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Robert Charles Duran Mitchum (August 6, 1917
– July 1, 1997) was an United
States|American film actor and singer. He was born
in Bridgeport, Connecticut|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.

==Background==
Mitchum's father, James, a soldier and barroom
brawler, was Scottish-Irish on his father's side
and Blackfoot Indian on his mother's. His mother,
Ann, was a Norwegian immigrant. During his
childhood, Mitchum frequently went out of his way
to get into trouble. Throughout his life, he was
famous for fabricating fantastic tales about his
past, claiming to have once worked for a Georgia
(U.S. state)|Georgia chain gang, escaping after
six days. 

Mitchum was expelled from Haaren High School in
Hell's Kitchen, New York City as a teenager and
wandered the country during the early years of the
Great Depression, taking on such roles as a
workman and professional boxing|boxer. He finally
settled down in Long Beach, California in 1936
with his sister, Julie, who convinced him to join
her in the local theater guild. In 1940 he married
his boyhood sweetheart, Dorothy Spence, in
Delaware. The Mitchums had two sons, Jim Mitchum
and Christopher Mitchum, both actors; and a
daughter, Petrine.

==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.

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. 

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 movie)|Cape Fear (1962), an aging petty hood
in The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), and
detective Philip Marlowe in Farewell, My Lovely
(1975).

==Music==
Few people who have watched his films have noticed
that Robert Mitchum also was an accomplished
singer, providing songs for Rachel and the
Stranger, The Night of the Hunter, and others.

Decca recorded Mitchum singing six songs from
Rachel and the Stranger in longer and more
elaborate versions than appear in the film; the
company released two on a 78 at the time, and the
full set was published much later on CD. 

In March 1957, he recorded the calypso album
Calypso - Is Like So . . .|Calypso — Is Like
So . . .. After meeting such
artists as Mighty Sparrow and Lord Invader while
filming on location in Trinidad, Mitchum
successfully pitched the concept of this album to
Capitol Records. Mitchum opted for an "ethnic"
sound, the result sounding like (in Lee Server's
words) "equal parts Belafonte, Martin Denny, and
karaoke bar".

In 1967 he recorded That Man, Robert Mitchum,
Sings for Monument Records, for the most part
older pop and country pop songs (notably "Little
Old Wine Drinker Me", which had inspired him),
plus his own "Ballad of Thunder Road" and
"Whippoorwill".

==Death==
Robert Mitchum died in his sleep on July 1 1997 of
lung cancer and emphysema, at the age of
seventy-nine. His The Big Sleep (1978 film)|The
Big Sleep co-star James Stewart (actor)|James
Stewart died the next day.

==Filmography==
*The Magic of Make-Up (1942) (documentary)
*The Human Comedy (1943)
*Hoppy Serves a Writ (1943)
*Aerial Gunner (1943)
*Border Patrol (movie)|Border Patrol (1943)
*Follow the Band (1943)
*The Leather Burners (1943)
*Colt Comrades (1943)
*We've Never Been Licked (1943)
*Lone Star Trail (1943)
*Beyond the Last Frontier (1943)
*Corvette K-225 (1943)
*Bar 20 (1943)
*Doughboys in Ireland (1943)
*False Colors (1943)
*Minesweeper (movie)|Minesweeper (1943)
*The Dancing Masters (1943)
*Cry 'Havoc (1943)
*Riders of the Deadline (1943)
*Gung Ho! (1943)
*Johnny Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1944)
*Mr. Winkle Goes to War (1944)
*When Strangers Marry (1944)
*Girl Rush (1944)
*Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
*Nevada (movie)|Nevada (1944)
*Story of G.I. Joe (1945)
*West of the Pecos (1945)
*Till the End of Time (movie)|Till the End of Time
(1946)
*Undercurrent (1946)
*The Locket (1946)
*Pursued (1947)
*Crossfire (movie)|Crossfire (1947)
*Desire Me (1947)
*Out of the Past (1947)
*Rachel and the Stranger (1948)
*Blood on the Moon (1948)
*The Red Pony (1949)
*The Big Steal (1949)
*Holiday Affair (1949)
*Where Danger Lives (1950)
*Hollywood Goes to Bat (1950) (short subject)
*My Forbidden Past (1951)
*His Kind of Woman (1951)
*The Racket (1951 movie)|The Racket (1951)
*Macao (1952 movie)|Macao (1952)
*One Minute to Zero (1952)
*The Lusty Men (1952)
*Angel Face (1952)
*White Witch Doctor (1953)
*Second Chance (1953)
*She Couldn't Say No (1954)
*River of No Return (1954)
*Track of the Cat (1954)
*Not as a Stranger (1955)
*The Night of the Hunter (1955) 
*Man with the Gun (1955)
*Foreign Intrigue (1956)
*Bandido (1956)
*Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957)
*Fire Down Below (1957)
*The Enemy Below (1957)
*Thunder Road (1958)
*The Hunters (1958)
*The Angry Hills (1959)
*The Wonderful Country (1959)
*Home from the Hill (1960)
*A Terrible Beauty (1960)
*The Sundowners (1960)
*The Grass Is Greener (1960)
*The Last Time I Saw Archie (1961)
*Cape Fear (1962 movie)|Cape Fear (1962)
*The Longest Day (movie)|The Longest Day (1962)
*Two for the Seesaw (1962)
*The List of Adrian Messenger (1963) (Cameo)
*Rampage (1963)
*Man in the Middle (1964)
*What a Way to Go! (1964)
*Mister Moses (1965)
*El Dorado (1966)
*The Way West (1967)
*Villa Rides (1968)
*Anzio (1968)
*5 Card Stud (1968)
*Secret Ceremony (1968)
*Young Billy Young (1969)
*The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969)
*Ryan's Daughter (1970)
*Going Home (1971)
*The Wrath of God (1972)
*The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)
*The Yakuza (1975)
*Farewell, My Lovely (1975)
*Midway (movie) (1976)
*The Last Tycoon (1976)
*The Amsterdam Kill (1977)
*Matilda (1978)
*The Big Sleep (1978 film)|The Big Sleep (1978)
*Breakthrough (1979)
*Agency (1980)
*Nightkill (1980)
*That Championship Season (1982)
*The Ambassador (1984)
*Maria's Lovers (1984)
*Remembering Marilyn (1987) (documentary)
*Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend (1987)
(documentary)
*Mr. North (1988)
*Scrooged (1988)
*John Huston: The Man, the Movies, the Maverick
(1989) (documentary)
*Waiting for the Wind (1990) (short subject)
*Believed Violent (1990)
*Cape Fear (1991 movie)|Cape Fear (1991)
*The Seven Deadly Sins (1992) 
*Woman of Desire (1993)
*Tombstone (film)|Tombstone (1993) (narrator)
*Backfire! (1995)
*Dead Man (1995)
*Waiting for Sunset (1995)
*Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick (1996)
(documentary)
*James Dean: Race with Destiny (1997)

==Discography==
*Calypso - Is Like So . . .|Calypso — Is
Like So . . . (1955)
*That Man, Robert Mitchum, Sings (1967)

==Further reading==
*Book reference|Author=Server, Lee|Title=Robert
Mitchum: "Baby, I don't care| Publisher=New York:
St Martin's|Year=2001|ID=ISBN 0-312-26206-X


==External links==
*imdb name | id=000053 | name=Robert Mitchum
*http://home.sprintmail.com/~sknolle/ "The Big
Sleep", devoted to Robert Mitchum