American actor, a dark handsome leading or supporting man whose career spanned film types from drama to horror to romantic comedy.
Mature quit school at age 15 to get work and landed odd jobs here and there to help support his family. But at age 19 the lure of Hollywood beckoned and he moved there. Lucky enough to get parts in community theatre in Pasadena, CA, he made his first film in 1939, a small part in “The Housekeeper’s Daughter.” In 1940 he was cast in a larger role in “One Million B.C.” and his career was launched. As it did for so many actors, WWII interrupted his career. He joined the Coast Guard but after the war he went back to Hollywood.
In 1946 John Ford directed his performance in the western film “My Darling Clementine.” A few years and a few movies later, Mature played the lead in the 1949 biblical epic “Samson and Delilah.” It was to be the first of several biblical epics in his filmography. His athletic physique, handsome reserve, full lips and perfectly arched eyebrows over dark brooding eyes had many of the ladies swooning throughout his career but particularly as he cavorted in loincloths. Indeed at least five of them swooned enough to become his wives.
He married for the first time in 1938 but the marriage to Frances Charles was annulled in 1940. In mid-1941 he married Martha Stephenson Kemp; they separated six months later and divorced in February 10, 1943. In early 1948 he married Dorothy Berry. Marriage number three lasted seven and a half years, ending in divorce in November 1955. On September 27, 1959 he married Adrienne Joy Urwick; they divorced in February 1969. On February 22, 1974 he married Loretta Sebena. The had a daughter Victoria in 1975. Along the way he reportedly had affairs with such lovely ladies as Esther Williams and Rita Hayworth.
Mature retired from film in the late 1950s, by now preferring to have fun. Investing in real estate and capitalizing on his business sense, he made a few more movies but he enjoyed the good life on the golf greens. The New York Times obituary quoted him as saying in 1986: ‘There’s a lot to be said for loafing if you know how to do it gracefully.’ With self-deprecating humour he often said he wasn’t an actor–“just ask the critics.”
He developed cancer and died from leukemia on 4 August 1999 in Rancho Santa Fe, CA. He was 86.
Link to Wikipedia biography