Robert Mitchum
Overview
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...

's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars
Part of the AFI 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars is a list of the top 50 greatest screen legends of American cinema, 25 male and 25 female...

. Mitchum rose to prominence for his starring roles in several major works of the film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...

 style, and is considered a forerunner of the anti-heroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 1960s.
Mitchum was born in Bridgeport
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in Fairfield County, the city had an estimated population of 144,229 at the 2010 United States Census and is the core of the Greater Bridgeport area...

, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

, into a Methodist family.
Quotations

It's just like Palm Springs without the riffraff.

On the 60 days he spent in prison after being caught with marijuana.

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.

Movies bore me, especially my own.

There just isn't any pleasing some people. The trick is to stop trying.

Every two or three years I knock off for a while. That way I'm constantly the new girl in the whorehouse.

I think when producers have a part that's hard to cast, they say, 'Send for Mitchum; he'll do anything.' I don't care what I play; I'll play Polish gays, women, midgets, anything."

This is not a tough job. You read a script. If you like the part and the money is O.K., you do it. Then you remember your lines. You show up on time. You do what the director tells you to do. When you finish, you rest and then go on to the next part. That's it.

on acting

After the war, suddenly there was this thing for ugly heroes, so I started going around in profile.

There are all kinds of rumors about me—and they’re all true, every one of them. You can make some up if you want.”

I’ve still got the same attitude I had when I started. I haven’t changed anything but my underwear.”

 
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