Gordon Mitchell

For the jazz musician, see Whitey Mitchell. For the rugby player, see Gordon Mitchell (rugby union).
Gordon Mitchell
Born
Charles Allen Pendleton

(1923-07-29)July 29, 1923
Denver, Colorado, US
DiedSeptember 20, 2003(2003-09-20) (aged 80)
Marina Del Rey, California, US
Occupation(s)Film actor, bodybuilder

Gordon Mitchell (born Charles Allen Pendleton; July 29, 1923 – September 20, 2003) was an American actor and bodybuilder who made about 200 B movies.[1]

Biography

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Charles Allen Pendleton was born in Denver, Colorado, and began working out in his Denver neighbourhood to deal with his tough companions. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army in the Battle of the Bulge where he was taken prisoner of war. He later obtained a degree at the University of Southern California under the G.I. Bill. He became a high school teacher and guidance counselor in Los Angeles,[1] where due to his physique he was given classes containing many delinquent students.[2]

Following a return enlistment for the Korean War, he found film extra work in movies such as Prisoner of War, The Man with the Golden Arm and Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments, where he and his friend Joe Gold dragged Charlton Heston's Moses to Pharaoh Yul Brynner. Mae West chose him to appear in her nightclub act as part of her "buffed all-male chorus line".[1]

He was one of the American bodybuilder-actors who migrated to Italy in the wake of Steve Reeves' success in the 1958 film Hercules after he sent a photo to an Italian producer who signed him on a contract. Prior to going to Italy, he saw a clairvoyant who asked him if he had ever been known by the name of Gordon Mitchell.[3] He replied no, but on arrival in Rome, Mitchell was given his new name.[4] He found work first in sword and sandal films such as Sinbad, Seven Slaves Against the World, Treasure of the Petrified Forest (1965), then in Spaghetti Westerns such as Beyond the Law and Savage Guns. Mitchell also appeared in Fellini Satyricon (1969), directed by Federico Fellini.

From the early 1970s onwards, he started to diversify into everything from horror (Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks - 1974), Nazi exploitation (Achtung! The Desert Tigers! -1977), sexploitation (Porno-Erotic Western - 1979), French criminal comedy (The Umbrella Coup - 1980), and post-apocalyptic films (Endgame - 1983). He also appeared in the bizarre 1982 Israeli adaptation of H. Rider Haggard's She as "Hector." The film was directed by Avi Nesher and co-starred Sandahl Bergman.

Mitchell was close friends with fellow American expatriate actors Richard Harrison, Mike Monty (he appeared in a number of films with both and shared an apartment with Monty in Italy during the 1960s),[citation needed] and John P. Dulaney. Like Monty, Harrison and Dulaney, Mitchell acted in low-budget action films in the Philippines during the 1980s, having roles in Commando Invasion and SFX Retaliator for director John Gale.

He returned to the United States in the late 1980s and retired from acting, but kept making occasional film appearances until his death in 2003 from an apparent heart attack in Marina Del Rey, California, at age 80.[1]

Selected filmography

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d Oliver, Myrna (25 September 2003). "Gordon Mitchell, 80; Bodybuilder Made 'Sword and Sandal' B Movies". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 7 August 2018. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
  2. ^ "Biodata". Find Articles. Retrieved 10 April 2019.[dead link‍]
  3. ^ Tyler, Dick (2004). Draper, Dave (ed.). West Coast Bodybuilding Scene: The Golden Age. On Target Publications. p. 266. ISBN 9781931046299.
  4. ^ Kelly, Devin (12 August 2012). "An Interview with Gordon Mitchell". Cinema Nocturna website. Archived from the original on 4 January 2015. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
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