They had one child. Mitchum starred opposite Wilford Brimley in the 1986 made-for-TV movie Thompson's Run. 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The couples marriage, which ended in 1996, resulted in four children: Caroline Carrie, Christopher Robert Bentley, Jennifer Jenny and Kian. Robert arrived in 1936. He has appeared in more than 30 films including The Beat Generation in 1959; The Victors in 1963; as a surfer named Eskimo in Ride the Wild Surf in 1964; In Harm's Way (1965) with John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, and Henry Fonda.[1]. He also wrote several short pieces which were performed by the guild. His sons James Mitchum and Christopher Mitchum are actors, as is his grandson Bentley Mitchum. On July 1, 1997, Robert passed away from lung cancer and emphysema in Santa Barbara, California. '', Admirers hailed him for infusing flimsy characters with unexpected force, credibility and dignity and for doing laconic wonders with routine phrases. 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). He went uncredited as a soldier in the 1943 film The Human Comedy starring Mickey Rooney. "Little Old Wine Drinker Me", the first single, was a top-10 hit at country radio, reaching number nine there, and crossed over onto mainstream radio, where it peaked at number 96. 161.97.83.60 After serving a week at the county jail (he described the experience to a reporter as being "like Palm Springs, but without the riff-raff"), Mitchum spent 43 days (February 16 to March 30) at a Castaic, California, prison farm. "[2] David Thomson wrote that "Since the war, no American actor has made so many different first-class films, in so many different moods."[3]. His father died in a train accident when he was two, and Robert and . His apparently lazy style and seen-it-all demeanor proved highly attractive to men and women, and by the 1950s, he was a true superstar despite a brief prison term for marijuana usage in 1949, which seemed to enhance rather than diminish his "bad boy" appeal. In 1945, he was cast as Lt. Walker in Story of G.I. He is survived by his wife, of Montecido, Calif.; two sons, James, of Paradise Valley, Ariz., and Christopher, of Santa Barbara, Calif.; a daughter, Petrine, of Burbank, Calif.; a brother, John, of Sonora, Calif., and two sisters, Julie Mitchum of Sonora and Carol Allen of Hendersonville, Tenn. Since 1998, Chris has been trying to be elected into office as a Republican, although still to no avail. Christophers uncle John Mitchum was also an actor who appeared in movies such as Dirty Harry and The Enforcer. (adsbygoogle=window.adsbygoogle||[]).push({}); On set he met the director of Dundee and the Culhane, Sam Maners, who offered him a role in the series if Mitchum moved to Los Angeles. His brother is actor Christopher Mitchum, and he is the uncle of actor Bentley Mitchum. New York: Knopf, 1996, Robert Mitchum: The Reluctant Star, The Hollywood Collection, National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, AFI's 100 Years100 Heroes and Villains, "The religious affiliation of Robert Mitchum: Great American actor. ", "ROBERT MITCHUM: AN IRREPRESSIBLE PATRIARCH OF ACTORS", "Robert Mitchum: That Man, Robert Mitchum, Sings. Net Worth, Wife, Family, Bio. But associates respected him as one of the most talented and dedicated people in their profession, a no-nonsense craftsman who was always punctual, word perfect in his lines and a battler for making his movies better. However, Roberts rise to fame came when he acted as Lt. Walker in The Story of G.I. Robert Mitchum was never faithful to his wife and had numerous affairs throughout his marriage. Wikimedia Commons / facebook.com/MitchumStarfish. He began as an extra while at the University of Arizona working in westerns at Old Tucson (1966-1967). In 1982, Mitchum played Coach Delaney in the film adaptation of playwright/actor Jason Miller's 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winning play That Championship Season. When movie tough guy Robert Mitchum died July 2, news stories announcing his death listed his birthplace as Bridgeport, Conn. 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. In 1991, Mitchum was given a lifetime achievement award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures; in the same year, he received the Telegatto award and, in 1992, the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Golden Globe Awards. He was 79 years old.Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 - July 1, 1997) was an American actor. 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. James Mitchum's father, Robert Mitchum, died on July 1, 1997 as he was 79 years old. 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. If you like the part and the money is O.K., you do it. The drug charge could have destroyed some careers, but at the time it enhanced his image as a rebel. 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. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. According to Metro Pulse writer Jack Renfro, the incident occurred in 1952 and may have been witnessed by James Agee, who passed the story on to Mitchum. Ann married Lieutenant Hugh "The Major" Cunningham Morris, a former Royal Naval Reserve officer. Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 July 1, 1997) was an American actor, director, author, poet, composer, and singer. "[25] Mitchum's voice was often used instead of that of a professional singer when his character sang in his films. AFI's 100 Years100 Stars lists Mitchum as the 23rd-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema. 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). Dorothy Mitchum died at the age of 94 The Delaware-born former celebrity wife died at Serenity House hospice in Santa Barbara, California on April 12, 2014, at the age of 94. James was crushed to death in a railyard accident in Charleston, South Carolina, in February 1919. [citation needed] According to a 2012 interview with his son Chris, conducted by Breitbart News, Mitchum also supported Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush in 1992. His last film appearance was a small but pivotal role in the television biographical film, James Dean: Race with Destiny, playing Giant director George Stevens. In her 1995 memoir, ''My Lucky Stars,'' Shirley MacLaine recalled her affair with Mr. Mitchum when they starred in 1962 in ''Two for the Seesaw.'' In 1929 his mother sent the twelve-year-old Mitchum to live with her parents in Felton, Delaware; the boy was promptly expelled from middle school for scuffling with the principal. In Where Danger Lives (1950), Mitchum played a doctor who comes between a mentally unbalanced Faith Domergue and cuckolded Claude Rains. #americanhunter #supergestitosuperclub #santanderrio #christophermitchum, A post shared by seter (@stefan.zetterberg) on Sep 10, 2018 at 5:35pm PDT. He was a villain in Hopalong Cassidy movies; he portrayed heroic G.I. 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. Younger brother Christopher Mitchum would follow a similarly rugged path in films. The film, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring (in order of billing) Robert Young, Mitchum and Robert Ryan, earned five Academy Award nominations.[8]. You develop a facility -- and I've had it for a long time -- or you read dialogue that no one else would really dare read. He attributed his trademark sleepy-eyed look to chronic insomnia and a boxing injury that resulted in astigmatism. On March 8, 1955, Mitchum formed DRM (Dorothy and Robert Mitchum) Productions to produce five films for United Artists; four films were produced. His mother, Ann Harriet Gunderson, was a Norwegian immigrant and sea captain's daughter; his father, James Thomas Mitchum, was a shipyard and railroad worker of Irish descent. He later stated that at age 14 in Savannah, Georgia, he was arrested for vagrancy and put in a local chain gang. Click to reveal Olivia de Havilland received top billing over Mitchum and Sinatra. Although Mitchums main career has been as an actor, his biggest passion is writing. At the 1946 Academy Awards, The Story of G.I. Mitchum: In His Own Words. By the end of his studies at University of Arizona, Christopher was already married and had two children. Duke introduced him to director Howard Hawks, who screen-tested Chris and gave him a starring roles in Hawks' last film, Rio Lobo (1970). He didnt have another acting job for two years, until he was offered an unaccredited role in Young Billy Young. As a young man, I never knew if someone liked me just because I was my fathers son., Posted by Classic Movies Digest onFriday, August 28, 2015, Beside Christophers personal problems for being a Hollywood stars son, he also faced some challenges for this in his career: I had to be ten times better than anyone else tested, so that if the film bombed, whoever cast me could not be accused of putting me in because they knew my father. () However, today, despite my own career of over 30 years and my father being dead for over ten years, Im still referred to as Robert Mitchums son. I have always been treated as my own person on the set.. On television, he was Victor (Pug) Henry, the pivotal character in an 18-hour 1983 mini-series, ''The Winds of War,'' based on the novel by Herman Wouk, and was one of the stars of the sequel, ''War and Remembrance,'' in 1988. Mitchum and Kerr reunited for the Fred Zinnemann film The Sundowners (1960), playing an Australian husband and wife struggling in the sheep industry during the Depression. The films he found, however, were of a lesser grade and quite violent in comparison to his father's sturdy work, with such obvious titles as Savage Harbor (1987), SFX Retaliator (1987), Aftershock (1990), Striking Point (1995) and Lycanthrope (1999). In fact, it wasnt until 1973 that my father even acknowledged that I was an actor.. They had a daughter, Carol Morris, born July 1927 on the family farm in Delaware. 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.. The Mitchum image was evident even at the start of his career, when he first generated a world-weary toughness. 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. [26], Mitchum was a Republican who campaigned for Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election,[27] and considered him to be the only honest politician. With Mom it was, Wait til your father gets home.. Throughout his long career, Mr. Mitchum pretended to regard his profession casually, repeatedly remarking in his droning baritone, ''It sure beats working.'' He served 60 days on an honor farm, and in January 1951, after he completed a period of probation, his case was reviewed. It costars his son James, as his on-screen brother, in a role originally intended for Elvis Presley. His first foray into the genre was a supporting role in the 1944 B-movie When Strangers Marry, about newlyweds and a New York City serial killer. Hollywood cinema was crushed to death in a train accident when he cast... 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