Brother of writer Robert N. Lee, Donald W. Lee.
He had his own 214-acre movie ranch, located in the San Fernando Valley in California. He purchased the property in 1935 and called it Farm Lake Ranch, but the film industry always knew it as the Rowland V. Lee Ranch, with its pale brown hills of barley chaff and olive and eucalyptus trees and two scenic lakes, but for some reason it wasn't used much for westerns. For I've Always Loved You (1946), Republic Pictures built an extensive farmhouse and barn set. It also constructed a stone and wood bridge over one of the lakes, which would usually be photographed as a river. The farmhouse set would be adapted and modified over the years. RKO used it as a period French farmhouse for its modest swashbuckler At Sword's Point (1952). Its most famous use was as an Indiana Quaker family farm during the Civil War in Allied Artists' Friendly Persuasion (1956). To give it that "Indiana look", director William Wyler had cornfields planted, sycamore trees brought in and huge areas covered with green grass. The wooden farmhouse was also given a fake stone facade. You'll also see the ranch used to great effect in
He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Motion Pictures at 6313 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.