Are there any Twilight Zone cards that show Lee Marvin? He was a pretty big star, and as much as Rittenhouse milked that show it's strange not to be able to even find a card with his image. He died too early for autographs (1987), but you'd think he'd be pictured on one of the cards from his two episodes.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bill Mullins,

No, can't find any, and he is not featured in any of the star insert cards either as far as I see. Marvin appeared in two of the more memorable episodes too, Steel and The Grave.

Just guessing, but I'd bet it has something to do with his Estate. Maybe the Twilght Zone copyright holder didn't have approval to use his image when they sold RA the license, so they can't use it either.

Very unusual. The standard contracts actors sign gives the studios permission to use their likenesses in promotion of the shows they appear in. Odd that they wouldn't have the right to use Lee Marvin's.

Right, but a legal restriction seems like the best explanation. Can't believe RA wouldn't feature him, he was a big star. Perhaps there are no official stills of him from the episodes, but you would think they could pull screenshots with the license. So its a mystery.

Why don't you pose the question over in "Ask Steve" on RA's forum and see if he gives you an answer?

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:
Very unusual. The standard contracts actors sign gives the studios permission to use their likenesses in promotion of the shows they appear in. Odd that they wouldn't have the right to use Lee Marvin's.

But, a licensed product is not promotion.

Many contracts don't allow product likenesses or require approval of each use, making it harder to do.

Christopher Lee had image approval for Lord of the Rings sets. They had to get approval for every card with his character, including sketches. So artists were told not to sketch him because it took too long to deal with the approvals.

Another story I was told was from one of the Charmed sets. The artist doing the images for the sets had to get approval of the final product from each of the principles. So, if a card featured 1 sister, you have one approval. But if you had all 3 on a card, all 3 had to approve the image, and they were not the easiest to work with. He told me he 'airbrushed' more pounds off people on that set than he'd done before in his life.

So, contracts vary and image rights are protected fiercely by some actors.

Ed

I just saw that this question did get asked of RA now. No direct response from them unfortunately, but a couple of replies sort of agreeing with Estate issues.

What I didn't realize, but quite true, is that we have never seen photos of Charles Bronson or Elizabeth Montgomery or Inger Stevens on the TZ cards either. All portrayed characters deserving to be showcased and all are deceased. So clearly the rights to show some well-known actors were just not included in the original licensing agreement and can't be obtained so far.

Bill,

If you're not just looking for Twilight Zone cards showing Lee Marvin, there is a Warner Brothers promo for "The Dirty Dozen" that was inserted with the special edition VHS around 2000. It's a blank-backed, mini-version (3 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches) of a lobby card for the movie. It has a rather small illustration of him within the artwork on it.

I can try to get a scan of mine in the next day. You can also find a sealed VHS for sale online with a sticker that marks that a card is inside.

Jess

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:
Are there any Twilight Zone cards that show Lee Marvin? He was a pretty big star, and as much as Rittenhouse milked that show it's strange not to be able to even find a card with his image. He died too early for autographs (1987), but you'd think he'd be pictured on one of the cards from his two episodes.