Robert Mitchum (August 6, 1917  July 1, 1997) was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute’s list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time. Mitchum rose to prominence for his starring roles in several major works of the film noir style, and is considered a forerunner of the anti-heroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 1960s. Mitchum is regarded by critics as one of the finest actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Roger Ebert called him ’the soul of film noir’.