Cameron Mitchell

Burly, tough-guy leading man and character actor famous as the hard-drinking, hardworking Buck Cannon on the TV series "High Chaparral." Mitchum began appearing in films in 1945 and, after playing many character roles and occasional leads in B action films and Westerns, began to make some headway after playing Happy, one of Willy Loman's (Fredric March) sons in a film adaptation of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" (1951). A breakthrough into big-budget, big-star films came when he was one of the three male consorts paired up with Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe and Lauren Bacall in "How to Marry a Millionaire" (1953). (He got Grable.) Prominent leads--as in "Love Me or Leave Me" (1955), opposite Doris Day and James Cagney--continued for a number of years, though Mitchell also frequently played second lead, romantic rival, supportive chum or sometime supporting villain in many films as well.