Robert Charles Duran Mitchum (August 6, 1917 - July 1, 1997) was an American film actor and native of Bridgeport, Connecticut who is largely remembered for his starring roles in several major works of the film noir genre. Mitchum is considered a forerunner of the antiheroes prevalent in film in the 1950s and 60s.

Mitchum was expelled from Haaren High School in New York City as a teen and wandered the country during the early years of the Great Depression, taking on such roles as a workman and professional boxer. He finally settled down in Long Beach, California in 1936 with his sister, Julie, who convinced him to join her in the local theater guild. His first major role was a bit part in the Hopalong Cassidy western Hoppy Serves a Writ (1943). After several more minor parts, he was signed to a contract by RKO Radio Pictures.

Though Mitchum had his first breakthrough for his supporting performance in Story of G.I. Joe (1945), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor, he achieved his greatest success in the gritty, low-budget crime dramas that would become known as film noirs. He was best known for playing characters whose poor decisions caused them to engage in endeavors that skirted the line between right and wrong, such as the cynical, hard-edged private eye in Out of the Past (1947), a disturbed artist in The Locket (1946), and a shady gambler in His Kind of Woman (1951). With his imposing physical presence and rumbling voice, he was particularly well-suited to play menacing figures, but he was quite successful in tempering this with an underlying aspect of raw intelligence.

A 1948 drug conviction and short prison sentence for marijuana possession sidetracked his career for a few years in the early 1950s, but he survived the scandal, in part because of his image among his fans as a rebel and an outsider. He continued to receive praise in his later career for roles such as the murderous preacher in The Night of the Hunter (1955), a sympathetic marine in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), an Australian sheep drover in The Sundowners (1960), a vengeful convict in Cape Fear (1962), an aging petty hood in The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), and detective Philip Marlowe in Farewell, My Lovely (1975).

Robert Mitchum died in his sleep on July 1 1997 of lung cancer and emphysema, at the age of seventy-nine.

Filmography

• The Magic of Make-Up (1942) (documentary)
• The Human Comedy (1943)
• Hoppy Serves a Writ (1943)
• Aerial Gunner (1943)
• Border Patrol (1943)
• Follow the Band (1943)
• The Leather Burners (1943)
• Colt Comrades (1943)
• We've Never Been Licked (1943)
• Lone Star Trail (1943)
• Beyond the Last Frontier (1943)
• Corvette K-225 (1943)
• Bar 20 (1943)
• Doughboys in Ireland (1943)
• False Colors (1943)
• Minesweeper (1943)
• The Dancing Masters (1943)
• Cry 'Havoc' (1943)
• Riders of the Deadline (1943)
• Gung Ho! (1943)
• Johnny Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1944)
• Mr. Winkle Goes to War (1944)
• When Strangers Marry (1944)
• Girl Rush (1944)
• Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
• Nevada (1944)
• Story of G.I. Joe (1945)
• West of the Pecos (1945)
• Till the End of Time (1946)
• Undercurrent (1946)
• The Locket (1946)
• Pursued (1947)
• Crossfire (1947)
• Desire Me (1947)
• Out of the Past (1947)
• Rachel and the Stranger (1948)
• Blood on the Moon (1948)
• The Red Pony (1949)
• The Big Steal (1949)
• Holiday Affair (1949)
• Where Danger Lives (1950)
• Hollywood Goes to Bat (1950) (short subject)
• My Forbidden Past (1951)
• His Kind of Woman (1951)
• The Racket (1951)
• Macao (1952)
• One Minute to Zero (1952)
• The Lusty Men (1952)
• Angel Face (1952)
• White Witch Doctor (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)
• Bandido (1956)
• Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957)
• Fire Down Below (1957)
• The Enemy Below (1957)
• Thunder Road (1958)
• The Hunters (1958)
• The Angry Hills (1959)
• 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)
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