Robert Mitchum - Lee Server

'You want my life story? I told everything I know to the Angeles Police Department.' A tough guy with lazy style and soulful eyes, Mitchum was one of Holywood's best-loved actors. Associated most strongly with film noir on account of his hard-edged performances in films like Out of the Past and Night of the Hunter, Mitchum's work actually ran the gamut of Hollywood fare, from Westerns like El Dorado to David Lean's tragic romance Ryan's Daughter. But Mitchum was one of the few Hollywood stars whose real life was more interesting than his screen persona. A hobo during the Depression, he fell into acting by happenstance. After early success he was famously busted for smoking marijuana in the 1950s, and remained an unrepentant misbehaver until his death in 1997. Lee Server's biography of Mitchum is exhaustively researched and written with considerable panache, a style befitting its hip, laconic subject, making for a fabulous read about a fascinating life.