With his athletic build, heavy-lidded eyes, insolent smirk, and insouciant charm, Robert Mitchum became one of the post-World War II era's most popular and enduring actors despite, or perhaps because of, his reputation as a Hollywood bad boy. Arrested for possession of marijuana in 1948, Mitchum served jail time while the press tolled a death knell for his career; instead, Mitchum emerged a hot commodity. As Richard Schickel has noted, Mitchum "helped define cool for postwar America." A leading man to Ava Gardner, Jane Russell, Deborah Kerr, and Marilyn Monroe, Mitchum was also capable of creating unforgettable characters such as the murderous preacher in The Night of the Hunter (1955) and the vengeful and sadistic ex-con in Cape Fear (1962). A durable icon, Mitchum worked well into the 1990s, a complex actor who gave his audiences many simple pleasures.

The troubled childhood of Robert Mitchum would forever...