American leading man Victor John Mature was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Clara P. (Ackley) and Marcellus George Mature, a cutler and knife sharpener. His father, born Marcello Gelindo Maturi in Pinzolo, Trentino, was Italian, and his mother was of Swiss-German and German descent. Mature worked as a teenager with his father as a salesman for butcher supplies. Hoping to become an actor, he studied at the Pasadena Playhouse in California. He auditioned for 乱世佳人 (1939) for the role ultimately played by his fellow Playhouse student, George Reeves. After achieving some acclaim in his first few films, he served in the Coast Guard in World War II. Mature became one of Hollywood's busiest and most popular actors after the war, though rarely was he given the critical respect he often deserved. His roles in 约翰·福特's 侠骨柔情 (1946) and in 亨利·哈撒韦's 死吻 (1947) were among his finest work, though he moved more and more frequently into more exotic roles in films like 参孙和达莉拉 (1949) and 埃及人 (1954). Never an energetic actor nor one of great artistic pretensions, he nevertheless continued as a Hollywood stalwart both in programme and in more prominent films like 圣袍千秋 (1953). More interested in golf than acting, his appearances diminished through the 1960s, but he made a stunning comeback of sorts in a hilarious romp as a very Victor Mature-like actor in 尼尔·西蒙's 怪贼飞天狐 (1966). Golf eventually took over his activities and, after a cameo as Samson's father in a TV remake of his own "Samson and Delilah" (参孙与德莱拉 (1984)), he retired for good. Rumors occasionally surfaced of another comeback, most notably in a never-realized remake of Red River (1948) with 西尔维斯特·史泰龙, but none came to fruition. He died of cancer at his Rancho Santa Fe, California, home in 1999.
Daughter, Victoria, born in 1975.
He was a petty officer in the Coast Guard during World War II. He served on the troop transport ship Admiral Mayo. His service carried him to the North Atlantic, including Normandy, the Mediterranean, Caribbean and many islands in the South Pacific. He was on Okinawa when the A-bomb was dropped on Japan.
Victor's father, Marcello Gelindo Maturi (later Marcellus George Mature), a knife sharpener and cutler, was born in 1877 in the town of Pinzolo, in the Italian Tyrolean region of Trentino, which was then under the rule of the Austria-Hungary Empire, and was returned to Italian sovereignty in 1918, after WWI. Victor's mother, Clara P. (Ackley), was born in Kentucky. Victor's maternal grandfather, Charles Anthony "Antone" Ackley, was a Swiss immigrant, of Swiss-German descent, while Victor's maternal grandmother, Magdalen "Lena" Weekes, was born in Indiana, to German parents.
Applying for membership in the swank Los Angeles Country Club at the height of his fame, Mature was turned down and told that the golfing facility did not accept actors as members. His response: "I'm not an actor - and I've got 64 films to prove it!".
He attributed his success in Biblical spectacles to his ability to "make with the holy look."
Was color-blind.
Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 389-390. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Attended the Kentucky Military Academy. One of his classmates was future fellow actor, 吉姆·巴克斯 (Mr. Magoo and Thurston Howell III in Gilligan's Island (1964)).
In Zarak (1956) he played perhaps the only title character in the movies to be flogged to death.
Although several sources suggest that Mature's family name was originally Maturi, United States and Austrian birth, immigration, census and other records, as well as Victor Mature himself, are quite clear that as of 1877, the family name was Mature.
In her autobiography, 埃丝特·威廉斯 details a passionate affair she had with Mature during the filming of 出水芙蓉 (1952). According to Williams, her marriage was on the rocks, she needed love and Mature provided all she wanted.
He was a Republican.
Featured in "Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir" by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry (McFarland, 2003).
A false story has circulated that George Reeves auditioned for the role of Samson in 参孙和达莉拉 (1949), but lost the role to Mature. Supposedly, he was given the role of "Wounded Messenger" at the recommendation of Mature, who was very loyal to his friends from his student days at the Pasadena Community Playhouse. The fact is that Reeves was never under consideration for the role of Samson. However, many of the smaller roles in the film were played by Mature's friends from Pasadena.
Was approached for the role of 西尔维斯特·史泰龙's father in 弹指威龙 (1991), which eventually went to 柯克·道格拉斯.
Was originally going to star with Robert Wagner and 黛博拉·佩吉特 in 平岗双雄 (1956).
Is buried in St. Michael Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky.
Despite his physique and his tough guy persona, Mature was a man of many fears and phobias. Not only did he refuse to wrestle a tame movie lion for 参孙和达莉拉 (1949)--a film that 格劳乔·马克斯 famously said he would not go to see because "the leading man's tits are bigger than the leading lady's"--but during the jawbone battle, the wind machine kicked up some particularly violent gusts, and Mature fled the sound stage for his dressing room, hiding in terror. According to 塞西尔 biographer Charles Higham, the director publicly humiliated him, using his megaphone to ensure that cast and crew all heard him.
George Clooney played a caricature of Victor Mature in the 2016 Coen brothers movie Hail Caesar.
Before 查尔顿·赫斯顿, Victor Mature dominated the "biblical epic" genre, starring in 参孙和达莉拉 (1949), 圣袍千秋 (1953) , and 圣徒妖姬 (1954)
Making use of his powerful physique, he became associated with "beefcake" scenes involving bondage and torture. In "Samson and Delilah" (1949) he was blinded and forced to turn a gristmill. In "The Robe" (1953) he suffered while stretched out on a torture-table inside a Roman dungeon. In "Zarak" (1957) he endured two separate floggings. In "Timbuktu" (1959) he found himself staked out, spreadeagle style, under a dangling tarantula.
