'Robert Charles Durman Mitchum' (
August 6,
1917 –
July 1,
1997) was an
American film
actor and
singer. Mitchum is largely remembered for his starring roles in several major works of the ''
film noir'' style, and is considered a forerunner of the
anti-heroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and '60s.
Life and career
Early life and career
Mitchum was born in
Bridgeport, Connecticut to shipyard and railroad worker James Thomas Mitchum and Ann Harriet Gunderson, a
Norwegian immigrant and sea captain's daughter. His father was a former soldier and known barroom brawler of
Scots-Irish ancestry (on his father's side) and
Blackfoot descent (on his mother's side). James Mitchum was crushed to death in a railyard accident when Mitchum was eighteen months old, leaving Ann to find work as a
linotype operator at a newspaper.
Throughout Robert's childhood, he was known as a prankster, often involved in fistfights and mischief. When he was 12, Ann sent Robert to live with his grandparents in
Felton, Delaware, where he was promptly expelled from his middle school for scuffling with a principal. A year later, in
1930, he moved in with his older sister, waitress and stage actress Julie (originally Annette) Mitchum, in
New York's
Hell's Kitchen. After being expelled from
Haaran High School, he left his sister and traveled throughout the country on railroad cars, taking a number of jobs including a ditch-digger for the
Civilian Conservation Corps and a professional boxer. He experienced numerous adventures during his years as one of the Depression era's "wild boys of the road." In
Savannah, Georgia he was arrested for vagrancy and put on a local
chain gang. By Mitchum's own account, he escaped and returned to his family in Delaware. It was during this time, while recovering from injuries that nearly lost him a leg, that he met the woman he would marry, a teenaged Dorothy Spence. He soon went back on the road, eventually riding the rails to
California.
Mitchum arrived in
Long Beach, California in
1936, staying again with his sister Julie. Soon the rest of the Mitchum family joined them in Long Beach. It was sister Julie who convinced Robert to join the local theater guild with her. In his years with the
Players Guild of Long Beach, he made a living as a stagehand and occasional bit player in plays. He also wrote several short pieces which were performed by the guild. According to
Lee Server's biography (Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care), Mitchum put a talent for poetry to work writing song lyrics and monologues for his sister Julie's nightclub performances. In
1940 he returned East to marry Dorothy, taking her back to California. He remained a footloose character until the birth of their first child, Jim, nicknamed Josh (two more children would follow, Christopher and Petrine). Robert then got a steady job as a machine operator with the
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation .
An apparent nervous breakdown from this encounter with conformity led him to look for work as an actor or extra in movies. An agent he had met got him an interview with the producer of the ''
Hopalong Cassidy'' series of
B-westerns; he was hired to play the villain in several films in the series between
1942 and
1943. He continued to find further work as an extra and supporting actor in numerous productions for various studios. After impressing director
Mervyn LeRoy during the making of ''
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'', Mitchum signed a seven year contract with
RKO Radio Pictures. He found himself groomed for B Western stardom in a series of
Zane Grey adaptations.
Following the moderately successful western ''Nevada'', Mitchum was lent from RKO to United Artists for the
William Wellman-helmed ''
The Story of G.I. Joe''. In the film, he portrayed war-weary officer Bill Walker, who remains resolute despite the troubles he faces. The film, which followed the life of an ordinary soldier through the eyes of journalist
Ernie Pyle (played by
Burgess Meredith), became an instant critical and commercial success. Shortly after making the film, Mitchum himself was drafted into the
U.S. Army, serving at
Fort MacArthur California. At the 1946
Academy Awards, the film was nominated for four Oscars, including Mitchum's only nomination for
Best Supporting Actor. He finished the year off with a western (''West of the Pecos'') and a story of returning Marine
veterans (''Till the End of Time''), before transitioning into a genre that came to define both Mitchum's career and screen persona: ''
film noir''.
Work in ''film noir''
Mitchum would become a signature actor in the style of film known as ''film noir'' (a style used in many genres but most commonly in gangster and crime movies). His first entry into this world of dark crime stories was the well-regarded
B-movie, ''
When Strangers Marry'', about a psychotic serial killer. One of Mitchum's early film noir outings, ''
Undercurrent'', featured him playing against type as a troubled, sensitive man entangled in the affairs of his brother (
Robert Taylor) and his brother's suspicious wife (
Katharine Hepburn). The ill-received film was
Vincente Minnelli's first and last film noir as a director.
John Brahm's ''
The Locket'' (1946) featured Mitchum as a bitter ex-husband to
Laraine Day's
femme fatale, while the
Raoul Walsh-helmed ''
Pursued'' (
1947) combined the
western and
film noir genres, with Mitchum's character trying to remember his past and find those responsible for killing his family. ''
Crossfire'', also released in 1947 featured Mitchum as a member of a group of soldiers, one of whom killed a Jew. It featured themes of
anti-Semitism and the failings of military training. The film, directed by
Edward Dmytryk, was one of the most critically acclaimed of the year, garnering five
Academy Award nominations.
Following ''Crossfire'', Robert Mitchum starred in what was arguably the definitive film of his career, ''
Out of the Past'' (aka ''Build My Gallows High''), directed by
Jacques Tourneur and benefiting from the cinematography of
Nicholas Musuraca. Mitchum played Jeff Markham, a small-town gas station owner whose unfinished business with gambler Whit Sterling (
Kirk Douglas) and one of the most memorable of all femmes fatales, Kathie Moffett (
Jane Greer), comes back to haunt him. Though the film was ignored by most critics upon its release, the film was a modest box office hit and has steadily gained the highest critical praise from both film journalists and filmmakers since its release. Mitchum was photographed again by Musuraca in the
Robert Wise "psychological western" ''
Blood on the Moon'' the following year.
Mitchum's cynical, mischievous attitude continued through adulthood and led him to shrug off fame as a fluke. On the set, he often played pranks on fellow actors and crew. His expulsion from
1955's ''
Blood Alley'' is frequently attributed to his pranks, especially one in which he reportedly threw the film's transportation manager into
San Francisco Bay. On
September 1,
1948, after a string of successful films for RKO, he and actress
Lila Leeds were arrested for possession of
marijuana. The arrest was the result of a sting operation designed to capture other Hollywood partiers as well, but Mitchum and Leeds did not receive the tip-off. Mitchum spent 60 days at a
Castaic, California prison farm, with ''
Life'' right there snapping photos of him mopping up in his prison uniform.
[1] The arrest became the inspiration for the exploitation film ''
She Shoulda Said No!'' (1949), which starred Leeds. The arrest did little to affect Mitchum's career in the long term, but was seen as an embarrassment by his studio, who ordered Mitchum to clean up his act. The conviction was later overturned by the Los Angeles court and District Attorney's office on
January 31,
1951 with the following statement, after it was exposed as a set-up.
"After an exhaustive investigation of the evidence and testimony presented at the trial, the court orders that the verdict of guilty be set aside and that a plea of not guilty be entered and that the information or complaint be dismissed."
Despite troubles with the law and his studio, the films released immediately after his arrest were box-office hits. ''
Rachel and the Stranger'' (
1948) featured Mitchum in a supporting role as a mountain man interested in gaining the hand of
Loretta Young, the indentured servant and wife of
William Holden, while the
John Steinbeck adaptation ''
The Red Pony'' as a trusted cowhand to a ranching family.
Robert Mitchum returned to true ''film noir'' in
1949's ''
The Big Steal'', pairing Mitchum and Jane Greer once again in an early
Don Siegel film. In ''Where Danger Lives'' (1950) he played a concussion-injured nurse in a
love triangle with mentally unbalanced
Faith Domergue and cuckolded
Claude Rains. ''
The Racket'' was a noir remake of the early crime drama ''
The Racket'' and featured Mitchum as a police captain fighting corruption in his precinct. The
Josef von Sternberg film ''
Macao'' (
1952) saw Mitchum a victim of mistaken identity at an exotic resort casino, playing opposite
Jane Russell.
Otto Preminger's ''
Angel Face'' saw the first of three collaborations between Mitchum and
British stage actress
Jean Simmons. In the film, Simmons plays an insane heiress who plans to use young ambulance driver Mitchum to kill for her.
Career in the '50s and '60s
Though Mitchum would continue to star in a number of crime dramas, some classified within the
film noir genre,
1955 marked his last true noir outing and his first film as a freelance actor, the
Charles Laughton helmed ''
The Night of the Hunter''. Many considered this to be Mitchum's best performance. Following a series of conventional westerns and films noir, including the
Marilyn Monroe vehicle ''
River of No Return'' (
1954), ''The Night of the Hunter'' would become one of the landmark films of the decade. Based on a novel by
Davis Grubb, the film noir thriller starred Mitchum as a psychotic criminal posing as a preacher to find money hidden by his cellmate in the cellmate's home. The film remains one of the most chilling and suspenseful thrillers of the decade, though it was a critical and commercial failure upon its first release. While ''The Night of the Hunter'' was a box office flop which went on to become critically acclaimed decades afterward,
Stanley Kramer's melodrama ''
Not as a Stranger'', also released in 1955, was a box office hit for Mitchum, which has been largely forgotten today. The film starred Mitchum against type, as an idealistic young doctor, who marries an older nurse (
Olivia de Havilland), only to question his morality many years later. However, the film was not critically acclaimed, especially since Mitchum,
Frank Sinatra and
Lee Marvin were all too old for their characters.
Following a succession of average westerns and the poorly received ''Foreign Intrigue'' (
1956), Mitchum starred in the first of three screen collaborations with
British actress
Deborah Kerr. The intriguing
John Huston war drama ''
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison'' starred Mitchum as a marine corporal shipwrecked on a Pacific Island only to discover his sole companion is a nun, Sister Angela (
Deborah Kerr). The character study centers on the relationship between the two as they fight for survival from the elements and the invading
Japanese army. The film was nominated for two
Academy Awards, including Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. For his role, Mitchum was nominated for a
BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor. Mitchum and Kerr were paired again in
1960, first for the critically acclaimed
Fred Zinnemann film, ''
The Sundowners'', where they played husband and wife struggling in
Depression-era
Australia. Opposite Mitchum, Kerr was nominated for yet another Academy Award for Best Actress, while the film was nominated for a total of five Oscars. Robert Mitchum was awarded that year's
National Board of Review award for Best Actor for his performance. The award also recognized his superior performance in the
Vincente Minnelli western drama ''Home from the Hill''. He was teamed with both Kerr and previous leading lady
Jean Simmons as well as
Cary Grant for the extremely offbeat
Stanley Donen ensemble comedy ''
The Grass Is Greener'' the same year.
Mitchum's performance as the menacing southern rapist Max Cady in
1962's ''
Cape Fear'' brought him even more attention and furthered his renown as playing cool, predatory characters. The
1960s were marked by a number of lesser films and missed opportunities. Among the films Mitchum passed on during the decade was
John Huston's ''
The Misfits'', the last film of its stars
Clark Gable and
Marilyn Monroe, the
Academy Award-winning ''
Patton'', and
Clint Eastwood's breakthrough film ''
Dirty Harry''. The most notable of his films later in the decade included the war epics ''
The Longest Day'' (
1962) and ''Anzio'' (
1968), the
Shirley MacLaine comedy-
musical ''
What a Way to Go!'' (
1964), and the
Howard Hawks western ''
El Dorado'' (
1966), a remake of ''
Rio Bravo'' (1959), in which Mitchum took over
Dean Martin's role of the drunk who comes to the aid of
John Wayne.
Music career
Album cover of Mitchum's calypso record, ''Calypso is Like So''
One of the lesser known aspects of Robert Mitchum's career was his forays into music. His voice had long been used instead of the professional singers when characters portrayed by Mitchum sang in his films. Notable productions featuring Mitchum's own singing voice included ''
Rachel and the Stranger'' (1948), ''
River of No Return'' (1954) and ''
The Night of the Hunter'' (1955). After hearing traditional
calypso music and meeting artists such as
Mighty Sparrow and
Lord Invader while filming ''
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison'' in the
Caribbean island of
Tobago, he recorded ''Calypso — Is Like So . . .'' in March of
1957. On the album, released through
Capitol Records, he emulated the calypso sound and style, even adopting the style's unique pronunciations and slang. A year later he recorded a song he had written for the film ''
Thunder Road'', titled "
The Ballad of Thunder Road." The
country-styled song became a modest hit for Mitchum, reaching #69 on the
Billboard Pop Singles Chart. The song was included as a bonus track on a successful reissue of ''Calypso. . .'' and helped market the film to a wider audience.
Though Mitchum continued to use his singing voice in his film work, he waited until
1967 to record his follow-up record, ''That Man, Robert Mitchum, Sings''. The album, released by
Nashville-based
Monument Records, took him further into
country music, and featured songs similar to ''The Ballad of Thunder Road''. "Little Old Wine Drinker Me," the first single, was a top ten hit at country radio, reaching #9 there, and crossed over onto mainstream radio, where it peaked at #96. Its follow-up, "You Deserve Each Other," also charted on the
Billboard Country Singles Chart.
Later career and death
Robert Mitchum made a departure from his typical screen persona with the
David Lean classic ''
Ryan's Daughter'' in
1970. In the critically acclaimed film, he starred as Charles Shaughnessy, a mild-mannered schoolmaster in
World War I era
Ireland. Though the film was nominated for four
Academy Awards (winning two) and Mitchum was much publicized as a contender for a
Best Actor nomination, he was passed over.
George C. Scott won the award for his performance in ''
Patton'', a project which Mitchum had passed over for ''Ryan's Daughter''.
The
1970s, however, saw Mitchum in a number of well-received crime dramas. ''
The Friends of Eddie Coyle'' (
1973) saw the actor playing an aging
Boston hoodlum caught between the
Feds and his criminal friends.
Sydney Pollack's ''
The Yakuza'' (
1975) transplanted the typical film noir story arc to the
Japanese underworld. Mitchum's stint as an aging
Philip Marlowe in the
Raymond Chandler adaptation, ''
Farewell, My Lovely'' (1975), was well-received by audiences and critics. He also appeared in 1976's ''
Midway'', about the World War II battle of the same name. Reprising the Marlowe role in 1978's ''
The Big Sleep'' proved a mistake, however, as
Michael Winner took the film at once closer to the source material and farther away from its spirit and context, setting the film in modern day
London.
1982 saw Mitchum on-location in
Scranton, Pennsylvania playing Coach Delaney in the film adaptation of playwright/actor
Jason Miller's 1973
Pulitzer Prize winning play ''
That Championship Season''.
Robert Mitchum expanded into the medium of television with the
1983 miniseries ''
The Winds of War''. The big-budget
Herman Wouk adaptation aired on
ABC and starred Mitchum as "Pug" Henry, a naval officer and examined the events leading up to
America's involvement in
World War II. He followed it in
1988 with ''
War and Remembrance'', which followed America through the war. The same year, he returned to the big screen for a memorable supporting role in the
Bill Murray ''
A Christmas Carol'' interpolation, ''
Scrooged''.
Though Mitchum continued to appear in films throughout the
1990s, such as ''
Tombstone'' and
Jim Jarmusch's ''
Dead Man'', the actor gradually slowed his workrate. His last film appearance was in the television
biopic, ''James Dean: Race with Destiny''. His last starring role had been in the 1995 Norwegian movie
Pakten, a final nod to his Norwegian ancestry. He died on
July 1,
1997 in
Santa Barbara, California due to complications of
lung cancer and
emphysema. He was survived by his wife, Dorothy Mitchum, and actor sons,
James Mitchum,
Christopher Mitchum, and daughter Petrina (Trina) Mitchum. His grandchildren,
Bentley Mitchum and
Carrie Mitchum, are also actors, as was his younger brother
John Mitchum,who died in
2001. In
1991, he won a lifetime achievement award from the
National Board of Review and the
Cecil B. DeMille Award from the
Golden Globe Awards in
1992. It had been widely predicted for at least a decade that his eventual death would spark a huge fascination with his film canon, but
James Stewart died the very next day, immediately eclipsing Mitchum's death in the mainstream media.
Regardless, Mitchum is today venerated by critics as one of the finest actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Noted critic
Roger Ebert called him 'the soul of
Film Noir'.
Mitchum was featured in www.filmcow.com's animated short "The Cloak". Mitchum's dismembered head follows around a grim reaper-type character, trying to rid the world of communists.
Filmography
Features:
Short Subjects:
★ ''The Magic of Make-up'' (
1942)
★ ''Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Goes to Bat'' (
1950)
★ ''Waiting for the Wind'' (
1990)
Discography
Albums
★ ''Calypso---is Like So . . .'' (
1957,
Capitol)
★ ''That Man, Robert Mitchum, Sings'' (
1967,
Monument) 'Country': #35
Singles
★ "
The Ballad of Thunder Road" (
1958,
Capitol) '
Pop': #62
★ "Little Old Wine Drinker Me" (
1967,
Monument) '
Country': #9 'Pop': #96
★ "You Deserve Each Other" (1967, Monument) 'Country': #55
References and further reading
★
Robert Mitchum: "Baby, I don't care", Lee Server, , , St Martin's, 2001, ISBN 0-312-26206-X
★
Mike Tomkies ''The Robert Mitchum Story, "It Sure Beats Working"'' Ballantine Books, 1972, ISBN 0-345-23484-7
★
John Mitchum ''Them Ornery Mitchum Boys, The Adventures of Robert and John Mitchum'', Creatures at Large, 1989, ISBN 0-940064-07-3
★ TCM Film Guide, "Leading Men: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era", Chronicle Books, San Francisco, California, 2006, ISBN 0811854671
External links
★
★
★
Profile @
Turner Classic Movies
★
"The Big Sleep"
★
A Hard World for Little Things 500 image Night of the Hunter gallery
★
Robert Mitchum's ashes at
Find-A-Grave
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