Robert Mitchum

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Lore & Background

Mitchum was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on August 6, 1917, into a Methodist family of Scots-Irish, Native American, and Norwegian descent. His father, James Thomas Mitchum, was crushed to death in a railyard accident in Charleston, South Carolina, in February 1919. As a child, Mitchum was known as a prankster, often involved in fistfights and mischief. He was expelled from Felton High School and later from Haaren High School. He left home at age 14 and traveled throughout the country, hopping freight cars and taking jobs including ditch digging, fruit picking, and dishwashing. In the summer of 1933, he was arrested for vagrancy in Savannah, Georgia and put in a local chain gang. By Mitchum's account, he escaped and hitchhiked to Rising Sun, Delaware. He worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps for a few months, digging ditches and planting trees. He participated in 27 professional boxing matches but retired from the ring after a fight that broke his nose and left a scar on his left eye. Mitchum began his film career in June 1942 with a part as a minor villain in Border Patrol, the first of seven Hopalong Cassidy films he made that were released in 1943. On May 25, 1944, he signed a seven-year contract with RKO at an initial salary of $350 per week. His first important role was in When Strangers Marry (1944), a thriller directed by William Castle. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). His best-known films include Out of the Past (1947), Angel Face (1953), River of No Return (1954), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), Thunder Road (1958), The Sundowners (1960), Cape Fear (1962), El Dorado (1966), Ryan's Daughter (1970), The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), and Farewell, My Lovely (1975). 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 its sequel War and Remembrance (1988–1989).

Reader's Guide

Film critic Roger Ebert called Mitchum his favorite movie star and the soul of film noir: "With his deep, laconic voice and his long face and those famous weary eyes, he was the kind of guy you'd picture in a saloon at closing time, waiting for someone to walk in through the door and break his heart." David Thomson wrote: "Since the war, no American actor has made more first-class films, in so many different moods." Mitchum's only Academy Award nomination came for Best Supporting Actor for The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1984 and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1992. The American Film Institute rates him number 23 on its list of the greatest male stars of classic American cinema.

Did You Know?

• Mitchum was arrested for vagrancy in Savannah, Georgia in 1933 and put in a local chain gang, from which he escaped by his own account.
• He participated in 27 professional boxing matches before retiring after a fight that broke his nose and left a scar on his left eye.
• Mitchum's first film role was as a minor villain in the 1942 Hopalong Cassidy film Border Patrol.
• He signed a seven-year contract with RKO on May 25, 1944, at an initial salary of $350 per week.
• General Dwight D. Eisenhower called The Story of G.I. Joe the greatest war picture he had ever seen.