Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), followed by his starring in several classic film noirs. His acting is generally considered a forerunner of the antiheroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 1960s. His best-known films include Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Out of the Past (1947), River of No Return (1954), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Thunder Road (1958), Cape Fear (1962), El Dorado (1966), Ryan's Daughter (1970) and The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973). He is also known for his television role as U.S. Navy Captain Victor "Pug" Henry in the epic miniseries The Winds of War (1983) and sequel War and Remembrance (1988).
Mitchum is rated number 23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male stars of classic American cinema.
Mitchum was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on August 6, 1917, into a Methodist family of English-Scottish-Irish and Norwegian descent. His father, James Thomas Mitchum, a shipyard and railroad worker, was of English-Scottish-Irish descent, and his mother, Ann Harriet Gunderson, was a Norwegian immigrant and sea captain's daughter. His older sister, Annette (known as Julie Mitchum during her acting career), was born in 1914. James was crushed to death in a railyard accident in Charleston, South Carolina, in February 1919. His widow was awarded a government pension, and soon realized she was pregnant. Her third child, John, was born in September of that year.

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