Robert Mitchum: An Exceptional Actor In The Film

“Robert Mitchum was a one-of-a-kinder, he was a legend, bigger than life.” Bruce Dern, a former Co-star, said in an interview (“Robert Mitchum”). To be honest, he is the most legendary, but an exceptional actor in the whole film industry. He was a hobo before he started his acting career, and kept a hobo’s heart till he died (Clarke). He was an actor who was famous of acting as a “western” over 100 movies as well (“Robert Mitchum”). He was so special that until 1970s, a new generation of critics placed him in the first rank of screen actors, before that, he didn’t get any Oscar. Robert Mitchum, the most all-powerful actor in the movie stars’ history ever. Unlike any other movie stars in the industry of that time, Robert Mitchum came from
an ordinary single parent family, his father, a railroad worker, was killed in an accident when Mitchum was only 2 years old (Teachout). Due to the lack of father’s impact in his childhood, Mitchum indulged himself, and became a troublemaker. At one point, he was arrested for vagrancy during the week on a Georgia chain gang (“Robert Mitchum”). After 16, he was going to ride trains and take odd jobs, longshoreman, truck loader, dishwasher, ditch digger, nightclub bouncer, and even heavyweight boxer (“Robert Mitchum”). Ironically, although he was doing so well in boxing, after 27 professional fights, he decided to quit since he had one fight, which left his “nose over to one side, ...a scar on my left eye...[and] had me all messed up.” (“Robert Mitchum”). Eventually, in 1937, he returned to his family in Long Beach, California. His sister convinced him to join a local theater company (“Robert Mitchum”), which was the beginning of his acting career. Fortunately, while working for Lockheed Aircraft as a drop-hammer operator, he broke into Hollywood, making his film debut in a “Hopalang Cassidy” western (“Robert Mitchum”). And after making more than 20 movies, an in-house talent scout from RKO saw Mitchum’s potential, signed him to a long-term contract in 1944 (Teachout). It was the best time in his whole career. In the time he worked at the RKO, Robert Mitchum was an ultimate weapon toward the studio.
In 1945, Robert Mitchum took the job of performed as a fictionalized version of the real life hero of “The Death of Captain Waskow” in the film “The Story of G.I.JOE”, which was based on Ernie Pyle’s war dispatches(Teachout). This film brought him an Oscar nomination. (Teachout). And in 1952, in the movie “The Lusty Men”, directed by Nicholas Ray, Mitchum played a washed-up rodeo rider who has learned from punishingly hard experience that the cowboy’s life is “Chicken today, feathers tomorrow.”, showed what he was capable of as an actor (Teachout). After that, Robert Mitchum was entirely sunk into the tough guy movies, ranging from westerns to war films. But he didn’t like it. “For a while it looked like I was going to be stuck in westerns,” Robert Mitchum, the movie star, said in an interview, “I didn’t want [that].” (“Robert Mitchum”). Thus, he tried to apply him into any other roles, “I don’t care what I play,” Robert Mitchum, the screen star, said, “I’ll play polish gays, women, midgets, anything.” (“Robert Mitchum”), he was trying to break his overly familiar he-man image, however, ironically, the attempts of switching his image gave the producers an impression of almighty actor of him , “I think when producers have a part that’s hard to cast, they say ‘send for Mitchum; he’ll do anything.’” Robert Mitchum, the movie star, told the reporter (“Robert Mitchum”). therefore, Robert
Mitchum turned himself into an actor with multiple performance ability, who could play any role in any film. However, everyone gets tired with doing the same job, so does Robert Mitchum, after the long-term contract with RKO, he finally made the decision of leaving the studio, and starting his own production company in 1954 (Teachout).
But he didn’t change his goal of changing his image. After a year, when Charles Laughton invited Mitchum to take part in the movie “Night of the Hunter”, Mitchum accepted it since this movie could give him a chance to make a change of his reputation, but the movie failed at the box office (Teachout). Once he found out that he wasn’t really that good at film industry, he switched himself to make traditional screen entertainments, for instance, psychotic killer, J. Lee Thompson’s Cape fear in 1962; EI Dorado, Howard Hawks’s 1966 remake of Rio Bravo (Teachout). Also, he gave the title role in Franklin Schaffner’s “Patton” to George C. Scott, which helped George win the Best Actor Oscar (Teachout). That’s pretty much his whole career, began with a tough-boy style western, ended with an almighty
actor. “I always thought I had as much inspiration and as much tenderness as anyone else in the business,” Mitchum stated, “I always thought that I could do better, but you don’t get to do better, you get to do more.”(“Robert Mtichum”). Robert Mitchum may not be the most talented star in the industry, but he must be the most diligent and hard-working actor in the history, he appeared in about 120 films. Just like what he said, “I was fortunate from day one, I never looked back and I worked all the time.” (“Robert Mitchum”).