Lee Van Cleef’s Hairpiece

In the seventies, Shaw Brothers ventured out with lots of co-productions and I was involved in all of them.

The first was with Hammer Films, a British company specialising in horror movies. I had watched all their Dracula films since I was a kid and loved every one of them.

When I heard that my favourite actor Peter Cushing was coming to the studios to make ‘The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires’, I was thrilled.

Peter was tall and lean and a man of few words.

“Mr Cushing, are you always so serious?" I asked.

“Who would believe a smiling Vampire Killer?" he joked. “As an actor I have to get in the mood."

There were many other actors too. I remember Lee Van Cleef very well when he came here to make ‘Blood Money’, a Kung Fu Spaghetti Western, alternately known as ‘The Stranger and the Gunfighter’ in the States.

Lee was only forty-nine then, but already he looked quite old. He was bald in the middle of his head, leaving a rim of hair at the sides. He was never without a drink, one bottle of vodka after another. He was drunk all the time, even when he was filming.

He had a wig made specially for him. It was a round hairpiece that was the same length no matter which way you looked at it. When he was called on set, he just plastered the wig in the centre of his head. He looked at me and grinned, “Convenient, yeah?"

I had to agree.