Everything about Victor Mature totally explained
Victor Mature (
29 January 1913 –
4 August 1999) was an
American film actor.
Early life
Mature was born in
Louisville, Kentucky to a
Tyrolean father, Marcellus George Mature, a
cutler, and a
Swiss-American mother, Clara Mature.
Discovered while on stage at the
Pasadena Community Playhouse, his first leading role was as a fur-clad
caveman in
One Million B.C. (
1940), after which he joined
20th Century Fox to star opposite actresses such as
Betty Grable and
Rita Hayworth. However, with the US entry into
World War II, Mature entered
military service. Rejected by the Navy for
color blindness, he enlisted in the
Coast Guard, reaching the rank of chief
boatswain's mate by the war's end.
Film career
After the war, Mature was cast by
John Ford in
My Darling Clementine, playing
Doc Holliday opposite
Henry Fonda's
Wyatt Earp. For the next decade, Mature settled into playing hard-boiled characters in a range of genres such as
Westerns and
Biblical films, such as
The Robe (with
Richard Burton and
Jean Simmons) and its popular sequel,
Demetrius and the Gladiators (with
Susan Hayward). Both films deal with the fate of the robe worn by
Jesus before the
crucifixion. Mature also starred with
Hedy Lamarr in
Cecil B. DeMille's Bible
epic,
Samson and Delilah (1949) and as
Horemheb in
The Egyptian (1954) with
Jean Simmons and
Gene Tierney.
After 5 years of retirement in 1966 he was lured back into acting by the opportunity to parody himself in
After the Fox, co-written by
Neil Simon. In a similar vein in 1968 he played a giant, The Big Victor, in
Head, a
potpourri movie starring
The Monkees. The character poked fun at both his screen image, and reportedly
RCA Victor, who distributed
Colgems Records, the Monkees's label. Mature enjoyed the script, while admitting it made no sense to him. "All I know is it makes me laugh."
Mature was famously modest about his acting skill. Once, after being rejected for membership in a country club because he was an actor, he cracked, "I'm not an actor—and I've got 67 films to prove it!" (Another account has him saying either "...and I've got a scrapbook of reviews to prove it!" or "Have you seen any of my films?")
Death
Victor Mature died of
leukemia at his
Rancho Santa Fe,
California, home in 1999, at the age of 86. After his death, his body was brought back to his hometown of Louisville and was buried in his family's burial plot at St. Michael's Cemetery, 1300 Ellison Avenue.
Filmography
Features
Short subjects
Show Business at War (1943)
Screen Snapshots Series 24, No. 4 (1944)
Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Victory Show (1946)Further Information
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