Want to know the best Robert Mitchum movies? How about the worst Robert Mitchum movies? Curious about Robert Mitchum’s box office grosses or which Robert Mitchum movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Robert Mitchum movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
The American Film Institute published their 50 Greatest Screen Legends in 1999. To qualify the performer had to have made their screen debut before 1950. The list presented the Top 25 actors and the Top 25 actresses of all time. One of my goals here on this website is to write a page on the 50 Greatest Screen Legends. With the publication of this page I am now exactly half way to my goal…..as I have done a page on 17 of the Greatest Actors and 8 of the Greatest Actresses. Which gets us to the subject of this page …..coming in at #23 on the Greatest Screen Legend Actors poll is Robert Mitchum.
Robert Mitchum (1917-1997) was an Oscar® nominated actor who appeared in 135 acting roles in movies and television between 1942 and 1997. He first gained fame appearing in the World War II movies, 1944’s Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and 1945’s The Story of G.I. Joe. In the late 1940s, early 1950s he appeared in some of the greatest film noir movies ever produced….1947’s Out of the Past, 1950’s Undercurrent and 1952’s Angel Face. Other high watermarks in his career included…1954’s River of No Return(Marilyn Monroe), 1955’s The Night of the Hunter, 1962’s Cape Fear, 1967’s El Dorado and 1973’s The Friends of Eddie Coyle.
His IMDb page shows 135 acting credits from 1942-1997. This page will rank 82 Robert Mitchum movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that were not released in theaters were not included in the rankings.
Robert Mitchum Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Robert Mitchum Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Robert Mitchum movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Robert Mitchum movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Robert Mitchum movies by yearly box office rank or trivia
- Sort Robert Mitchum movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Robert Mitchum movie received.
- Sort Robert Mitchum movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Use the search and sort buttons to make this a very interactive page.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Robert Mitchum
1. How he got to Hollywood. Robert Mitchum was born in Connecticut in 1917, moved to California in 1936, got a job working as a machine operator and was pushed by his sister to join the local theater guild.
2. As a machine operator he suffered a nervous breakdown that resulted in temporary blindness. To avoid stress he decided to try and become an extra in the movies. It was a decision that worked out very well indeed.
3. One producer did numerous screen tests on Robert Mitchum….and even after numerous tests the producer could not decide if Mitchum was the worst actor ever or one of the most natural actors ever. The screen tests and the extra work eventually led him to the low budget Hopalong Cassidy movie serials.
4. His first real break was getting a supporting part in a big budget high profile movie….. 1944’s Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. The next year he got an Oscar® nomination for The Story Of G.I. Joe as Best Supporting Actor. This would turn out to be his only role that got him a nomination for acting (that includes Emmy®, Tony® and Golden Globes®)….135 roles and 1 nomination.
5. Robert Mitchum was married one time in his life and that was to Dorothy Mitchum for 57 years. They had two sons….Christopher and James and one daughter Petrina.
6. In 1948 Robert Mitchum was arrested, convicted and served jail time on charges for possession of marijuana. At the time of his arrest it was assumed this would destroy his promising career…instead it seemed to back up his tough guy anti-hero persona…. his career only lasted another 49 years.
7. Roles Robert Mitchum turned down over his career…..George C. Scott’s role in Patton, Gene Hackman’s role in The French Connection, a role in The Wild Bunch, and the Tony Curtis part in The Defiant Ones.
8. Later in his career, he became the King of the mini-series as he starred in not one not two but three of the most popular mini-series ever….1983’s The Winds of War, 1985’s North and South and 1988’s War and Remembrance.
9. Robert Mitchum’s voice is considered to one of the most distinctive voices to ever be heard on movie screens. This very deep singing voice was recorded on numerous records over the years and has been heard in many of his movies.
10. Probably the best Robert Mitchum tribute site is The Ultimate Robert Mitchum Headquarters. Every Mitchum fan should be checking out this website….as it is filled with many many awesome Mitchum links.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
Check out Robert Mitchum’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time
AFI’s Top 25 Screen Legend Actors….with links to our movie pages on the Screen Legend
For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
Thank you for the link on his 100th birthday.
You are very welcome….I figure yesterday was the perfect day to celebrate his movie career.
My favorite movie is Night of the Hunter, so you know I love the picture you attached.
Hey Sabine…..glad you like our attached photo of Night of the Hunter….a an all-time great classic movie.
One of my favorite actors!!!
Hey Martine. Thanks for stopping by on Mr. Mitchum’s birthday.
HI BRUCE 1 We’ve discussed recently how billing between the same 2 stars can alternate from contract to contract to reflect differing sizes of roles, changing status or even common courtesy.
2 Big Bob and Deb Kerr made three cinematic movies together, Heaven Know Mr Allison in 1957, and The Sundowners and The Grass is Greener both in 1960 and in all of those Debs was billed before Mitch though in the last named one A Leach was billed above both of them [now there’s a surprise !] with Jean Simmons the 4th wheel
3 However Mitch and Debs teamed up one final time in 1985 for Reunion in Farnborough a TV movie and historians have recorded how by that time Big Bob had joined the ranks of the greatest of Hollywood Legends [he is ranked 23rd in the AFI’s male Legends list as you illustrate above] and it is therefore interesting to note that this time Mitch was billed first.
That didn’t affect his lifelong friendship with Kerr though who spoke glowingly of him in an interview before her death.
4 My own one reservation about him however was that like Bette Davis and Oliver Reed he could be insulting to people who were probably doing him no harm. He made The Angry Hills in 1959 and in an interview said that the producers had initially wanted Alan Ladd, and then Mitch added “But when they called at his house and saw that skinny little runt climbing out of a swimming pool they realised he wasn’t the man for the stalwart hero of their movie.” Also on TV Oliver Reed referred to Jack Nicholson as “A balding midget.”
5 However I am primarily interested in the on-screen persona and wholeheartedly join you in this birthday tribute to Mitchum the actor. In a sense though he already had his ‘birthday present’ from you in the form of the fine comprehensive permanent profile on this page, complemented by Steve’s absorbing Mitchum video. I have already recorded how I learned of Big Bob’s sad death, just hours form Jimmy Stewart’s when in July 1997 I was waiting outside a university in Scotland Great Britain to gain access to watch my daughter’s graduation.
Hey Bob
1. Good comment on Robert Mitchum.
2. Your mistake has been fixed and the other comment has been deleted.
3. I loved the Sundowners…..I am shocked it is not remembered more….the sheeping shearing scene seems to have been copied in Cool Hand Luke….with eggs taking the place of sheep.
4. Kerr and Mitchum made a great team.
5. I agree Mitchum’s off screen life distracts from his legacy..but in the end…there was so much good stuff that he got that 23rd AFI ranking.
6. There are some stars that might be fun to run into…Tom Hanks, Steve Martin and Chris Pratt…come to mind that seem to like interacting with their fans…while people like Mitchum and Willis would not be people I would want to meet….as I suspect (though I hope I am wrong)..that it would not be a pleasant experience.
7. Yep I remember your Mitchum passing memory. Thanks for sharing again…and thanks for some good feedback.
HI BRUCE
As I think I’ve said before I don’t know much about Chris Pratt but for me my perception of Hanks and Steve Martin being good-hearted individuals comes through in a lot of their movies such as Sleepless in Seattle in Tom’s case and Steve’s Planes,Trains and Automobiles.
Hey Bob…I agree 100%.
Happy birthday Robert Mitchum
Hey Duane….100 years of one of acting’s best….Mr. Robert Mitchum.