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JOHN MITCHUM, though far less well-known than his older brother, Robert Mitchum, had a multi-faceted career as an actor, a singer and a poet. He appeared in over 80 films as a character actor, notably as Clint Eastwood's detective partner Frank di Georgio in Dirty Harry (1971) and two sequels, Magnum Force (1973) and The Enforcer (1976).
It is di Georgio who comments, "You're a sweet man, Harry" after a typically caustic remark from his partner in the first film, and who, when he is unable to follow Harry over a fence while chasing a killer, grunts, "Too much linguine." Mitchum will also be remembered as the author of a set of patriotic poems recorded by John Wayne on the only album Wayne ever made. Recorded in 1973, America, Why I Love Her was re-released after Wayne's death in 1979 and again last summer. It won Mitchum a Grammy nomination in the spoken-word category.
Mitchum was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1919, two years after Robert. His father died in a railyard accident before he was born, and the boys were raised on an uncle's farm in Delaware. In 1930 they joined their mother, who had remarried, in New York, and three years later the brothers hitch-hiked and rode freight-trains to California, where their showgirl sister Annette was living. After graduating from Long Beach Polytechnic High School, John spent some time at sea, considered boxing as...
