Robert Mitchum
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’s list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time. Mitchum rose to prominence for his starring roles in several major works of the film noir style, and is considered a forerunner of the anti-heroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 1960s.
Mitchum is regarded by critics as one of the finest actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Roger Ebert called him ‘the soul of film noir’. Mitchum himself, however, was self-effacing; in an interview with Barry Norman for the BBC about his contribution to cinema, Mitchum stopped Norman in mid flow and in his typical phlegmatic style said, “Look! I have two kinds of acting. One on a horse and one off a horse. That’s it.” He had also succeeded in annoying some of his fellow actors by voicing his puzzlement at those who viewed the profession as challenging and hard work, saying that acting was actually very simple and that his job was to “show up on time, know his lines, hit his marks, and go home.”
Interviewer Larry King has said on a number of occasions that Mitchum’s interview was his most challenging. Mitchum, a man of few words, tended to answer simply “Yes” or “No” to many of King’s questions.
He was the voice of the famous American Beef Council commercials that touted “Beef . . . it’s what’s for dinner”, from the early 1980s, until his death.
- Excerpt from the wiki page Robert Mitchum.
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