Biography

Millard Mitchell

Jump to

Millard Mitchell was born to American parents in Havana, Cuba. He was a popular stage and radio actor in the 1930's in New York, where he also filmed his first cinema appearances (industrial short features). His first Hollywood role was in Mr. and Mrs. North (1942). After World War II, Mitchell acted in a several movies, often cast as sardonic, yet stolid characters. He was in the highest-grossing movie of 1953, Anthony Mann Western, The Naked Spur (1953), adding his unique style playing an old prospector who falls in with James Stewart. He received top billing in 1952's My Six Convicts (1952), but fans of movie musicals most admired his screen role as movie mogul 'R. F. Simpson' in the classic film Singin' in the Rain (1952). A heavy smoker, Millard died too young - lung cancer ended his life at the age of 50.
- IMDb mini biography by: J. T. Evans/edited by canadazbest

Was in no way trained as a singer, but was made to sing briefly in Singin' in the Rain (1952).
An extremely prolific theatrical actor, he appeared on Broadway from 1925-1948, notably in one of its most important flops, "Penny Arcade", which led to its stars James Cagney and Joan Blondell being signed by Warner Brothers.
He has five films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Twelve O'Clock High (1949), Winchester '73 (1950), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Singin' in the Rain (1952) and The Naked Spur (1953).
Daughters Mary Ellis and Margaret.
For his work in My Six Convicts (1952), he was the first of only 7 actors to win the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a motion picture without receiving an Oscar nomination for the same performance. The other 6 are, in chronological order: Earl Holliman in The Rainmaker (1956), Stephen Boyd in Ben-Hur (1959), Oskar Werner in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), Richard Attenborough, The Sand Pebbles (1966) and Doctor Dolittle (1967), Richard Benjamin in The Sunshine Boys (1975) and Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Nocturnal Animals (2016).

Suggest an edit or add missing content