Robert Mitchum

Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American film actor and singer. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Mitchum is largely remembered for his starring roles in several major works of the film noir genre, and is considered a forerunner of the antiheroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 60s.

Career

His first major role was a bit part in the Hopalong Cassidy western Hoppy Serves a Writ (1943). After several more minor parts, he was signed to a contract by RKO Radio Pictures.

Related Topics:
Hopalong Cassidy - Hoppy Serves a Writ - 1943 - RKO Radio Pictures

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Though Mitchum had his first breakthrough for his supporting performance in Story of G.I. Joe (1945), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor, he achieved his greatest success in the gritty, low-budget crime dramas that would become known as film noirs. He was best known for playing characters whose poor decisions caused them to engage in endeavors that skirted the line between right and wrong, such as the 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). With his imposing physical presence and rumbling voice, he was particularly well-suited to play menacing figures, but he was quite successful in tempering this with an underlying aspect of raw intelligence.

Related Topics:
Story of G.I. Joe - 1945 - Academy Award - Out of the Past - 1947 - The Locket - 1946 - His Kind of Woman - 1951

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In 1948, he and a starlet named Lila Leeds were arrested in her apartment on charges of drug possession. The subsequent conviction and short prison sentence for marijuana possession sidetracked his career for a few years in the early 1950s, but he survived the scandal, in part because of his image among his fans as a rebel and an outsider. He continued to receive praise in his later career for roles such as the 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), detective Philip Marlowe in Farewell, My Lovely (1975), and the stoic patriarch of a Navy family in the television miniseries The Winds of War (1983) and War and Remembrance (1988).

Related Topics:
1948 - Lila Leeds - Marijuana - The Night of the Hunter - 1955 - Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison - 1957 - Australia - The Sundowners - 1960 - Cape Fear - 1962 - The Friends of Eddie Coyle - 1973 - Farewell, My Lovely - 1975 - The Winds of War - 1983 - War and Remembrance - 1988

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