Cameron Mitchell (actor)

Cameron Mitchell (born Cameron McDowell Mitzell; November 4, 1918 – July 6, 1994) was an American film, television, and stage actor.

Young Cameron moved to Chicora, Pennsylvania, in 1921 when his father was accepted as pastor of the St. John's Reformed Church, Butler, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania.

Mitchell began acting on Broadway in the late 1930s before signing a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and appearing in such films as Cass Timberlane (1945) and Homecoming (1948).

He was a 1936 graduate of Greenwood High School in Millerstown, Pennsylvania.

In 1939, Mitchell made his Broadway debut in a minor role in Jeremiah.

During this time, he became an NBC page at NBC Radio City, which led to a minor role in a 1940 production of The Taming of the Shrew with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne's National Theater Company.

In 1941, he appeared again on Broadway in The Trojan Women.

In 1944, he served as a bombardier with the United States Army Air Forces during World War II.

Mitchell's film career began when he was contracted to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1945 for three years, with minor roles in films including They Were Expendable (1945), starring John Wayne and Robert Montgomery.

He was featured with Lana Turner and Spencer Tracy in Cass Timberlane, and with Wallace Beery in The Mighty McGurk (both 1947).

He concluded his MGM period with two films starring Clark Gable: Homecoming (also with Turner) and Command Decision (both 1948).

He subsequently originated the role of Happy Loman in the Broadway production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949), a role he reprised in the 1951 film adaptation.

Mitchell originated the role of Happy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949) on Broadway.

He began his career on Broadway before entering films in the 1950s, appearing in several major features.

After its closing, he appeared again in the Broadway production of Southern Exposure (1950).

Mitchell reprised the role of Happy Loman in the 1951 film adaptation released by Columbia Pictures.

Mitchell was contracted with 20th Century-Fox, where he had a prolific career in such films as a version of Les Miserables (1952) as Marius, and in the comedy How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), in which he portrayed a wealthy man attempting to romance a single woman (played by Lauren Bacall).

Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable were the other female leads.

With 20th Century Fox, he appeared in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953).

He then appeared alongside Gary Cooper, Susan Hayward, and Richard Widmark in the drama Garden of Evil (1954), followed by a supporting role in Samuel Fuller's Cold War drama Hell and High Water (1954).

He subsequently co-starred with Marlon Brando in Désirée (1954); with Gable and Jane Russell in the Western The Tall Men (1955); and the film version of the stage musical Carousel (1956).

Mitchell was loaned back to MGM to co-star with Doris Day and James Cagney in the musical drama Love Me or Leave Me (1955).

Mitchell co-starred with Joanne Woodward and Sheree North in the drama No Down Payment (1957).

Mitchell starred in an unsold 1959 television pilot called I Am a Lawyer, but he achieved success on television during the latter part of his career, where he is best remembered for starring as Buck Cannon in the 1960s/1970s NBC Western series, The High Chaparral.

Throughout the 1960s, he appeared in spaghetti Westerns and Italian films―including several collaborations with director Mario Bava―then on U.S. television.

Throughout the 1960s, Mitchell starred in numerous Italian sword and sandal, horror, fantasy, and thriller films, several of which were directed by Mario Bava.

He had the lead as John Lackland in the 1961 syndicated adventure series The Beachcomber.

Among his collaborations with Bava were the action film Erik the Conqueror (1961), playing a Viking; Blood and Black Lace (1964), in which he portrayed the owner of a fashion house plagued by a series of brutal murders; and as a knife-throwing Viking warrior in Knives of the Avenger (1966).

He also appeared in Westerns, such as Minnesota Clay (1964) and Ride in the Whirlwind (1966).

In later years, Mitchell appeared in villainous roles as a sheriff-turned-outlaw in Hombre (1967), a bandit in Buck and the Preacher (1972), and a Ku Klux Klan racist in The Klansman (1974).

Late in his career, he became known for his roles in numerous exploitation films in the 1970s and 1980s.

From the mid-1970s through the 1980s, he appeared in numerous exploitation and horror films and television shows.

Mitchell was born in Dallastown, Pennsylvania, of Scottish and German descent, one of seven children of Rev. Charles Michael Mitzell and Kathryn Isabella (née Ehrhart) Mitzell.

Beginning in 1970, he intermittently filmed The Other Side of the Wind with director Orson Welles, a project that was unreleased until 2018.

In 1975–1976, he portrayed Jeremiah Worth in the Swiss Family Robinson TV series, and had a supporting role opposite Leo Fong in the Filipino film Enforcer from Death Row (1976).

Mitchell was subsequently featured on an episode of Bonanza and ABC's S.W.A.T..

He guest-starred on the "Landslide" episode of Movin' On in 1975.

He appeared on Gene Evans's short-lived Spencer's Pilots on CBS in 1976.

Mitchell also had roles in horror films and in many exploitation films, such as The Toolbox Murders (1978), the creature feature The Swarm (1978), the slasher film The Demon (1979), and the slasher film Silent Scream (1980).

He appeared again on Broadway in the 1978 production of The November People, and the same year starred as Henry Gordon in the television miniseries adaptation of Black Beauty.