Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American film actor, director, author, composer, and singer. Mitchum rose to prominence for his starring roles in several classic films noir. He appeared in film such as The Story of G.I. Joe, Out of the Past and El Dorado.
Early life[]
Mitchum was born in 1917 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, into a Methodist family; his mother Ann Harriet Gunderson, the daughter of a sea captain, emigrated to the United States from Norway, and his father James Thomas Mitchum (of Scots-Irish descent) worked as a shipyard and railroad worker. Mitchum's elder sister Julie and younger brother John also became actors.
In early 1919, when Mitchum was still an infant, his father was killed in a railroad accident in Charleston, South Carolina; the mother would subsequently marry a former naval officer. Mitchum was a poorly-behaved child, instigating brawls with other children and getting himself expelled from all schools he was enrolled in. He then wandered the country on freight cars, taking a number of odd jobs, but was then captured in Savannah, Georgia and sentenced to a chain-gang. He escaped, re-connected with his family in Delaware, then he boarded the freight train again in 1936 with the hope of a new beginning in California.
Career[]
The Mitchum children had settled down in California by the late 1930s. Julie Mitchum had made advances toward a film career, and Robert decided to look for film jobs at Julie's urging. In 1940, Mitchum married Dorothy Spence, whom he had met in Delaware, and they had three children (James, Christopher and Petrine). Mitchum also took a job working for the Lockheed air company during World War II, but the demands of the job put him under heavy stress and he soon quit, urgently seeking acting roles.
Mitchum found work in minor roles in the Hopalong Cassidy series of western films, and pushed his way up to supporting roles in a variety of other productions. He landed his first major role in The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), playing the war-weary but resolute officer. This highly praised performance led to Mitchum's only nomination for an Academy Award, as Best Supporting Actor. For a brief period in 1945, Mitchum served as a medic in the US Army.
Mitchum became most widely known for his work in the film noir genre. His greatest forays into this genre are considered to be Out of the Past (1947), as an investigator haunted by his past dealings with a femme fatale and a gambler; Angel Face (1952) as an ambulance driver lured into a murderous heiress' plot; the iconic The Night of the Hunter (1955) as an evil preacher with "LOVE" and "HATE" tattoed onto his knuckles, and Thunder Road (1958) which he also co-wrote and produced.
In September 1948, Mitchum and actress Lila Leeds were arrested on charges of marijuana possession (later exposed as a set-up) and were sentenced to several weeks' service at a prison farm. But instead of damaging Mitchum's career, the arrest boosted the actor's profile as audiences had warmed to his rebellious screen persona and felt that Mitchum was being victimised for his attitude. Mitchum was involved in some other controversies as well, including allegedly throwing a crew member into the San Francisco Bay in an alcohol-fueled rage that led to him being fired from Blood Alley (1955), and being sued for $30 million in damages after being accused of assaulting a Time magazine photographer in 1982.
Mitchum made attempts to broaden his range by starring in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) as a marooned Marine Corporal sharing a remote island with a nun and as a struggling sheep farmer in The Sundowners (1960), though his reputation for playing dark, crazed characters was heavily cemented by his performance as a recently-released criminal stalking the lawyer who got him convicted in Cape Fear (1962). Some of Mitchum's later work includes his against-type role as an Irish schoolmaster in David Lean's Ryan's Daughter (1970), a Bostom hoodlum with conflicted loyalties in The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), an aging Philip Marlowe in Farewell, My Lovely (1975) and the remake of The Big Sleep (1978), and a brief role in Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man (1995), one of his final roles.
Despite being acclaimed by his contemporaries as well as film critics, Mitchum was always dismissive of his own acting abilities. He described himself as having only two kinds of acting: "on and off a horse", and often downplayed other actors' claims that the profession was full of deeply challenging work. In 1999, Mitchum was ranked 23rd by the American Film Institute on its list of the greatest male stars of classic Hollywood cinema.
Mitchum died on July 1, 1997 at his home near Santa Barbara of lung cancer and complications of emphysema. He was 79.
Partial filmography[]
- The Human Comedy (1943) as "Horse" Gilford (uncredited)
- Minor roles in the Hopalong Cassidy western film series throughout 1943
- Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) as Bob Gray
- Nevada (1944) as Jim "Nevada" Lacy
- The Story of G.I. Joe (1945) as Lt. Walker (nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor)
- Crossfire (1947) as Keeley
- Out of the Past (1947) as Jeff (alternate title: Build My Gallows High)
- Rachel and the Stranger (1948) as Jim Fairways
- Holiday Affair (1949) as Steve
- His Kind of Woman (1951) as Dan Milner
- The Lusty Men (1952) as Jeff MacLeod
- Angel Face (1952) as Frank Jessup
- River of No Return (1954) as Matt Calder
- The Night of the Hunter (1955) as Harry Powell
- Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) as Cpl. Allison
- Thunder Road (1958) as Lucas Doolin (also co-writer and producer)
- The Wonderful Country (1959) as Martin Brady
- The Sundowners (1960) as Paddy Carmody
- The Grass Is Greener (1960) as Charles Delacro
- Cape Fear (1962) as Max Cady
- The Longest Day (1962) as Brig. Gen. Norman Cota
- What a Way to Go! (1964) as Rod Anderson Jr.
- El Dorado (1966) as Sheriff J.P. Harrah
- Ryan's Daughter (1970) as Charles
- The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) as Eddie Coyle
- Farewell, My Lovely (1975) as Philip Marlowe
- Midway (1976) as William F. Halsey
- The Last Tycoon (1976) as Pat Brady
- The Big Sleep (1978) as Philip Marlowe
- That Championship Season (1982) as Coach Delaney
- Scrooged (1988) as Preston Rhinelander
- Cape Fear (1991) as Lieutenant Elgart
- Tombstone (1993) as Narrator
- Dead Man (1995) as John Dickinson
External links[]
- Robert Mitchum on Wikipedia
