Chris Mitchum’s fluke showdown with Steve McQueen
Robert Mitchum may have been the inventor of big screen cool but that didn’t necessarily translate to a glowing appreciation for those that followed in his footsteps. While shooting David Lean’s overblown romantic war epic Ryan’s Daughter over a rain-delayed 10 months in 1969-era Dingle, Ireland, the laid-back tough hombre unpredictably disparaged Steve McQueen during a conversation with The Chicago Sun-Times’s new kid on the block critic Roger Ebert. “I never saw Robert Wise’s The Sand Pebbles,” admitted Mitchum. “Of course, that was a problem picture out in front with Steve McQueen in it. You’ve got to realize a Steve McQueen performance just naturally lends itself to monotony. Steve doesn’t bring too much to the party.” Mitchum didn’t give a damn that McQueen received his sole Academy Award nomination enlivening stubborn Navy machinist’s mate Jake Holman in the post-World War I Yangtze River saga.
Both Mitchum sons — Jim and Chris — were actors. Lookalike kid Jim’s seventh-billed part in the elder Mitchum’s cult classic moonshine drama Thunder Road [1958] seemed promising but meatier roles in slick studio productions largely eluded him. On the other hand, the blonde-haired, sensitive child in the middle dreamed of being a writer. Obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in Literature degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Chris transferred to the University of…