Robert Charles Durman Mitchum net worth is $10 Million. Also know about Robert Charles Durman Mitchum bio, salary, height, age weight, relationship and more …

Robert Charles Durman Mitchum Wiki Biography

Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was born on 6 August 1917, in Bridgeport, Connecticut USA, to Ann Gunderson of Norwegian descent, and James Mitchum of Scottish-Ulster and Blackfoot Indian descent. He was an actor, director, author, poet, composer and singer, but best known for his starring roles in several classic films noir such as “Out of the Past” and “The Night of the Hunter”, as well as for his role in the film “Cape Fear”. He passed away in 1997.

One of the most memorable leading men of the 20th century, how wealthy was Robert Mitchum? According to sources, Mitchum had amassed a wealth of over $10 million, acquired largely during his acting career which began in the early 1940s.

Mitchum’s father was accidentally killed when he was still a baby, and he was raised by his mother and stepfather. He was a quite problematic boy, frequently getting into trouble. Leaving both his home and school in his teens, he traveled around the country on railroad cars, taking various jobs, including professional boxing.

In 1936, he moved to Long Beach, California, to live with his sister, working as a ghostwriter and later as a stagehand and occasional extra in a local theater company. He eventually left theater to take a job as a machine operator in an aircraft company.

After suffering a nervous breakdown which led to temporary blindness, Mitchum found employment in the film industry as an extra in 1943, landing numerous roles that year and having modest success in the B-Western genre. He earned his first taste of fame with the role of officer Bill Walker in the 1945 war film “The Story of G.I. Joe”, a great commercial and critical success which brought Mitchum his only Oscar nomination. He was then drafted and served eight months in the military, which stabilized his net worth.

Mitchum’s first major noir was the 1947 “Out of the Past”, in which he played a gas-station owner and former investigator named Jeff Markham, the role which enabled him to achieve a high level of success and recognition, considerably adding to his wealth. However, the actor soon found himself spending over a month in jail, for allegedly possessing marijuana, along with actress Lila Leeds, a conviction which was later quashed, but which apparently brought him publicity which carried over following his release, and he began landing roles in several box-office hits, such as “Rachel and the Stranger”, “The Red Pony” and the film noir “The Big Steal”,adding to his net worth.

The ’50s saw Mitchum starring in films such as “My Forbidden Past”, “The Racket” and “River of No Return”. In 1955 he got the role of a criminal posing as a preacher, Reverend Harry Powell, in the film noir “The Night of the Hunter”. His performance, often considered to be his best role ever, made Mitchum one of the most recognizable faces of his generation, significantly improving his net worth and his popularity with audiences.

His next major part came in 1962, when he portrayed the menacing rapist Max Cady in the psychological thriller “Cape Fear”, furthering his reputation for playing predatory characters. Other notable roles of the decade came with the films “The Longest Day”, “Anzio” and “El Dorado”. All contributed to his wealth.

With the ’70s, Mitchum began appearing in romances and dramas, his most memorable roles being in “Ryan’s Daughter”, “Yakuza”, “Farewell, My Lovely” and “The Big Sleep”. His ’80s roles included the films “Nightkill”, “That Championship Season” and “Scrooged”, and the miniseries “The Winds of War” and “War and Remembrance”. He continued to appear in films until the mid- ’90s, his last role being in the TV film “James Dean: Race with Destiny”.

Aside from his acting career, Mitchum was also involved in music, both as a singer and composer. In addition to using his singing voice in his film work, he released two albums, the 1957 “Calypso – is like so…” and the 1967 “That Man, Robert Mitchum, Sings”, achieving modest success. He also co-wrote and composed music for an oratorio produced by Orson Welles at the Hollywood Bowl.

In his personal life, Mitchum was married to Dorothy from 1940 until his death. The couple had three children together. Mitchum died in mid-97 of complications of lung cancer and emphysema, being aged 79.

IMDB Wikipedia $10 million 1917 1917-8-6 1997-07-01 6′ 1″ (1.85 m) Actor Ann Harriet Gunderson August 6 Bridgeport Cape Fear (1962) Cape Fear (1991) Connecticut Dorothy Spence ; children El Dorado (1966) James Thomas Mitchum Julie Mitchum John Mitchum Bentley Mitchum Leo Lila Leeds Out of the Past (1947) producer Robert Charles Durman Mitchum Robert Mitchum Net Worth Ryan’s Daughter (1970) She Shoulda Said No! (1949) Soundtrack The Night of the Hunter (1955) U.S. When Strangers Marry (1944)

Robert Charles Durman Mitchum Quick Info

Robert Charles Durman Mitchum Trademarks

1. Often played loners and drifters
2. Dimpled chin
3. Deep, commanding, yet lively voice
4. On and off-screen, he was known for his facade of cool, sleepy-eyed indifference

Robert Charles Durman Mitchum Quotes

• No, I don’t identify in my mind with criminals, but my exposure to them has helped my understanding. Oh, sure, sure, sure, sure. Sure. I know the freakers, you know — the burglars, the uptighters, those creeps who puke or jerk off or something every time they make a score, so you can pick up on their modus operandi.
• The single thing I’m grateful for that’s come out of the whole [Vietnam] war mess has been the recognition of the need for communication. I’ve gone sometimes on dangerous waters in the interest of communication because I believe in it. I believe that everyone in the world should at least have the privilege of knowing what’s happening all at the same time. One thing I’ve learned is that the greatest fuckin’ slavery is ignorance, and the biggest commodity is ignorance — the dissemination of ignorance, the sale and burgeoning marketing of ignorance.
• I get along with people very well, really. I do. I do. Really. Every now and then, some guy gets the hots and figures to go home and tell his old lady he just decked that motherfucker Mitchum. Why, she’ll shoot him, man! “Robert Mitchum? You stomped his ass? Why, you dirty motherfucker!” Me, I’m easy. I don’t go through red lights. I don’t steal.
• I worked three pictures for 28 days straight. We’d shoot all night at RKO [The Locket (1946)], then I’d report to Undercurrent (1946) from seven in the morning until noon, when I’d be flown to Monterey to work all afternoon with Greer Garson [Desire Me (1947)].
• RKO made the same film with me for ten years. They were so alike I wore the same suit in six of them and the same Burberry trench coat. They made a male Jane Russell out of me. I was the staff hero. They got so they wanted me to take some of my clothes off in the pictures. I objected to this, so I put on some weight and looked like a Bulgarian wrestler when I took my shirt off. Only two pictures in that time made any sense whatever. I complained and they told me frankly that they had a certain amount of baloney to sell and I was the boy to do it.
• They could never decide to their satisfaction what type I was. One would say, “He’s a heart-broken Byronic.” Another would say, “No, he ain’t; he’s an all-American boy.” People began talking about Mitchum-type roles, but I still don’t know what they mean. They’d paint eyes on my eyelids, man, and I’d walk through it.
• They think I don’t know my lines. That’s not true. I’m just too drunk to say ’em.
• [on Jane Russell] Miss Russell was a very strong character. Very good-humored when she wasn’t being cranky.
• [on Steve McQueen] He sure don’t bring much brains to the party, that kid.
• [asked what he looks for in a script before accepting a job] Days off.
• [on Sarah Miles] She’s a monster. If you think she’s not strong, you’d better pay attention.
• [on working with Faye Dunaway] When I got here I walked in thinking I was a star and then I found I was supposed to do everything the way she says. Listen, I’m not going to take any temperamental whims from anyone, I just take a long walk and cool off. If I didn’t do that, I know I’d wind up dumping her on her derrière.
• I only read the reviews of my films if they’re amusing. Six books have been written about me but I’ve only met two of the authors. They get my name and birthplace wrong in the first paragraph. From there it’s all downhill.
• [1968] The Rin Tin Tin method is good enough for me. That dog never worried about motivation or concepts and all that junk.
• [1967] Where are the real artists? Today it’s four-barreled carburetors and that’s it.
• Up there on the screen you’re thirty feet wide, your eyeball is six feet high, but it doesn’t mean that you really amount to anything or have anything important to say.
• Sometimes, I think I ought to go back and do at least one thing really well. But again, indolence will probably cause me to hesitate about finding a place to start. Part of that indolence perhaps is due to shyness because I’m a natural hermit. I’ve been in constant motion of escape all my life. I never really found the right corner to hide in.
• I got a great life out of the movies. I’ve been all over the world and met the most fantastic people. I don’t really deserve all I’ve gotten. It’s a privileged life, and I know it.
• [1948] I never will believe there is such a thing as a great actor.
• I often regret my good reviews, because there is no point in doing something I know to be inferior and then I find I have come off the best in the film. Wouldn’t you find that worrying?
• I know production values are better, but are the scripts, are the pictures? The thing is, it’s a hell of a lot more work, and I don’t see overall where the films are any better, really?
• These kids only want to talk about acting method and motivation; in my day all we talked about was screwing and overtime.
• People make too much of acting. You are not helping anyone like being a doctor or even a musician. In the final analysis, you have exalted no one but yourself.
• Just after we shot Secret Ceremony (1968), lesbianism came in… I’m no damned good as a lesbian.
• [on The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969)] How the hell did I get into this picture anyway? I kept reading in the papers that I was going to do it, but when they sent me the script I just tossed it on the heap with the rest of them. But somehow, one Monday morning, here I was. How the hell do these things happen to a man?
• [1983] Stars today are just masturbation images.
• [his opinion of Method actors Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson] They are all small.
• [on four-time co-star Deborah Kerr] The best, my favorite… Life would be kind if I could live it with Deborah around.
• How do I keep fit? I lay down a lot.
• [asked why, in his mid-60s, he took on the arduous task of an 18-hour mini-series, The Winds of War (1983)] It promised a year of free lunches.
• Young actors love me. They think if that big slob can make it, there’s a chance for us.
• I came back from the war and ugly heroes were in.
• I kept the same suit for six years – and the same dialog. We just changed the title of the picture and the leading lady.
• You know what the average Robert Mitchum fan is? He’s full of warts and dandruff and he’s probably got a hernia too, but he sees me up there on the screen and he thinks if that bum can make it, I can be president.
• I’ve survived because I work cheap and don’t take up too much time.
• Sure I was glad to see John Wayne win the Oscar. I’m always glad to see the fat lady win the Cadillac on television, too.
• [his opinion about the Vietnam war, in 1968] If they won’t listen to reason over there, just kill ’em. Nuke ’em all.
• There just isn’t any pleasing some people. The trick is to stop trying.
• John Wayne had four-inch lifts in his shoes. He had the overheads on his boat accommodated to fit him. He had a special roof put in his station wagon. The son-of-a-bitch, they probably buried him in his goddamn lifts.
• Not that I’m a complete whore, understand. There are movies I won’t do for any amount. I turned down Patton (1970) and I turned down Dirty Harry (1971). Movies that piss on the world. If I’ve got five bucks in my pocket, I don’t need to make money that f***ing way, daddy.
• You’ve got to realize that a Steve McQueen performance lends itself to monotony.
• [asked what jail was like, after being released on a marijuana possession charge] It’s like Palm Springs without the riff-raff.
• I never changed anything, except my socks and my underwear. And I never did anything to glorify myself or improve my lot. I took what came and did the best I could with it.
• Every two or three years, I knock off for a while. That way I’m always the new girl in the whorehouse.
• I have two acting styles: with and without a horse.
• Years ago, I saved up a million dollars from acting, a lot of money in those days, and I spent it all on a horse farm in Tucson. Now when I go down there, I look at that place and I realize my whole acting career adds up to a million dollars worth of horse shit.
• I never take any notice of reviews – unless a critic has thought up some new way of describing me. That old one about my lizard eyes and anteater nose and the way I sleep my way through pictures is so hackneyed now.
• When I drop dead and they rush to the drawer, there’s going to be nothing in it but a note saying ‘later’.
• [on press stories] They’re all true – booze, brawls, broads, all true. Make up some more if you want to.
• People think I have an interesting walk. Hell, I’m just trying to hold my gut in.
• [on his acting talents] Listen. I got three expressions: looking left, looking right and looking straight ahead.
• I’ve still got the same attitude I had when I started. I haven’t changed anything but my underwear.
• Movies bore me; especially my own.
• I started out to be a sex fiend but couldn’t pass the physical.
• I gave up being serious about making pictures around the time I made a film with Greer Garson and she took a hundred and twenty-five takes to say no.
• The only difference between me and my fellow actors is that I’ve spent more time in jail.

Robert Charles Durman Mitchum Important Facts

• $1,000,000
• $1,250,000
• $500,000
• $870,000
• $200,000 + 20% of gross
• $150,000
• $400,000
• $100,000
• $200,000
• $200,000 + % of gross
• $5,000 /week
• $3,000 /week
• $10,400
• $25,000
• $25,000
• $350 /week
• $75 /day
• $100 /week
• $75 /day
• $100 /week
• In his 1973 autobiography “Anything for a Quiet Life” Jack Hawkins wrote that Mitchum would drink 49 glasses of rum before having dinner when they were filming Rampage (1963).
• Mitchum wrote an oratorio that was produced and directed by Orson Welles at the Hollywood Bowl in the 1940s.
• Was said to have been a candidate for the role of Samson in Samson and Delilah (1949).
• One of the lesser-known aspects of Mitchum’s career were his forays into music, both as singer and composer. Critic Greg Adams writes that “Unlike most celebrity vocalists, Robert Mitchum actually had musical talent.” Mitchum’s voice was often used instead of that of a professional singer when his character sang in his films. Notable productions featuring Mitchum’s own singing voice included Rachel and the Stranger (1948), River of No Return (1954) and The Night of the Hunter (1955). After hearing traditional calypso music and meeting artists such as Mighty Sparrow and Lord Invader while filming Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) in the Caribbean island of Tobago, he recorded Calypso – is like so… in 1957. On the album, he emulated the calypso sound and style, even adopting the style’s unique pronunciations and slang. A year later, he recorded a song he had written for the film Thunder Road (1958), titled “The Ballad of Thunder Road”. The country-style song became a modest hit for Mitchum, reaching No. 69 on the Billboard Pop Singles Chart. The song was included as a bonus track on a successful reissue of Calypso… and helped market the film to a wider audience.
• Became good friends with legendary animal trainer Ralph Helfer’s famous African Lion Zamba while filming the movie Rampage (1963).
• In 1975 he was offered his high school diploma if he attended a ceremony at his old school. Mitchum did not attend the ceremony, but the diploma was still posted to him.
• Mitchum refused to be interviewed for George Eells’ biography of the actor.
• While at RKO Radio Pictures, Mitchum became the first male movie star to refuse to shave his chest for shirtless roles. In order to avoid that, he allowed himself to develop a pot belly to avoid having to take his shirt off at all.
• As of November 2013, Mitchum remains the subject of a documentary, still in progress after some 20 years, by Bruce Weber, which was screened at the Venice Film Festival in August 2013.
• He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6240 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on January 25, 1984.
• Was announced as co star with Spencer Tracy and Paul Newman in the Jerry Wald production of “The Enemy Within”, based on the book by Attorney General Robert Kennedy, which at 1962/63 was in preparation for Twentieth Century Fox.
• As a teenager, Mitchum was sentenced to a Georgia chain gang on a charge of vagrancy.
• According to Mitchum biographer John Belton, during the shooting of Undercurrent (1946) Katharine Hepburn told Mitchum, “You know you can’t act, and if you hadn’t been good-looking, you would have never gotten a picture. I’m tired of playing with people who have nothing to offer.”.
• Dwight Whitney wrote in “TV Guide” on June 7, 1969 about Mitchum that there is the “suggestion, implicit in every utterance, that within the body of this ‘movie-star’ lies imprisoned the soul of a poet.”.
• Turned down the role that eventually went to Tony Curtis in The Defiant Ones (1958). Mitchum, a real-life veteran of a Southern chain gang, did not believe the premise that a black man and a white man would be chained together and said that such a thing would never happen in the South. Over the years, this reason was corrupted to the point where many people now believe Mitchum turned down the role because he did not want to be chained to a black man, an absolute falsehood. Curtis repeated the inaccurate story in his autobiography, but later recanted after Mitchum’s real reason was explained to him.
• Mitchum was cast by Howard Hughes in Holiday Affair (1949) because Hughes felt that Mitchum needed to “soften” his image after his marijuana conviction and prison sentence.
• Is the subject of the song “Robert Mitchum” by Swedish singer Olle Ljungström, available on his album “Världens Räddaste Man” (translates “The World’s Most Terrified Man”).
• Was the inspiration for the Kurt Busiek’s Astro City character “Steeljack”.
• Was mentioned in the song “One More Arrow” by Elton John.
• Early in his career many newspapers and fan magazines promoted him as a “new” Clark Gable, perhaps because both actors had strongly masculine images and powerful, distinctive voices. With Out of the Past (1947) however, Mitchum proved that he was a great star in his own right.
• Is mentioned in the Queens of the Stone Age song “The Fun Machine Took a Shit and Died”, off their 2007 album “Era Vulgaris”.
• The 60-year-old Mitchum impressed Oliver Reed, Britain’s legendary hellraiser, by drinking a whole bottle of gin in 55 minutes on the set of The Big Sleep (1978).
• In 1959, the Mitchums moved out of Hollywood and into a farm they had bought on the Maryland shore of Chesapeake Bay, near the town of Trappe. In 1965, the family returned to Hollywood, largely at wife Dorothy Mitchum’s insistence, and moved into a modest, ivy-covered mansion in Bel Air. Mitchum also purchased a 76-acre ranch near Los Angeles, mostly as a home for his growing collection of quarter horses.
• He claimed his famous eyes were the result of a combination of injuries from his boxing days and chronic insomnia, which he suffered from throughout his life.
• Mitchum was in poor health while filming The Winds of War (1983), and once again there was talk of retirement. He filmed Maria’s Lovers (1984) despite suffering from a solid case of pneumonia.
• While filming El Dorado (1967) Mitchum was amused by co-star John Wayne’s attempts to play his screen persona to the hilt in real life. He recalled that Wayne wore four-inch lifts to increase his height and had the roof of his car raised so he could drive wearing his Stetson.
• Turned down Gene Hackman’s role as drug-busting policeman Popeye Doyle in The French Connection (1971) because he found the story offensive.
• Presented with a People’s Choice Award backstage by Charlton Heston for War and Remembrance (1988) during the 1989 ceremony in Beverly Hills, California.
• Many critics were unconvinced by the 65-year-old Mitchum winning World War II in The Winds of War (1983). When the producers made a sequel, War and Remembrance (1988), they worried that a 70-year-old Mitchum would be even less convincing and considered replacing him with James Coburn. Eventually they decided that what they would gain in fewer wrinkles, they would lose in Mitchum’s formidable screen presence and charisma.
• Though respectful of Robert De Niro’s talent, Mitchum was amused by the young Method actor’s habit of remaining in character all day as film studio chief Monroe Stahr during the filming of The Last Tycoon (1976). Mitchum gave De Niro the nickname “Kid Monroe”, and made many jokes about him with the older actors on the set like Ray Milland and Dana Andrews.
• After two weeks of shooting on the movie Tombstone (1993), the studio fired writer (director) Kevin Jarre and hired George P. Cosmatos. He, with Kurt Russell’s input, cut a number of scenes (for actors) and changed them to new action scenes, weakening a beautifully written script. Part of what was cut was the old man Ike’s character. As Mitchum had already signed the contract, they had him do the voice-over instead.
• Replaced Burt Lancaster in Maria’s Lovers (1984) after the elder actor was forced to undergo emergency quadruple heart bypass surgery.
• President Dwight D. Eisenhower would never allow any of Mitchum’s movies to be played in the White House, due to the actor’s marijuana possession conviction.
• Had a longstanding dislike of fellow tough guy actors Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson.
• 5 Card Stud (1968), the showdown between Hollywood’s two deities of indifference, produced no sparks on or off the screen. Dean Martin remained in his trailer watching television after filming was completed, and delivered his lines as though he had memorized them phonetically. The only excitement came when a massive camera collapsed and nearly hammered Mitchum into the ground. Instead, the star moved casually aside while thousands of dollars worth of equipment smashed around him.
• Turned down the leading role in Sam Peckinpah’s masterpiece The Wild Bunch (1969), which went to his old friend William Holden, and made 5 Card Stud (1968). His excuse was they were both westerns.
• He was fired from Blood Alley (1955), allegedly for getting drunk and arguing with a crew member whom he then proceeded to throw into a nearby river, a charge Mitchum always denied.
• Visited his son Christopher Mitchum on the set of Rio Lobo (1970). Director Howard Hawks asked the elder Mitchum to reprise his El Dorado (1967) role as a drunken sheriff, but Mitchum claimed he was now retired. John Wayne responded, “Mitch has been retiring ever since the first day I met him.”.
• He seriously considered retiring from acting in 1968 due to concerns over the quality of his recent movies. After a year’s absence, during which he spent much of the time driving around America visiting old friends and staying in motels, he was lured back to star in Ryan’s Daughter (1970).
• Mitchum once said that Reverend Harry Powell, the murderous villain he played in The Night of the Hunter (1955), was his favorite role.
• His performance as Reverend Harry Powell in The Night of the Hunter (1955) is ranked #71 on Premiere magazine’s 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
• He was persuaded by his manager Antonio Consentino, a die-hard Republican, to campaign for George Bush in the 1992 presidential election. He also narrated a biographical film of the President for the Republican National Convention, and attended a fundraiser at Bob Hope’s house in Hollywood.
• In 1981, he fired his secretary, Reva Frederick, when he closed his office. Mitchum was subsequently sued as she claimed he owed her a pension back-dated to 1961. There was no paperwork to support this claim, and she dropped her suit when evidence was discovered that she had stolen millions of dollars from Mitchum over the years. As part of the “deal”, he agreed not to prosecute. During the course of these events, Ms. Fredrick suffered a stroke from which she never fully recovered.
• He was a huge fan of Elvis Presley’s early music, and wanted Presley to star with him in Thunder Road (1958). Unfortunately, Tom Parker’s demands for Presley’s salary could not be met in this independent production, which Mitchum was financing himself.
• Was the defendant in FTC (Federal Taxation Commissioner) vs. Mitchum (1965), a famous taxation case in Australia, in relation to income earned in Australia while working there on The Sundowners (1960).
• His arrest for marijuana possession in the late 1940s was one of the first times a major actor had been jailed for this crime. According to Lee Server’s 2001 biography, “Robert Mitchum: Baby I Don’t Care”, he was still smoking pot into his old age.
• During a break in filming War and Remembrance (1988) in August 1987, Mitchum replaced his friend John Huston as an aging millionaire in Mr. North (1988) after Huston, who suffered from emphysema, was hospitalized with pneumonia. In October 1987, Mitchum filled in for Edward Woodward, who was recovering from a heart attack, in a special two-part episode of The Equalizer (1985).
• His vocal support for the Vietnam War failed to affect his appeal with American youth, and in 1968, a poll of teenagers declared him the coolest celebrity. Mitchum responded that they must have missed his recent films.
• His driving license from 1950 gave his height as 6′ even, one inch less than usually reported. However, Mitchum described himself as being exactly six feet tall in interviews.
• He was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea by wife Dorothy Mitchum and neighbor Jane Russell. At Mitchum’s insistence, no memorial service was held.
• Robert’s father, James Thomas Mitchum, was born in Lane, Williamsburg, South Carolina. James had English ancestry. Robert’s mother, Ann Harriet (Gunderson), was Norwegian, from Kristiania, Oslo, Norway. Robert is sometimes described as having Native American ancestry on his father’s side. It is not clear if this ancestry has been verified/documented.
• Addressed the Republican National Convention in 1992.
• Although he had numerous affairs throughout his marriage, he remained with wife Dorothy Mitchum for nearly 60 years.
• Biography in: “American National Biography.” Supplement 1, pp. 414-416. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Died one day before his The Big Sleep (1978) co-star James Stewart.
• Treated for alcoholism at the Betty Ford Center in 1984.
• Turned down the lead role of Gen. George S. Patton in Patton (1970), allegedly because he believed he would ruin the film due to his indifference. During a Turner Classic Movies interview with Robert Osborne, Mitchum said that he knew the movie could be a great one due to the script, but that the studio would want to concentrate on battles and tanks moving around on screen rather than on the character of Patton. Mitchum believed that with himself in the role, the movie would turn out mediocre; what was needed was a passionate actor who would fight his corner to keep the focus on Patton, an actor like George C. Scott, whom Mitchum recommended to the producers.
• Great-grandfather of Allexanne Mitchum, Cappy Van Dien and Grace Van Dien.
• Was named #23 greatest actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends by the American Film Institute.
• Was close friends with Richard Egan, and served as a pallbearer at his funeral in 1987.
• Michael Madsen called Mitchum his “role model” and inspiration to take up acting as a profession.
• In the 1950s, he was selected by Howard Hughes to appear in a series of films he was producing. Hughes considered Mitchum a “friend,” but (as a paranoid recluse) hardly met the actor. Mitchum was halfway put off and halfway amused by the “crazy old man” and clearly saw that he was a surrogate for Hughes as the strapping actor “romanced” young starlets on screen.
• Was mentioned by name as part of The Velvet Underground song “New Age” (from the 1970 album “Loaded”).
• He was voted the 61st Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
• Carefully maintained a facade of indifference, always lazily insisting that he made movies just so he could get laid, score some pot, and make money, and cared nothing about art. This is surely true of some films, which he likely picked to make money, but certain directors and films seemed to secretly pique his interest, including his work with Charles Laughton, John Huston and Howard Hawks.
• He was accused of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial after an interview he gave to Barry Rehfeld of “Esquire” magazine promoting The Winds of War (1983) at his home in February 1983. Mitchum wrote an apologetic letter on 9 March 1983 to Herbert Luft, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s Hollywood columnist. Mitchum claimed he had recited views expressed by the bigoted football coach he had played in That Championship Season (1982), which Rehfeld “mistakenly believed to be my own. From that point on, he approached me as the character in the script and in playing the devil’s advocate in a prankish attempt to string him along we compounded a tragedy of errors.” Mitchum added he was “truly sorry that this misunderstanding has upset so many people, especially since it is so foreign to my principle. The attendant misfortune is that it has brought me a spate of mail from people and organizations who are encouraged to believe that I share their bigotry and discrimination.”.
• Was one of four actors (with Jack Nicholson, Bette Davis, and Faye Dunaway) to have two villainous roles ranked in the American Film Institute’s 100 years of The Greatest Heroes and Villains, as Max Cady in Cape Fear (1962) at #28 and as Reverend Harry Powell in The Night of the Hunter (1955) at #29.
• Briefly served in the United States Army during World War II, with service number 39 744 068, from April 12 – October 11, 1945, after he was drafted. According to Lee Server’s 2001 biography, “Robert Mitchum: Baby I Don’t Care”, Mitchum said he served as a medic at an induction department, checking recruits’ genitals for venereal disease (a “pecker checker”). Always the iconoclast, although he did not want to join the military, he served honorably and was discharged as a Private First Class and received the World War II Victory Medal.
• In 1947, he and Gary Gray recorded the songs from Rachel and the Stranger (1948) for Delta Records’ soundtrack album. In 1968, he recorded another album, entitled “That Man Robert Mitchum… Sings”. It included the track “Little Old Wine Drinker Me”, which later became a hit for Dean Martin. In 1998, these songs were released on CD as “Robert Mitchum Sings”.
• Sidelines: Played the saxophone and wrote poetry.
• Grandfather of actors Bentley Mitchum and Price Mitchum, actress Carrie Mitchum and male model Kian Mitchum.
• Brother of John Mitchum and Julie Mitchum.
• Father of James Mitchum, Christopher Mitchum, and Trini Mitchum.

Robert Charles Durman Mitchum Filmography

Robert Charles Durman Mitchum Awards