How Blaine Harrington III met Lee Marvin

Blaine III: I had an assignment to photograph the icebreaking industry in Finland for Fortune Magazine in winter 1983. Before heading to northern Finland to stay aboard an icebreakers ship I stayed first in the capital of Finland, Helsinki, in the Intercontinental Hotel. After the long flight I went to the hotel sauna. While in the sauna I started talking to someone who was on a film crew. The crew was filming "Gorky Park" in Finland. Ironically, I was reading the book that the movie is based on, on that trip.

I told TIME Magazine that the "Gorky Park" crew were in my hotel, in case they wanted images about the movie. At that time William Hurt was a huge star and TIME told me that they wanted to do a cover photo of him. I contacted the press agent for the film and told him, but he said that Hurt was extremely uncooperative and had thrown a couple of photographers off of the film set already. At that time I think Hurt was an alcoholic and so he was very abusive. So that photo shoot didn’t happen.

Meanwhile, I left to fly up to northern Finland and did my work aboard a Finnish icebreaker. Some days later I flew back to Helsinki and was staying in the Intercontinental Hotel again before flying home to New York. On my final morning in Finland I went into the hotel’s restaurant to have breakfast and I saw the actor Lee Marvin eating breakfast by himself. I walked up to him and said something (what I can’t remember) and I said that I was a photographer and had just come from shooting icebreakers. He invited me to sit down and join him for breakfast. I mentioned that William Hurt would not let me photograph him and Marvin told me he’d be glad to let me photograph him. He said we could go out to the film set, but in the end we just shot some photos outside the hotel. He was extremely kind and cooperative. I told him that I was flying back to the U.S. in a few hours and he offered to have his driver take me to the airport. Lee Marvin and the press agent (who hadn’t been helpful to me before I met Marvin) joined us going to the airport.

We had a very interesting discussion about all sorts of things. He mentioned that one of his favorite places in the world was the Great Barrier Reef in Australia (for deep sea fishing.) At the time I hadn’t been there yet, and I mentioned that I really wanted to go there and that I’d just have to wait for the right assignment to come along (to pay my way.) Marvin then said something that stuck with me deeply and that I took to heart, he said “If you want to go some place, just make it happen, don’t wait.” That was thirty five years ago. I have always followed that advice.

Blaine IV: My dad’s story on Lee Marvin really moves me. The picture of Lee Marvin was taken by Blaine Harrington III.