee Marvin to be a Son of Lee Marvin". [3]
Besides Jarmusch, the founding members of the society are said to include the actors and musicians Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Richard Boes. [2] [4] [5] Musician Nick Cave, whom Jarmusch knew when living in Berlin, was inducted as a member after having been mistaken for a brother of the director. [3] Director John Boorman is an honorary member, having been presented with one of the society's elaborate Waits-designed business cards. [5] [6] Others rumored to be members include Thurston Moore, Iggy Pop, Josh Brolin and Neil Young though none have been formally recognized by the society, which refuses to disclose its inner workings to the public. [6] The society meets occasionally, supposedly to watch Lee Marvin films together. [5]
The society's members perpetuate the joke in the media. Tom Waits described it to Rolling Stone in 1986 as "somewhere between the Elks Club and the Academy Awards", and claimed to have met Jarmusch at an annual meeting of the New York chapter. [7] When asked about the society by friend and collaborator Lucy Sante in a 1989 interview, Jarmusch commented "I'm not at liberty to divulge information about the organization, other than to tell you that it does exist. I can identify three other members of the organization: Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Richard Boes ... You have to have a facial structure such that you could be related to, or be a son of, Lee Marvin. There are no women, obviously, in the organization. We have communiques and secret meetings. Other than that, I can't talk about it." Jarmusch revealed in a 1992 interview that the real son of Lee Marvin, Christopher, had objected to the existence of the organization in an encounter with Waits at a bar: [8]
Six months ago Tom Waits was in a bar in somewhere like Sonoma County in Northern California, and the bartender said, “You’re Tom Waits, right? A guy over there wants to talk to you.”
Tom went over to this dark corner booth and the guy sitting there said, “Sit down, I want to talk to you.”
So Tom started getting a little aggressive: “What the fuck do you want to talk to me about? I don’t know you.”
And the guy said, “What is this bullshit about the Sons of Lee Marvin?”
Tom said, “Well, it’s a secret organization and I’m not supposed to talk about it.”
The guy said, “I don’t like it.”
Tom said, “What’s it to you?”
The guy said, “I’m Lee Marvin’s son”—and he really was. He thought it was insulting, but it’s not, it’s completely out of respect for Lee Marvin.
— Jim Jarmusch, in interview with Film Comment , June 1992
Christopher Marvin, a professional drummer and the only son of Lee Marvin, featured as a guest artist on the song "Cold Water" from Waits's album Mule Variations (1999).
The Sons of Lee Marvin is a secret organization. I can't tell you much about it other than we have cards, and if you get a card from one of the founding members, you are an honorary member. Some of our founding members are myself, Tom Waits, John Lurie. We inducted at one point (musician) Nick Cave, because if you look like you could be a son of Lee Marvin, then you are instantly thought of by the Sons of Lee Marvin to be a Son of Lee Marvin. I lived in Berlin for almost a year in '87. Nick Cave lived there too and we used to hang out. People would always mistake us as brothers. It all started years ago with an idea I had for a movie where Lee Marvin was a father with three sons who all hated each other, and he was an alcoholic guy and lived in a barn somewhere. It was one of those ideas that gradually became more interesting to me, then Lee Marvin crossed over to the other side.courtesy link
We are both members of an organization called the Sons of Lee Marvin. It's a mystical organization and they have a New York chapter, and we met at one of the annual meetings.
James Robert Jarmusch is an American film director and screenwriter.
Lee Marvin was an American film and television actor. Known for his bass voice and premature white hair, he is best remembered for playing hardboiled "tough guy" characters. Although initially typecast as the "heavy", he later gained prominence for portraying anti-heroes, such as Detective Lieutenant Frank Ballinger on the television series M Squad (1957–1960). Marvin's notable roles in film included Charlie Strom in The Killers (1964), Rico Fardan in The Professionals (1966), Major John Reisman in The Dirty Dozen (1967), Ben Rumson in Paint Your Wagon (1969), Walker in Point Blank (1967), and the Sergeant in The Big Red One (1980).
Thomas Alan Waits is an American musician, composer, songwriter and actor. His lyrics often focus on society's underworld and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He began in the folk scene during the 1970s, but his music since the 1980s has reflected the influence of such diverse genres as rock, Delta blues, opera, vaudeville, cabaret, funk, hip hop and experimental techniques verging on industrial music. Per The Wall Street Journal, Waits “has composed a body of work that’s at least comparable to any songwriter’s in pop today. A keen, sensitive and sympathetic chronicler of the adrift and downtrodden, Mr. Waits creates three-dimensional characters who, even in their confusion and despair, are capable of insight and startling points of view. Their stories are accompanied by music that’s unlike any other in pop history.”
Nicholas Edward Cave is an Australian musician, writer and actor. Known for his baritone voice and for fronting the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Cave's music is characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety of influences and lyrical obsessions with death, religion, love, and violence.
Stranger Than Paradise is a 1984 American black-and-white absurdist deadpan comedy film directed, co-written and co-edited by Jim Jarmusch, and starring jazz musician John Lurie, former Sonic Youth drummer-turned-actor Richard Edson, and Hungarian-born actress and violinist Eszter Balint. It features a minimalist plot in which the main character, Willie, is visited by Eva, his cousin from Hungary. Eva stays with him for ten days before going to Cleveland. Willie and his friend Eddie go to Cleveland to visit her, and the three then take a trip to Florida. The film is shot entirely in single long takes with no standard coverage.
Colin Charles Greenwood is an English bassist and a member of the rock band Radiohead. Along with bass guitar, Greenwood plays upright bass and electronic instruments.
John Lurie is an American musician, painter, actor, director, and producer. He co-founded the Lounge Lizards jazz ensemble; has acted in 19 films, including Stranger than Paradise and Down by Law; has composed and performed music for 20 television and film works; and he produced, directed, and starred in the Fishing with John television series. In 1996 his soundtrack for Get Shorty was nominated for a Grammy Award, and his album The Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits has been praised by critics and fellow musicians.
Small Change is the fourth studio album by singer and songwriter Tom Waits, released on September 21, 1976 on Asylum Records. It was recorded in July at Wally Heider's Studio 3 in Hollywood. It was successful commercially and outsold his previous albums. This resulted in Waits putting together a touring band - The Nocturnal Emissions, which consisted of Frank Vicari on tenor saxophone, FitzGerald Jenkins on bass guitar and Chip White on drums and vibraphone. The Nocturnal Emissions toured Europe and the United States extensively from October 1976 till May 1977.
Bone Machine is the eleventh studio album by American singer and musician Tom Waits, released by Island Records on September 8, 1992. It won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album and features guest appearances by David Hidalgo, Les Claypool, Brain, and Keith Richards. The album marked Waits' return to studio albums, coming five years after Franks Wild Years (1987).
Foreign Affairs is the fifth studio album by singer and songwriter Tom Waits, released on September 13, 1977, on Asylum Records. It was produced by Bones Howe, and featured Bette Midler singing a duet with Waits on "I Never Talk to Strangers".
Point Blank is a 1967 American crime film directed by John Boorman, starring Lee Marvin, co-starring Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn and Carroll O'Connor, and adapted from the 1963 crime noir pulp novel The Hunter by Donald E. Westlake, writing as Richard Stark. Boorman directed the film at Marvin's request and Marvin played a central role in the film's development. The film grossed over $9 million in theatrical rentals in 1967 and has since gone on to become a cult classic, eliciting praise from such critics as film historian David Thomson.
Broken Flowers is a 2005 French-American comedy-drama film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch and produced by Jon Kilik and Stacey Smith. The film focuses on an aging "Don Juan" who embarks on a cross-country journey to track down four of his former lovers after receiving an anonymous letter stating that he has a son. The film stars Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange, Tilda Swinton, Julie Delpy, Mark Webber, Chloë Sevigny, Christopher McDonald, and Alexis Dziena.
Night on Earth is a 1991 American comedy-drama anthology film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. It is a collection of five vignettes, taking place during the same night, concerning the temporary bond formed between taxi driver and passenger in five cities: Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki. The action in the vignettes takes place at the same time, moving from Los Angeles in the United States to Helsinki, Finland. The scene in each city appears to occur later and later in the night due to the changing time zones. Jarmusch wrote the screenplay in about eight days, and the choice of certain cities was largely based on the actors with whom he wanted to work. The soundtrack of the same name is by Tom Waits. The Criterion Collection released the film on DVD and Blu-ray on April 9, 2019.
Down by Law is a 1986 American black-and-white independent neo-beat noir comedy film. It was written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, and stars Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Roberto Benigni.
Mystery Train is a 1989 comedy-drama anthology film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch and set in Memphis, Tennessee. The film is a triptych of stories involving foreign protagonists, unfolding over the course of the same night. "Far from Yokohama" features a Japanese couple on a cultural pilgrimage, "A Ghost" focuses on an Italian widow stranded in the city overnight, and "Lost in Space" follows the misadventures of a newly single and unemployed Englishman and his reluctant companions. The narratives are linked by a run-down flophouse overseen by a night clerk and his disheveled bellboy, the use of Elvis Presley's song "Blue Moon", and a gunshot.
Fishing with John is a 1991 television series conceived, directed by and starring actor and musician John Lurie, which earned a cult following. On the surface, the series resembles a standard travel or fishing show: in each episode, Lurie takes a famous guest on a fishing expedition. Since Lurie has no expert knowledge of fishing, the interest is in the interaction between Lurie and his guests, all of whom are his friends. Nothing particularly unusual actually happens, but the show is edited and narrated in a way to suggest that Lurie and his guest are involved in dramatic and even supernatural adventures.
Coffee and Cigarettes: Somewhere in California is a 1993 black-and-white short film directed by writer/director Jim Jarmusch shot in Northern California. The film consists primarily of a conversation between musicians Tom Waits and Iggy Pop in a coffee shop. The film would later be included as the third segment in the feature-length Coffee and Cigarettes released in 2003. The film won the Golden Palm at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival as best "Short Film".
The Del-Byzanteens was a New York-based no wave band active in the early 1980s. The band comprised Phil Kline ; Jim Jarmusch ; Philippe Hagen (bass); Josh Braun ; and Dan Braun. Lucy Sante wrote lyrics to some of their songs, while Jamie Nares sometimes contributed as a percussionist, and occasionally John Lurie performed with them on stage.
The Oranj Symphonette is an experimental jazz-rock quintet from San Francisco, USA, formed from members of Tom Waits' band. They have released two albums.
Father, Mother, Sister, Brother is an upcoming American comedy drama anthology film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. It stars Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Tom Waits, Charlotte Rampling, Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat.