Victor Mature, `Hunk' Actor In The 1940S, Dies

RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif. - Victor Mature, the brawny star of the 1940s and '50s who played Samson in "Samson and Delilah" and Doc Holliday in John Ford's "My Darling Clementine," has died. He was 86.

Mr. Mature, who largely retired from films around 1960, had suffered from cancer for three years, said a longtime friend, Seattle show-business entrepreneur Zollie Volchok. The San Diego County coroner's office said it was notified that Mr. Mature died Aug. 4.

Tall, dark-haired and muscular, with heavy-lidded eyes and a full mouth, Mr. Mature earned the nickname "beautiful hunk of man" in films like "One Million B.C." and "Song of the Islands."

While first making his name as a glamour-boy star with a devil-may-care attitude, he gradually gained more critical respect in the late 1940s in such films as "Cry of the City" and "Kiss of Death."

He appeared in musicals, Westerns, comedies, historical epics and melodramas.

In "My Darling Clementine," 1946, he was Doc Holliday to Henry Fonda's Wyatt Earp. It is considered one of Ford's greatest films.

Cecil B. DeMille's 1949 telling of the saga of Samson and Delilah cast Mr. Mature and Hedy Lamarr in the title roles. It was a smash hit.

He was at 20th Century Fox for many years but often loaned out to other studios as well. "They turned pictures out like Cracker Jack," he told The New York Times in 1971. " `Kiss of Death' got made because Fox was one black-and-white picture short on its schedule."

That 1947 film paired Mr. Mature with a screen newcomer, Richard Widmark.In it, Mr. Mature was a thief who turned state's evidence, Widmark a psychopathic killer. The film earned Widmark an Oscar nomination.

Among Mr. Mature's other films: "The Shanghai Gesture," 1941, directed by Josef von Sternberg; "My Gal Sal," 1942, with Rita Hayworth; "I Wake Up Screaming," 1941, with Betty Grable; "Wabash Avenue," 1950, again with Grable; "The Robe," 1953, as the slave Demetrius; a sequel, "Demetrius and the Gladiators, 1954; and "Chief Crazy Horse," 1954, with Mr. Mature in the title role.

Mr. Mature was a favorite of reporters during his heyday, always available for interviews. He enjoyed deflating the pomposities of Hollywood as well as his own image.

One of his favorite stories concerned the making of "Samson and Delilah." DeMille wanted him to wrestle with a tame movie lion for a crucial action scene. The actor refused. "But Jackie never hurt anyone; he doesn't even have any teeth," DeMille argued.

"Yeah?" Mr. Mature replied. "I don't want to be gummed to death, either." A stunt man tussled with Jackie, and Mr. Mature did his closeups with a lion skin.

Careful with his money unless a friend was in need, he invested in real estate and retail stores, enabling him to retire before he reached 45. He moved to Rancho Santa Fe, and once bragged that he played golf four hours a day, six days a week.

He made only a few film appearances in the past 35 years, notably the 1966 Peter Sellers comedy, scripted by Neil Simon, "After the Fox," in which he spoofed his old image. Leonard Maltin wrote, "A must-see for Mature's performance as a fading romantic star with a tremendous ego."

He also co-starred in "Every Little Crook and Nanny," a 1972 comedy, with Lynn Redgrave. In 1984 he made a rare appearance on TV playing Samson's father in a new version of "Samson and Delilah."

Making fun of the notion that he was just a pretty face, he liked to joke that he once tried to get into a country club that didn't accept actors by saying, "Hell, I'm no actor, and I've got 28 pictures and a scrapbook of reviews to prove it."

But he also said he "took acting five times as seriously as anyone else. I just couldn't show it. Some kind of complex, I guess."

Mr. Mature was born Jan. 29, 1913 - some references say 1915 and 1916 - in Louisville, Ky., the son of an Austrian immigrant who became a successful businessman. Coming to California in the mid-'30s, he studied at the Pasadena Playhouse

At the height of his stardom, Mr. Mature dated stars such as Miss Hayworth and Lana Turner.

He was married five times. Survivors include his wife, Lorey, a former Chicago opera singer, and their daughter, Victoria.

A funeral service was to be held in Louisville today.