
Victor Mature
Biography
Victor John Mature was an American stage, film and television actor.
In July 1942 Mature attempted to enlist in the U.S. Navy but was rejected for color blindness. He enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard after taking a different eye test the same day. He was assigned to the USCGC Storis (WMEC-38), which was doing Greenland patrol work. After 14 months aboard the Storis, Mature was promoted to the rate of Chief Boatswain's Mate. In 1944 he did a series of War Bond tours and acted in morale shows. He assisted Coast Guard recruiting efforts by being a featured player in the musical revue "Tars and Spars" which opened in Miami, Florida in April of 1944 and toured the United States for the next year. In May 1945 Mature was reassigned to the Coast Guard manned troop transport USS Admiral H. T. Mayo (AP-125) which was involved in transferring troops to the Pacific Theater. Mature was honorably discharged from the Coast Guard in November 1945 and he resumed his acting career.
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). 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. He reportedly stated he was successful in Biblical epics because he could "make with the holy look".
He also starred with Esther Williams in Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) and, according to her autobiography, had a romantic relationship with her.
After five years of retirement, he was lured back into acting by the opportunity to parody himself in After the Fox (1966), 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, stating "All I know is it makes me laugh."
Mature was famously self-deprecatory about his acting skills. 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 sixty-four films to prove it!" He was quoted in 1968 on his acting career: "Actually, I am a golfer. That is my real occupation. I never was an actor. Ask anybody, particularly the critics."
Victor Mature died of leukemia in 1999, at his Rancho Santa Fe, California home, at the age of 86. He was buried in the family plot at St. Michael's Cemetery in his hometown of Louisville.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Victor Mature has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6780 Hollywood Blvd.
Acting (62 movies)

My Darling Clementine
1946

One Million B.C.
1940

Cry of the City
1948

The Last Frontier
1955

Chief Crazy Horse
1955

Kiss of Death
1947

I Wake Up Screaming
1941

The Egyptian
1954

The Las Vegas Story
1952

The Robe
1953

Samson and Delilah
1949

Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood
1976

The Shanghai Gesture
1941

Demetrius and the Gladiators
1954

Million Dollar Mermaid
1952

Footlight Serenade
1942

Moss Rose
1947

The Long Haul
1957

Interpol
1957

Gambling House
1950

Violent Saturday
1955

Escort West
1959

Head
1968

Safari
1956

Androcles and the Lion
1952

After the Fox
1966

Betrayed
1954

The Glory Brigade
1953

The Sharkfighters
1956

Easy Living
1949

Affair with a Stranger
1953

Seven Days' Leave
1942

Every Little Crook and Nanny
1972

My Gal Sal
1942

Wabash Avenue
1950

Dangerous Mission
1954

Uncertain Verification
1965

Captain Caution
1940

Fury at Furnace Creek
1948

The Big Circus
1959

China Doll
1958

Hannibal
1959

The Bandit Of Zhobe
1959

Stella
1950

The Tartars
1961

Timbuktu
1958

The Housekeeper's Daughter
1939

Red, Hot and Blue
1949

Tank Force!
1958

Zarak Khan
1956

Song of the Islands
1942

Something for the Birds
1952

Samson and Delilah
1984

Firepower
1979

No, No, Nanette
1940

The Veils of Bagdad
1953

Show-Business at War
1943

Mi Marilyn
1975

Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults
1999

Dynamite Chicken
1971

Fascination: Unauthorized Story of Marilyn Monroe
2012

The Legend of Marilyn Monroe
1966
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