Christopher Mitchum

The second son of actor Robert Mitchum, Christopher Mitchum began his own spotty film career in the late 1960s, after attending Dublin's Trinity College and earning a BA from the University of Arizona. Christopher looked and sounded nothing at all like his father, thereby avoiding unwarranted cries of "Nepotism!" from cynical critics. Like his brother Jim and his uncle John, Christopher found that his best screen opportunities were in westerns. He played supporting parts in a number of John Wayne pictures, including Rio Lobo (1969), Chisum (1970), Big Jake (1971). Though he prefers writing to acting, Christopher Mitchum continued showing up in theatrical and made-for-video action fare into the late 1980s; in 1993, he was nostalgically cast as a ranch hand in the all-star Wyatt Earp biopic Tombstone.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide