Robert Mitchum is not only a great actor. He is a manly man. Mitchum was born in Connecticut in 1917. His father was killed when he was very young and he grew up as kind of a wild boy. Moved around from family member to family member he had his first road adventure at age 12 where he rode the rails, worked for the Civilian Conservation Corp relief project, and earned money as a professional boxer.
At 14, he was arrested for vagrancy in Savannah, Georgia, and served time on a chain gang. Mitchum said he escaped and returned to his family. In 1936, he headed to California again hopping trains. Mitchum made a living writing and he became involved in local theater. He also made money as a bit-player and stagehand. In 1940, he got married and took a steady job in an aircraft factory.
Shortly Mitchum had a job related nervous breakdown. He began working as an extra in films. Mitchum spent time working as a villain in westerns. He continued to get better roles such as playing one of the pilots in the Doolittle raid biopic Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) With Spencer Tracy. His performance resulted in a seven-year contract with RKO. Mitchum’s next major film came when he was loaned to United Artists for the William Wellman directed The Story of G.I. Joe (1945) with Burgess Meredith playing war correspondent Ernie Pyle. For this film, Mitchum received his only Oscar nomination for the Best-Supporting actor.
After this movie was completed, Mitchum was drafted into the Army. Mitchum began acting in Film-Noir and hit it big with Crossfire (1947), Out of the Past (1947), and the Raoul Walsh directed Pursued (1947).
Just as Mitchum’s career was hitting high gear he and an actress were arrested for possession of marijuana in 1948, a big deal at the time. Mitchum spent 43 days on a California prison farm. His conviction was vacated in 1951. Many years later, Mitchum told interviewer Robert Osborne that the arrest was a studio publicity stunt.
Mitchum’s next studio releases were hits including Rachel and the Stranger (1948), The Red Pony (1949), and the Film-Noir The Big Steal (1949). Mitchum paired with Marilyn Monroe on a raging river in River of No Return (1954). That same year Tracks of the Cat (1954) was released. This film was the only film ever directed by veteran actor Charles Laughton. In this black and white movie, the only colored object was the red jacket that Mitchum’s character wore. In this movie, I thought Mitchum played pure evil until the next year. The Night of the Hunter (1955) featured Mitchum as a sadistic Bluebeard preacher with love tattooed on one hand and hate on the other. Lillian Gish is amazing as the shotgun-toting defender of two children against the killer.
Mitchum turned in a super performance in Thunder Road (1958) where he acted, but produced, co-wrote, and purportedly directed.
Mitchum starred in three films with Deborah Kerr. The first of these was Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) where Mitchum played a Marine stranded on an island with a Nun played by Deborah Kerr. In one of my personal favorites, The Enemy Below (1957), Mitchum’s character is the skipper of a destroyer locked in a death match with a u-boat commander played by Curt Jergen. The third film featuring this pairing was The Sundowners (1960) where the two played depression-era Australian sheep, farmers.
Mitchum played a General on Omaha Beach during D-day in The Longest Day (1962). I would have followed him. That year he played another evil character as the vengeful rapist in Cape Fear (1962). Things slowed for Mitchum in the late 1960’s and he turned down several roles that would go on to be iconic. However, in El Dorado (1966) he turned in a stellar performance as a drunken down-and-out sheriff as he co-starred with John Wayne.
Mitchum continued to turn in quality performances through the 1970s and 1980s. These films included Ryan’s Daughter (1970), The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), The Yakuza (1974), and most importantly the epic World War II drama Midway (1976). He was great as Bill Murray’s boss in Scrooged (1988). Of course, I have just hit the highlights of his films as there are so many good features.
Mitchum continued in films into the 1990s. A heavy smoker, Robert Mitchum died of lung cancer in 1997 at the age of 79.
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Robert Mitchum on iMDB
