The Zen of Robert Mitchum Pt.2
Jul. 21st, 2005 06:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jack_babalonHollywood Babylon
Robert Mitchum's penchant for drinking and carousing nearly ended his $3,000-a-week career in September 1948, when he and blond starlet Lila Leeds were arrested at her home on charges of marijuana possession. "Well, this is the bitter end of everything," Mitchum told his lawyer, "my career, my marriage, everything."
Mitchum was sentenced to 60 days on an honor farm but emerged surprisingly jolly. "It's just like Hollywood," he declared, "Only a better class of people!"
SEX FIEND
"I started out to be a sex fiend," Mitchum once declared, "but I couldn't pass the physical."
Polish gays, women, midgets
"I think when producers have a part that's hard to cast, they say, 'Send for Mitchum; he'll do anything,'" he once remarked. "I don't care what I play; I'll play Polish gays, women, midgets, anything!"
Take 125
"I gave up being serious about making pictures years ago," Robert Mitchum once recalled, "around the time I made a film with Greer Garson, and she took 125 takes to say, 'No.'"
Mutual forebearance
Having been happily married for thirty years, Robert Mitchum was asked one day what the secret was. "Mutual forbearance," he replied. "We have each continued to believe that the other will do better tomorrow."
Last Call
In 1984, Robert Mitchum's family persuaded him to check into the Betty Ford Clinic and try to quit drinking. "When he got back, I said, 'What did you learn over there, Bob?'" fellow actor Stuart Whitman recalled, "and he said, 'More ice.'"
Defiant to the end, Mitchum died in 1997. "The night he died," his son recalled, "he sat right over there in his chair and there was a stubbed out Pall Mall and an empty glass that reeked of tequila. He got up during the night, knocked off a shot, smoked a cigarette, got in bed, and died in his sleep."
~ROBERT MITCHUM (1917-1999)
Robert Mitchum's penchant for drinking and carousing nearly ended his $3,000-a-week career in September 1948, when he and blond starlet Lila Leeds were arrested at her home on charges of marijuana possession. "Well, this is the bitter end of everything," Mitchum told his lawyer, "my career, my marriage, everything."
Mitchum was sentenced to 60 days on an honor farm but emerged surprisingly jolly. "It's just like Hollywood," he declared, "Only a better class of people!"
SEX FIEND
"I started out to be a sex fiend," Mitchum once declared, "but I couldn't pass the physical."
Polish gays, women, midgets
"I think when producers have a part that's hard to cast, they say, 'Send for Mitchum; he'll do anything,'" he once remarked. "I don't care what I play; I'll play Polish gays, women, midgets, anything!"
Take 125
"I gave up being serious about making pictures years ago," Robert Mitchum once recalled, "around the time I made a film with Greer Garson, and she took 125 takes to say, 'No.'"
Mutual forebearance
Having been happily married for thirty years, Robert Mitchum was asked one day what the secret was. "Mutual forbearance," he replied. "We have each continued to believe that the other will do better tomorrow."
Last Call
In 1984, Robert Mitchum's family persuaded him to check into the Betty Ford Clinic and try to quit drinking. "When he got back, I said, 'What did you learn over there, Bob?'" fellow actor Stuart Whitman recalled, "and he said, 'More ice.'"
Defiant to the end, Mitchum died in 1997. "The night he died," his son recalled, "he sat right over there in his chair and there was a stubbed out Pall Mall and an empty glass that reeked of tequila. He got up during the night, knocked off a shot, smoked a cigarette, got in bed, and died in his sleep."
~ROBERT MITCHUM (1917-1999)