Robert Mitchum was a popular actor who gained a reputation as an antihero and for his film noir appearances. Mitchum was also deeply into sports.
[beMitchum’s lifelong connection to sports, from high school athletics to boxing, continued into his Hollywood career. Notably, he starred in two sports-related films.[
Born Robert Charles Durman Mitchum in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Mitchum attended Haaren High School in Midtown Manhattan. While attending high school in New York, Mitchum ran track and played for the high school football team.
Mitchum as a boxer (photo courtesy of The Hairpin on Medium)
In the summer of 1936, Mitchum had a brief boxing career. Mitchum was a boxer in Nevada to earn some money. He participated in 27 professional boxing matches before retiring from the ring after a fight caused facial injuries–the very injuries that made his face famous. He also broke his nose, and that contributed to Mitchum’s signature hooded and sleepy-eyed appearance.
During his many years as an actor, Mitchum starred in two sports-related films. His most notable film was the Western sports drama The Lusty Men (1952). Mitchum played Jeff McCloud, a washed-up, injured professional rodeo champion who trains a young, hopeful newcomer, Wes Merritt (Arthur Kennedy).
At one point in the film, Mitchum’s character returns to the rodeo, even though he is out of shape. He regains Wes’s respect by doing pretty well in his first competition. But while bareback bronc riding, Jeff’s foot gets stuck in his stirrup. He’s pulled and dragged violently on the ground and gets crushed when the horse falls and rolls over him. Wes’s wife, Louise (Susan Hayward), rushes to his side and tries to seek comfort in him, but Jeff dies in her arms from a punctured lung. When Wes hears the devastating news, he quits the rodeo circuit.
Mitchum also starred in the film adaptation of the basketball drama That Championship Season (1982). He played Coach Daniel B. Delaney, who reminisces about the last time the Fillmore High School basketball team won the 1957 Pennsylvania state championship. The coach and four former victorious players (Martin Sheen, Stacy Keach, Bruce Dern, and Paul Sorvino) would often gather to remember the glory of that shining moment.
Mitchum with Paul Sorvino, Stacy Keach, Robert Mitchum, Bruce Dern, Martin Sheen in That Championship Season (1982), photo courtesy of IMDb
At the movie’s premiere party, Mitchum threw a basketball that inadvertently struck freelance photographer Yvonne Hemsey, who was covering the premiere for Time Magazine. The basketball broke Hemsey’s glasses and knocked out a few of her teeth. This led to a high-profile lawsuit against Mitchum.
Robert Mitchum rose to fame in Hollywood when he starred in such films as The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), West of the Pecos (1945), Till the End of Time (1946), Undercurrent (1946), The Locket (1946), Crossfire (1947), Desire Me (1947), Out of the Past (1947), Blood on the Moon (1948), The Red Pony (1949), The Big Steal (1949), Holiday Affair (1949), Where Danger Lives (1950), My Forbidden Past (1951), His Kind of Woman (1951), The Racket (1951), Macao (1952), One Minute to Zero (1952), Angel Face (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), Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), The Enemy Below (1957), Thunder Road (1958), 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), The Longest Day (1962), Rampage (1963), El Dorado (1967), 5 Card Stud (1968), Ryan’s Daughter (1970), The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), Farewell, My Lovely (1975), Midway (1976), The Big Sleep (1978), Nightkill (1980), Mr. North (1988), Scrooged (1988), and Waiting for Sunset (1995).
A heavy smoker for most of his life, Robert Mitchum died in 1997 from complications of lung cancer and emphysema. He was 79.
