Victor John Mature (January 29, 1913 – August 4, 1999) was an American stage, film, and television actor who was a leading man in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s. His best known film roles include One Million B.C. (1940), My Darling Clementine (1946), Kiss of Death (1947), Samson and Delilah (1949), and The Robe (1953). He also appeared in many musicals opposite such stars as Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable.
Early life Mature was born in Louisville, Kentucky. His father, Marcello Gelindo Maturi, later Marcellus George Mature, was a cutler and knife sharpener from Pinzolo, in the Italian part of the former County of Tyrol (now Trentino in Italy, but at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire).1920 U.S. Census, Louisville Ward 4, Jefferson, Kentucky; Roll: T625_578; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 98; Image: 1039World War I Draft Registration, Jefferson County, Kentucky; Roll: 1653508; Draft Board: 3 His mother, Clara P. (Ackley), was Kentucky-born and of Swiss heritage.1900 U.S. Census, Louisville Ward 4, Jefferson, Kentucky; Roll: T623 529; Page: 10A An older brother, Marcellus Paul Mature, died of osteomyelitis in 1918 at age 11.Kentucky Birth, Marriage and Death Records (1852–1910). Microfilm rolls #994027-994058. Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, Frankfort, Kentucky His only sister, Isabelle, was born and died in 1906. Mature attended St. Xavier High School in Louisville, Kentucky, the Kentucky Military Institute, and the Spencerian Business School. He briefly sold candy and operated a restaurant before moving to California.
Career Pasadena Playhouse Mature studied and acted at the Pasadena Community Playhouse. For three years, he lived in a tent in the back yard of Mrs. Willigan, the mother of a fellow student, Catherine Lewis. He was spotted by Charles R. Rogers, an agent for Hal Roach, while acting in a production of To Quito and Back. Rogers called him "a rival to Clark Gable, Robert Taylor and Errol Flynn." Mature signed a seven-year contract with Roach in September 1939.
Hal Roach Roach cast Mature in a small role in The Housekeeper's Daughter (1939), for which one reviewer called him "a handsome Tarzan type". Roach then gave Mature his first leading role, as a fur-clad caveman in One Million B.C. (1940). The film was highly publicized and it raised Mature's profile; Hedda Hopper called him "a sort of miniature Johnny Weissmuller". Roach next put him in a swashbuckler set during the War of 1812, Captain Caution (1940).
Because Hal Roach only made a handful of movies every year, he loaned out Mature's services to RKO, who used him as a leading man in the Anna Neagle–Herbert Wilcox musical, No, No, Nanette. The studio people were so pleased with his performance that they bought an option to take over half of Mature's contract with Hal Roach, enabling them to draw on his services for two films a year over three years. Wilcox wanted to reunite Mature with Neagle in Sunny. Roach announced Mature would support Victor McLaglen in Broadway Limited, but Mature was not cast in the final film.
Lady in the Dark Mature was worried about the direction of his career at this stage, claiming "nobody was going to believe I could do anything except grunt and groan,""CRITIC AT LARGE: MATURE STILL HAS A HUNK OF A TIME" Champlin, Charles. Los Angeles Times: m1 so he went to New York City to try the theatre. He signed to appear in a play with the Group Theatre, Retreat to Pleasure by Irwin Shaw. Shortly afterward it was announced he would appear instead in the musical Lady in the Dark with a book by Moss Hart and songs from Ira Gershwin and Kurt Weill; Mature played Randy Curtis, a film star boyfriend of the show's protagonist, magazine editor Liza Elliott (Gertrude Lawrence)."MATURE WILL ACT IN HART MUSICAL: His Contract to Act Opposite Gertrude Lawrence Leads to Dispute With Group 'SUZANNA' TO PLAY SUNDAY Ten Shows Will Begin New Policy Weak Later—Additional Theatre News Engaged for Dennis King Show Maeterlinck Play Opens Dec. 15" New York Times November 13, 1940: 28. Mature later described his role:
First, this secretary came out saying 'What a beautiful hunk of man!' Then Danny Kaye topped that with a long, long introductory number. Finally, I made my entrance. John Barrymore told me I was the only person who could have followed up on all that."Victor Mature Hits Stride" Thomas, Kevin. Los Angeles Times 7 December 1966: D15.
The musical debuted on Broadway in January 1941 and was a smash hit, making a star of Danny Kaye and Macdonald Carey and causing fresh appreciation for Mature's talents. His performance was well received, Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times calling him "unobjectionably handsome and affable"."THE PLAY IN REVIEW: Gertrude Lawrence Appears in Moss Hart's Musical Drama, 'Lady in the Dark,' With a Score by Kurt Weill and Lyrics by Ira Gershwin" by BROOKS ATKINSON. New York Times January 24, 1941: 14. The description of Randy Curtis in the musical – "Beautiful Hunk of Man" – would be frequently used to describe Mature throughout his career. Mature missed some of the run due to an emergency appendectomy,"ALDRICH AND MYERS BUY PLAY BY ACTOR: Allen Nourse's 'John Burgess, Berlin' Is Purchased for Production in Fall BARBARA KENT GETS ROLE Joins Cast of 'The Happiest Days' – 'Theatre' Undergoing Changes in Personnel" New York Times April 28, 1941: 11. but played the role until June.
20th Century Fox When Mature left Lady in the Dark, he announced that half of his contract with Hal Roach had been bought out by 20th Century Fox. His first film under the contract was to be Bowery Nightingale with Alice Faye. He was going to follow that with The Shanghai Gesture for Arnold Pressburger and Josef von Sternberg at United Artists.
Bowery Nightingale was not made, so Fox instead assigned Mature to appear in a thriller with Faye, I Wake Up Screaming (which had a working title of Hot Spot); Faye ended up being replaced with Betty Grable. Filming of The Shanghai Gesture was postponed to enable Mature to finish Screaming, which was a popular success. The Shanghai Gesture also proved popular.
Mature was announced for a Fox musical, Highway to Hell, which ended up being postponed; instead, he replaced John Payne in a Betty Grable musical, Song of the Islands (Mature was replaced in turn on Highway by Cesar Romero).
Mature was paid $450 a week under his contract with Roach for Shanghai Gesture, but Roach received $3750 a week for Mature's services. Roach received $22,000 for Mature in Song of the Islands, but Mature was paid $4,000. He asked for a pay increase of $1,250 a week.
RKO wanted Mature for Passage to Bordeaux and Josef von Sternberg wanted him for Lady Paname. Instead, Mature made another musical for Fox, supporting Rita Hayworth in My Gal Sal (a role originally meant for Don Ameche).
In November 1941, Fox bought out the four years remaining on Mature's contract with Hal Roach for $80,000. (This included loan out provisions to RKO.) Roach had not wanted to sell, but he was in financial difficulties and his backers insisted. Mature would be paid $1,500 a week. He had also had six commitments with RKO. "The studio [Fox] will have to make a success of me," Mature said.
"I wasn't pampered the way a Tyrone Power was," Mature recalled later of his time at Fox. "Zanuck would say, 'If you're not careful, I'll give you Mature for your next picture'."
Fox talked of reuniting Hayworth and Mature in a Russian set war film Ski Patrol. Instead, Mature was lent to RKO for a musical with Lucille Ball, Seven Days' Leave. This was followed by Footlight Serenade with Grable and Payne. All these films were very popular at the box office.
World War II
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 , which was part of the Greenland Patrol. This meant that when Paramount filmed Lady in the Dark, Mature was unable to reprise his stage role."SCREEN NEWS HERE AND IN HOLLYWOOD: Rosemary Lane to Return to Films in Feminine Lead in Republic's 'Chatterbox' THREE PICTURES TO OPEN ' Casablanca' Due at Hollywood – 'White Cargo' at Capitol, 'Ravaged Earth' at Gaiety" By Telephone to THE NEW YORK TIMES.. New York Times November 26, 1942: 41 After 14 months aboard Storis, Mature was promoted to the rating of chief boatswain's mate.
In 1944, he did a series of war bond tours and acted in morale-boosting 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 1944 and toured the United States for the next year. In May 1945, Mature was reassigned to the Coast-Guard-manned troop transport , 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.Wise, James E., Jr. and Anne Collier Rehill. Stars in Blue. Naval Institute Press, 1997, p. 201. .
Resumption of career
In December 1945, Mature signed a new two-year contract with Fox. Fox assigned him to Three Little Girls in Blue, but he was removed in order to play Philip Marlowe in an adaptation of The High Window. However, Mature withdrew from the project and was cast by John Ford in 20th Century-Fox's My Darling Clementine, playing Doc Holliday opposite Henry Fonda's Wyatt Earp. Fox production head Darryl Zanuck considered it to be one of Mature's finest performances. Speaking of Mature to Ford, Zanuck said:
Zanuck promised Mature that he would not assign him to musicals. Mature was cast in the period thriller Moss Rose and received a $50,000 bonus after shooting ended. His next film was the film noir Kiss of Death, which had been developed specifically as a vehicle for him.
While still at Fox, Mature replaced John Payne in the Western film Fury at Furnace Creek, costarring with Coleen Gray, who had also starred in Kiss of Death with Mature. Fox announced plans to team them for a third time in a remake of Seventh Heaven, but the film did not materialize. Instead, he costarred with Richard Conte in Cry of the City, a thriller directed by Robert Siodmak. Mature's performance as a world-weary cop was widely praised; one reviewer noted that he "turns in an excellent performance, arguably the best of his career."
Mature still had a pre-war obligation to make a film at RKO. He was announced for Battleground before being cast in Interference, a serious drama about football that would become Easy Living in 1949, starring Lucille Ball.
Samson and Delilah
Mature's career received a massive lift when he was borrowed by Cecil B. DeMille at Paramount to play the lead in the $3.5 million biblical spectacular Samson and Delilah. De Mille described the role of Samson as “a combination Tarzan, Robin Hood, and Superman.” Mature was reluctant to take the role at first out of fear of risking his new postwar reputation as a serious actor, but he changed his mind.
During filming, Mature was frightened by a number of the animals and mechanical props used in the production, including the lions, the wind machine, the swords and even the water. This infuriated the director, DeMille, who bellowed through his megaphone at the assembled cast and crew: “I have met a few men in my time. Some have been afraid of heights, some have been afraid of water, some have been afraid of fire, some have been afraid of closed spaces. Some have even been afraid of open spaces – or themselves. But in all my 35 years of picture-making experience, Mr. Mature, I have not until now met a man who was 100 percent yellow.”