Mitchum, Robert

▪ American actor

in full  Robert Charles Duran Mitchum 

born August 6, 1917, Bridgeport, Conn., U.S.

died July 1, 1997, Santa Barbara county, Calif.

      American film star whose roles as a cool, cynical loner combined with a notorious personal life and a sardonic, relaxed style to create a durable screen image as a fatalistic tough guy.

      Expelled from Haaren High School in New York City's Hell's Kitchen, Mitchum took to the road during the early years of the Depression. The experiences of this period of his life served as his “education,” shaping his world-weary view and providing fodder for press interviews for the rest of his life. He eventually landed in Long Beach, California, where his sister Julie had settled, and in 1936 she persuaded him to join her in the local theatre guild. He launched his film career with a bit role in a Hopalong Cassidy western, Hoppy Serves a Writ (1943), which led to other small roles and eventually a contract with RKO Radio Pictures, Inc (RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.).

      Despite earning an Academy Award nomination for his supporting performance as a noble captain in the war drama The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), Mitchum is not remembered for playing typical Hollywood protagonists in conventional dramas. Instead, his image was constructed around a series of roles in gritty, low-budget crime dramas, later known as films noirs. As a cynical, hard-edged private eye in Out of the Past (1947), a disturbed artist in The Locket (1946), and a shady gambler in His Kind of Woman (1951), he portrayed characters whose bad judgment led to adventures that skirted the line between right and wrong.

      In 1948 Mitchum's real-life problems seemed to merge with those of his movie characters when he was arrested for possession of marijuana. He served nearly two weeks in jail and was placed on probation for two years, after which the conviction was struck from his record. Such a scandal would have destroyed the careers of most movie stars of the time, but Mitchum's situation evoked sympathy from his fans and enhanced his onscreen image as a rebel and outsider.

      Although dismissed by some critics in his early years as a sleepy-eyed, well-built hunk who walked through his pictures, Mitchum impressed many with his charismatic screen presence and understated acting style. He was particularly praised for his portrayals of a murderous preacher in The Night of the Hunter (1955), a sympathetic marine in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), an Australian sheep drover in The Sundowners (1960), a vengeful convict in Cape Fear (1962), an aging petty hood in The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), and Raymond Chandler (Chandler, Raymond)'s 1940s detective Philip Marlowe in Farewell, My Lovely (1975). More important, his shadowy star image paved the way for the gritty antiheroes that became popular in the films of the 1950s and '60s.

Additional Reading

David Downing, Robert Mitchum (1985), is an adequate but not particularly insightful biography. Jerry Roberts, Robert Mitchum: A Bio-Bibliography (1992), includes an annotated filmography offering an authoritative guide to Mitchum's work.

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