Robert Mitchum was born in 1917 to the son of a sea captain’s daughter and a railroad worker. Mitchum was known as a prankster as a child, often involved in fights and creating havoc in the neighborhood. At age 14 while in Savannah, Georgia, he was arrested for vagrancy and put on a local chain gang; he escaped to return to his family in Delaware.
A nervous breakdown due to job-related stress led Robert to look for work as an actor or extra in movies. He appeared in a few B-movie westerns and appeared as a villain in several films between 1942 and 1943.
Mitchum would become most well-known due to his film noir films that were popular in the mid- to late-40′s. But his career was checkered with bad-boy activity. After a string of successful films for RKO, he and actress Lila Leeds were arrested for possession of marijuana. After serving a week at the county jail, he spent 43 days at a prison farm. The arrest didn’t affect Mitchum’s success in the long term. In fact, the conviction was later over-turned, as it was proven to be a setup. His studio, however, was embarrassed by the ordeal, and they ordered Mitchum to clean up his act or they would terminate his contract.
Even after many successful roles in film noirs and westerns, his childhood prankster days seeped in to his adult life, and he often caused trouble during filming. He was expelled from 1955′s Blood Alley due to his horrible behavior on-set. One day Mitchum showed up drunk and tore apart a studio office when they didn’t have a car ready for him. Mitchum walked off the set of the third day of filming, claiming he could not work with the director. Because of the many pranks he pulled on fellow actors and crew, as well as his continual tardiness, producer John Wayne took over the role himself. Following a succession of average westerns and some box office flops, he regained prominence in the film community with his most well-known character, southern rapist Max Cady in 1962′s Cape Fear.
Robert Mitchum continued to work in to his 80′s, but the parts got smaller as his health deteriorated. He died on July 1, 1997, shortly before his 80th birthday, in Santa Barbara, California, due to complications of lung cancer and emphysema. Yet his dark, cynical personality in real life made his portrayals in film noir films of the 40′s legendary.
