‘Hey Mom, look! There’s Dad!’ In the shadow of movie star Robert Mitchum

Railroad hoboing, calypso music, antagonizing Hopalong Cassidy, shooting rifles, riding horses, famous neighbors, parental discipline, and acting with his dad in “Promises to Keep” decode an exclusive Chris Mitchum interview divulged below. Plagued by emphysema, 76-year-old Montecito, California, resident Robert Mitchum nevertheless surrenders to no one in this striking January 1994 candid taken about a month after the distribution of Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer’s “Tombstone.” Mitchum provided the opening narration for the blockbuster western. He was forced to withdraw from the role of “Old Man Clanton” when his back failed him after a day in the saddle according to biographer Lee Server. The film noir antihero terrorized moviegoers in “The Night of the Hunter” as well as the original “Cape Fear” but criminally received his sole Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor for the World War II film that made him a household name, “The Story of G.I. Joe,” for director Wild Bill Wellman in 1945. Photography by Richard Avedon

The Chris Mitchum Interview, Part Five [Conclusion]

Compared to your father Robert, little is known about his brother, Dirty Harry character actor John Mitchum. What was your relationship like with your uncle?

Uncle John was almost like a second father to me. He was a wonderful, very talented person. My dad explained to me that after he had hoboed for a year or two — incredibly starting at the age of 14 — he went back and picked up my uncle. They went on the rails together.

He said that John had a knack for picking up accents. They might land in Savannah, Georgia. If the railroad bulls caught them, my uncle would immediately start talking in the local dialect. They thought he was a local kid [laughs]. That way they wouldn’t get him for vagrancy and throw him in jail.

Another little hobby my uncle had — he always loved music and had taught himself to play guitar. He had a Burl Ives style of singing. He would dig out the local folk songs. God knows how many thousands of songs he knew from all over the country. It was considerable.