Although Roger Ebert passed away nearly 13 years ago, his cinematic wisdom and exquisite taste in movies continue to educate and inform new generations of cinephiles everywhere. Four months before the famous film critic passed away in April 2013, Ebert published a piece relating to the consecutive deaths of Robert Mitchum and James Stewart in July 1997. Compelled to compare the two silver screen titans, Ebert made a case for Mitchum as his all-time favorite Hollywood movie star.
Leading such all-time classic films as Out of the Past, Night of the Hunter, Cape Fear, The Longest Day, The Friends of Eddy Coyle, The Yakuza, and more, Ebert was most in awe of Mitchum’s preternatural ability to harness humanity’s lightness and darkness from role to role, a throwback quality that no longer exists in the 21st century. After interviewing Mitchum at least three times, Ebert remained certain that Mitchum moved him like no other actor during his 50+-year career.
Who Is Robert Mitchum?
Beginning his movie career in 1942, Robert Mitchum became known for playing antiheroes in several film noir titles, often straddling the line between a hero and villain. In 1945, Mitchum earned the sole Oscar nomination of his career for The Story of G.I. Joe, in which he portrayed a traumatized soldier who remains steadfast under fire. Known for his laconic, easygoing air that often betrays a lack of interest, Mitchum’s acting style was far ahead of his time.
Due to his effortlessly natural onscreen presence and comfort in front of the camera, many considered him a bad actor. However, over the years, the same folks realized that, like Marlon Brando, Mitchum was trailblazing a more realistic style of performance that many would later appreciate if not emulate. He didn’t perform so much as merely exist, a zen-like quality most actors aim for to this day.
In 1947, Mitchum starred in two of the most acclaimed film noirs to this day, including Crossfire and Out of the Past. In the latter, Mitchum perfectly embodied the mysterious private eye with a shady history, establishing the actor’s persona as a cool, cryptic, charismatic, ineffably compelling curio that lit up the silver screen like no other.
Proving his iconoclastic, Bohemian nature, Mitchum was arrested for marijuana possession in 1948, well before the substance was well-known, much less popular. After serving 50 days in jail, Mitchum resumed his acting career and starred in some of the all-time best movies of their respective genres. All told, Mitchum logged 132 acting credits before passing away on July 1, 1997.
Why Robert Mitchum Was Roger Ebert’s Favorite Movie Star
One day after Mitchum passed, the even more famous movie star James Stewart also departed. When asked which actor he liked better, Ebert refused to participate, concluding years later that the world had “lost a legendary old movie star” in Mitchum and a “national treasure” in Stewart. While Stewart may have been more famous for starring in lasting movies like It’s a Wonderful Life, Ebert went on to explain the qualities he loved so much about Mitchum. Calling him the soul of film noir, Ebert wrote:
“With his deep, laconic voice and his long face and those famous weary eyes, he was the kind of guy you’d picture in a saloon at closing time, waiting for someone to walk in through the door and break his heart.”
Beyond Mitchum’s magnetic physical qualities, Ebert expressed the intangible ability to channel the “darkness and light” in any given character from movie to movie, adding:
“He embodied a completely different kind of character on the screen: Harder, wiser, darker. No matter what your age was, Mitchum always seemed older than you were, just as Stewart always seemed boyish. Stewart smoked in roles, and you felt it was because the character smoked. Mitchum smoked, and it was because he needed to. And when he drank in a movie, the way he picked up the glass let you know he wasn’t keeping count.”
When thinking of Mitchum’s effortless skill at harnessing the darkness and light at once, one instantly conjures up his performance in The Night of the Hunter as Harry Powell, a sinister preacher who torments a widow and her two children over stolen loot left by their father. With “Love” tattooed on the knuckles of one hand and “Hate” on the other, Powell’s dueling lightness and darkness symbolize Mitchum’s onscreen aura.
Ebert continues:
“Robert Mitchum was my favorite movie star because he represented, for me, the impenetrable mystery of the movies. He knew the inside story.
Mitchum was the soul of film noir. And film noir is one of the three uniquely American movie genres (the others are Westerns and musicals). The way he wore a fedora, the way he let a cigarette dangle from his lip, the way he handled himself in a fight, was manly, tough, and cynical. The model for that kind of character was Bogart, but Mitchum refined it and made it modern.“
Indeed, even when he was past his performative prime, Mitchum gave modern detective turns in movies like The Yakuza, Farewell, My Lovely, and The Big Sleep, each featuring a masculine yet vulnerable character. Almost 30 years after his death, there still hasn’t been another actor like Mitchum.
Stars Like Robert Mitchum No Longer Exist in Hollywood
While it’s not a stretch to say there has never been an actor like Robert Mitchum since or after his Hollywood reign, Ebert offers more insight as to why. The first relates to acting range, with Mitchum’s ability to portray convincing characters across a wide range of cinematic genres and moods ranking second to none.
Beyond classic film noir, Mitchum’s work in movie westerns (El Dorado), war films (The Longest Day), crime thrillers (The Friends of Eddie Coyle), period romances (Ryan’s Daughter), and even comedies (Scrooged) demonstrates a well-rounded leading man with character actor qualities that rarely exist in this day and age.
Ebert also cited Mitchum’s unique interview style as part of his throwback originality. Unlike the genial Jimmy Stewart, Mitchum detested promotional interviews and would often entertain himself by going on long-winded tangents about anything but the picture he was making. As Ebert fondly recalled:
“He [Mitchum] was known as the hardest interview in the business. I thought he was the best. I learned early how to talk to him. It was a rain-swept night in 1968, in a little cottage on the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland, where he drank whisky, and listened to Jim Reeves records, and told stories. He was making ‘Ryan’s Daughter’ and was beginning to think he should have been making something else. I was awestruck. He didn’t simply fill a room, he wore it like a T-shirt.”
In the streaming age of the 21st century, who has the natural, effortless charisma that reflects the light and dark, the strong yet vulnerable, good-bad antiheroic qualities of Robert Mitchum? In Ebert’s well-observed estimation from 14 years ago, nobody.
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