Actor Victor Mature Dies at 86
August 10 1999
RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif. (AP) - Victor
Mature, the brawny star of the 1940s and '50s who played Samson in ``Samson and Delilah''
and Doc Holliday in John Ford's ``My Darling Clementine,'' has died. He was 86.
Mature, who largely retired from films around 1960, had suffered from cancer for
three years, said a longtime friend in the entertainment business, Zollie Volchok. The San
Diego County coroner's office said it was notified that Mature died Wednesday. Tall,
dark-haired and muscular, with heavy-lidded eyes and a full mouth, Mature earned the
nickname ``beautiful hunk of man'' in films like ``One Million B.C.'' and ``Song of the
Islands.'' While first making his name as a glamour-boy star with a devil-may-care
attitude, he gradually gained more critical respect in the late 1940s in such films as
``Cry of the City'' and ``Kiss of Death.''
He appeared in musicals, Westerns, comedies, historical epics and melodramas.
In ``My Darling Clementine,'' 1946, he was Doc Holliday to Henry Fonda's Wyatt
Earp. The version of the fabled gunfight at the O.K. Corral is considered one of Ford's
greatest films.
Cecil B. DeMille's 1949 telling of the saga of Samson and Delilah cast Mature
and Hedy Lamarr in the title roles. It was a smash hit.
He was at 20th Century Fox for many years but often loaned out to other studios
as well. ``They turned pictures out like crackerjack,'' he told The New York Times in
1971. ```Kiss of Death' got made because Fox was one black-and-white picture short on its
schedule.''
That 1947 film paired Mature with a screen newcomer, Richard Widmark. Mature
played a thief who turned state's evidence, Widmark a psychopathic killer. The film caused
a sensation and earned Widmark an Academy Award nomination.
Among Mature's other films: ``The Shanghai Gesture,'' 1941, directed by Josef
von Sternberg; ``My Gal Sal,'' 1942, with Rita Hayworth; ``I Wake Up Screaming,'' 1941,
with Betty Grable; ``Wabash Avenue,'' 1950, again with Miss Grable; ``The Robe,'' 1953, as
the slave Demetrius; a sequel, ``Demetrius and the Gladiators, 1954; and ``Chief Crazy
Horse,'' 1954, with Mature in the title role.
Mature was a favorite of reporters during his heyday, always available for
interviews. He enjoyed deflating the pomposities of Hollywood as well as his own image.
One of his favorite stories concerned the making of ``Samson and Delilah.''
DeMille wanted him to wrestle with a tame movie lion for a crucial action scene. The actor
refused. ``But Jackie never hurt anyone; he doesn't even have any teeth,'' DeMille argued.
``Yeah?'' Mature replied. ``I don't want to be gummed to death, either.'' A stunt man
tussled with Jackie, and Mature did his closeups with a lion skin.
Careful with his money unless a friend was in need, he invested in real estate
and retail stores, enabling him to retire comfortably before he reached 45. He moved to
Rancho Santa Fe, and once bragged that he played golf four hours a day, six days a week.
He made only a few film appearances in the past 35 years, notably the 1966 Italian
farce ``After the Fox,'' in which he spoofed his old image; and ``Every Little Crook and
Nanny,'' a 1972 comedy in which he co-starred with Lynn Redgrave. In 1984 he made a rare
appearance on television, playing Samson's father in a new version of ``Samson and
Delilah.''
Making fun of the notion that he was just a pretty face, he liked to joke that
he once tried to get into a country club that didn't accept actors by saying, ``Hell, I'm
no actor, and I've got 28 pictures and a scrapbook of reviews to prove it.''
But he also said he ``took acting five times as seriously as anyone else. I just
couldn't show it. Some kind of complex, I guess.''
Mature was born Jan. 29, 1913 - some references say 1915 and 1916 - in
Louisville, Ky., the son of an Austrian immigrant who became a successful businessman.
Coming to California in the mid-'30s, he studied at the Pasadena Playhouse, paying his way
with odd jobs because he didn't want to rely on his father. He made his screen debut with
a small role in ``The Housekeeper's Daughter,'' 1939.
At the height of his stardom, Mature dated stars such as Miss Hayworth and Lana
Turner.
He was married five times. Survivors include his wife, Lorey, a former Chicago
opera singer, and their daughter, Victoria, who recently graduated from an opera program
at the University of California, San Diego.
A funeral service was to be held in Louisville, Ky., on Tuesday.
