Robert Charles Mitchum was born in Bridgeport, Conn., on Aug. 6, 1917, to James Mitchum, a railroad worker of Irish descent, and Anne Mitchum, the daughter of a Norwegian ship captain. Mitchum's stint as an aging Philip Marlowe in the Raymond Chandler adaptation Farewell, My Lovely (1975) (a remake of 1944's Murder My Sweet) was sufficiently well received by audiences and critics for him to reprise the role in 1978's The Big Sleep, a remake of the 1946 film of the same title. () It wasnt my choice (to become actor), at least at the start. Breibart News. However, according to a 1948 story in The Sun, Mitchum, the. A year later, he recorded a song he had written for Thunder Road, titled "The Ballad of Thunder Road". Mitchum was born in Los Angeles, California, the elder son of actor Robert Mitchum (whom he closely resembles) and his wife, Dorothy Spence. AFI's 100 Years100 Stars lists Mitchum as the 23rd-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema. At the age of 16, while recovering from injuries that nearly cost him a leg, he met 14 year old Dorothy Spence, whom he would later marry. He is known for his antihero roles and film noir appearances. Other Mitchum films included ''Pursued'' (1947), ''Crossfire'' (1947), ''Blood on the Moon'' (1948), ''Angel Face'' (1953), ''Track of the Cat'' (1954), ''River of No Return'' (1954, with Marilyn Monroe), ''Home From the Hill'' (1960), ''El Dorado'' (1967), ''Secret Ceremony'' (1968), ''Ryan's Daughter'' (1970), ''That Championship Season'' (1982) and ''Mr. He is also known for his television role as U.S. Navy Captain Victor \"Pug\" Henry in the epic miniseries The Winds of War (1983) and sequel War and Remembrance (1988). His older sister, Annette (known as Julie Mitchum during her acting career), was born in 1914. $300 was a lot of money in 1967.. He gave up his artistic pursuits at the birth of their first child James, nicknamed Josh, and two more children, Chris and Petrine, followed. He once said, ''I agree with the producer who said I looked like a shark with a broken nose.''. ", "Goldwater Leading in Citizen Groups; MoreAnd More VariedThan LBJ's", "Dorothy Mitchum, Widow of Actor Robert Mitchum, Dies at 94", "Books of the Times: The Swaggering Life of a Movie Idol", "Actor Robert Mitchum, being sued for $30million by", "Mitchum Says He is 'sorry' About the 'misunderstanding' Caused by His Interview", "Michael Madsen interview: 'Harvey Weinstein never liked me he didn't want me in any of Tarantino's movies', San Sebastin International Film Festival, National Board of Review Award for Best Actor, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Mitchum&oldid=1140524923, Cecil B. DeMille Award Golden Globe winners, Military personnel from Bridgeport, Connecticut, Overturned convictions in the United States, United States Army personnel of World War II, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles to be expanded from October 2021, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2022, TCMDb name template using numeric ID from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 20 February 2023, at 13:26. In a February 1983 Esquire interview, he made several racist, anti-Semitic and sexist statements, including, when asked if the Holocaust occurred, responded "so the Jews say. A year later he moved in with his older sister in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen. His siblings Julie and John Mitchum were also actors. In 1972 he was offered a role in the Spanish movie Summertime Killer, which became popular in various European countries as well in Asia. On that year, he competed in the California Assembly election, coming in second following Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson. 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. His father died in a train accident when he was two, and Robert and his siblings (including brother John Mitchum, later also an actor) were raised by his mother and stepfather (a British army major) in Connecticut, New York, and Delaware. John Brahm's The Locket (1946) featured Mitchum as a bitter ex-boyfriend to Laraine Day's femme fatale. In Where Danger Lives (1950), Mitchum played a doctor who comes between a mentally unbalanced Faith Domergue and cuckolded Claude Rains. Notable productions featuring Mitchum's own singing voice included Rachel and the Stranger, River of No Return, and The Night of the Hunter. He didnt have another acting job for two years, until he was offered an unaccredited role in Young Billy Young. [4] His father, James Thomas Mitchum, a shipyard and railroad worker, was of English-Scottish-Irish descent,[5] and his mother, Ann Harriet Gunderson, was a Norwegian immigrant and sea captain's daughter. You read a script. A "Mitchum's Steakhouse" operated in Trappe, Maryland,[43] where Mitchum and his family lived from 1959 to 1965. Tough-guy actor who was in G.I. People think I have an interesting walk. Mitchum died in 1997 at the age of 79, while asleep in his Santa Barbara, California home. He finished the year with a Western (West of the Pecos) and a story of returning Marine veterans (Till the End of Time), before migrating to a genre that came to define Mitchum's career and screen persona: film noir. Mini Bio (1) Christopher Mitchum is the second son of actor Robert Mitchum destined, like older brother James Mitchum, to follow in the footsteps of his famous dad. Sydney Pollack's The Yakuza (1974) transplanted the typical film noir story arc to the Japanese underworld. Meet 'Law & Order's' Jerry Orbach's Son Chris Who Looks Like His Late Star Dad & Is Father of Two, Dick Van Dyke Says There Is Not a Horse Thief Among His Sons & Daughters - Meet His 4 Children, Inside Dick Van Dyke & Decades Younger Wifes Home Where He Shows off Routine He Says Will Get Him to 100, Who Are Maggie Smith's Children? He gained experience in other films made by his father including The Last Time I Saw Archie (1961). John Wayne's tragic feud with Christopher Mitchum who desperately tried to reconcile JOHN WAYNE co-starred opposite Christopher Mitchum, Robert Mitchum's son, in a couple of Westerns. The country-style song became a modest hit for Mitchum, reaching number 69 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. [My father] never pulled strings for me, and I think everyone in the business knows that, the actor said. In ''The Night of the Hunter'' (1955), which was directed by Charles Laughton, Mr. Mitchum personified evil as a crazed evangelist, a terrifying killer who had the words ''Love'' and ''Hate'' tattooed on his hands. 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. James Mitchum - Biography James Mitchum is an American actor. Robert Mitchum stars as a sleepy-eyed soldier of fortune who finds himself in the middle of the fracas. Who Is Julian Sands' Wife? In 1982, Mitchum played Coach Delaney in the film adaptation of playwright/actor Jason Miller's 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winning play That Championship Season. After an investigation, a plea of not guilty was ordered and the conviction was expunged from the record. He starred, produced, co-wrote the screenplay, and is rumored to have directed much of the film. The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) had the actor playing an aging Boston hoodlum caught between the Feds and his criminal friends. He sang the title song to the Western Young Billy Young, made in 1969. (1949), which starred Leeds. The song was included as a bonus track on a successful reissue of Calypso and helped market the film to a wider audience.[8]. During this time, Mitchum worked as a ghostwriter for astrologer Carroll Righter. He had also succeeded in annoying some of his fellow actors by voicing his puzzlement at those who viewed the profession as challenging and hard work. His agent got him an interview with Harry Sherman, the producer of Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series, which starred William Boyd; Mitchum was hired to play minor villainous roles in several films in the series during 1942 and 1943. Following a series of conventional Westerns and films noir, as well as the Marilyn Monroe adventure vehicle River of No Return (1954), Mitchum appeared in The Night of the Hunter (1955), Charles Laughton's only film as director. The comparison helped him as well as hurt him. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. After a long dry spell, however, he was told by the casting director of Steelyard Blues (1973) that she could not interview him because he had worked with Wayne. During his teens, Mitchums family moved from California to Maryland, where he was gifted a horse named Cap Gun by his parents. According to Lee Server's biography (Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care), Mitchum put his talent for poetry to work writing song lyrics and monologues for Julie's nightclub performances. After a career of playing pseudo-anti-heroes, the American Film Institute named him one of the greatest male stars of all time. The comparison helped him as well as hurt him. Such films as Young Guns of Texas (1962), Ambush Bay (1966), Trackdown (1976), Blackout (1978) and Hollywood Cop (1987) would come and go. He didnt receive job interviews for films in almost a year, finally discovering the reason for the dry-spell in his career when he tried to audition for Steelyard Blues: The casting director took one look at me and said Oh, youre THAT Chris Mitchum, I cant hire you.. Mr. Mitchum helped to popularize film noir in the 1940's and was a major figure in the 1970's revival of the somber, cynical genre, with movies like ''The Friends of Eddie Coyle'' (1973) and remakes of ''Farewell, My Lovely'' (1975) and ''The Big Sleep'' (1978), in which he played Raymond Chandler's noble private eye Philip Marlowe. Though seemingly dismissive of "art," he worked in tremendously artistically thoughtful projects such as Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter (1955) and even co-wrote and composed an oratorio produced at the Hollywood Bowl by Orson Welles. He soon went back on the road, eventually "riding the rails" to California.[8]. He was a villain in Hopalong Cassidy movies; he portrayed heroic G.I. He attained a BA at the University of Arizona before developing a serious interest in filmmaking. Mitchum found steady employment as a machine operator during World War II with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, but the noise of the machinery damaged his hearing. In 1987, Mitchum was the guest host on Saturday Night Live, where he played private eye Philip Marlowe for the last time in the parody sketch, "Death Be Not Deadly." He died of complications from lung cancer and emphysema at the age of 79. However, the film was not well received, with most critics pointing out that Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Lee Marvin were all too old for their characters. She met Mitchum, who was two years her elder, in Delaware . He is known for his antihero roles and film noir appearances. However, Roberts rise to fame came when he acted as Lt. Walker in The Story of G.I. The two started dating and spend their time between Massachusetts and California. Ann married Lieutenant Hugh "The Major" Cunningham Morris, a former Royal Naval Reserve officer. LOS ANGELES, -- Veteran actor John Mitchum, the younger brother of movie star Robert Mitchum, has died at age 82 due to complications from a series of three strokes, the Los Angeles . Robert began working on movies in 1943, when he briefly appeared in The Human Comedy. Christopher Mitchum is an American actor, writer and politician, born on 16 October 1943, in Los Angeles, California USA. [17][18] Stanley Kramer's melodrama Not as a Stranger, also released in 1955, was a box-office hit. He served 60 days on an honor farm, and in January 1951, after he completed a period of probation, his case was reviewed. So Mitchum moved to California along his family, contacting Maners once again: I was hired for a part on the show, one days work, $150. The big-budget Herman Wouk story aired on ABC, starring Mitchum as naval officer "Pug" Henry and Victoria Tennant as Pamela Tudsbury, and examined the events leading up to America's involvement in World War II. His first major role, as a dedicated infantry officer in ''The Story of G.I. His best-known films include Out of the Past (1947), River of No Return (1954), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Thunder Road (1958), Cape Fear (1962), El Dorado (1966), Ryan's Daughter (1970) and The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973). Because Mitchum was showing up late and behaving erratically, producer John Wayne, after failing to obtain Humphrey Bogart as a replacement, took over the role himself.[15][16]. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Ann Harriet (Gunderson), a Norwegian immigrant, and James Thomas Mitchum, a shipyard/railroad worker. He was one of the all-star husbands of Shirley MacLaine in the comedy What a Way to Go! In his best-known noir role, Mitchum played Jeff Markham, a small-town gas-station owner and former investigator, whose unfinished business with gambler Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) and femme fatale Kathie Moffett (Jane Greer) comes back to haunt him. In a more candid moment, however, he acknowledged: ''I like the work. Although Mitchums main career has been as an actor, his biggest passion is writing. In the World War II submarine classic The Enemy Below (1956), Mitchum played the captain of a US Navy destroyer who matches wits with a wily German U-boat captain Curt Jurgens, both men would also appear in the 1962 World War II epic The Longest Day. However, the marriage lasted almost 60 years until 1997, when Robert died of cancer. What else is there to do with it? His career as actor is often regarded as underrated, because despite his legendary-star status in Hollywood, he never won an Oscar. Joe,'' a film about Ernie Pyle's war reporting, won him an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor in 1945. While it did open some doors for Chris, being Robert Mitchums son was mostly a nuisance for him as an aspiring actor, who raised suspicion of nepotism among some, because of his family name. James Mitchum had his first role, which was small and unbilled, at the age of eight in the Western Colorado Territory (1949) with Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo, and Dorothy Malone. His first collaboration with the renowned film director was for the 1970 Civil War film Rio Lobo, one of the three films on which Chris shared the big screen with actor John Wayne, who also co-starred with his father in the past. [6], As a child, Mitchum was known as a prankster, often involved in fistfights and mischief. "BH Interview: Liberal Blacklist Couldn't Stop Chris Mitchum". In 1945, he was cast as Lt. Walker in Story of G.I. Nanarland, a French online publication about film, once interviewed 75-year-old Chris, and he shared many details from his life as the successor to an iconic star as his father Robert, who died in 1997, truly was. He later claimed that on one of these trips, at the age of 14, he was charged with vagrancy and sentenced to a Georgia chain gang, from which he escaped. His exploration of other markets eventually took him to the Philippines and Indonesia. After that, he found other jobs in Hollywood as an errand boy and then as a production assistant, working his way to become Associate Producer. Click to reveal We believe that every person's story is important as it provides our community with an opportunity to feel a sense of belonging, share their hopes and dreams. After a noticeable absence, he filmed a role recently in son Bentley Mitchum's horror yarn The Ritual (2009). I was never encouraged. I'm in DC for some meetings. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. [36] John Huston felt that Mitchum was on the same pedestal of actors like Marlon Brando, Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier. Following a succession of average Westerns and the poorly received Foreign Intrigue (1956), Mitchum starred in the first of three films with Deborah Kerr. North'' (1988). James was crushed to death in a railyard accident in Charleston, South Carolina, in February 1919. For his role, Mitchum was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor. Christopher Mitchum is the second son of Dorothy and iconic actor Robert Mitchum. His star ascended rapidly, and he became an icon of 1940s film noir, though equally adept at westerns and romantic dramas. They had one child. Run-ins with the police gave him a lifelong antipathy to authority. Born on 6 August 1917 in Connecticut, Robert Mitchum was born the first of three sons of Ann Harriet and James Thomas Mitchum. New York: St Martin's Press, 2001, Roberts, Jerry. Mitchum walked off the set of the third day of filming Blood Alley, claiming he could not work with the director. The film received five Oscar nominations, and Mitchum earned the year's National Board of Review award for Best Actor for his performance. Joe (1945). In 1970 Mitchum was offered the role of Tom OFolliard in Chisum starring iconic actors John Wayne and Forrest Tucker. A master of accents and seemingly unconcerned about his star image, he played in both forgettable and unforgettable films with unswerving nonchalance, leading many to overlook the prodigious talent he can bring to a project that he finds compelling. [38] Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood,[39] Michael Madsen[40] and Mark Rylance[41] have cited Mitchum as one of their favorite actors. Horse named Cap Gun by his parents. 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