Talk:Victor Mature

Clarification
These sources indicate that Victor Mature was born in 1913: Questors 00:31, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Social Security Death Index
 * 1930 KY census
 * 1920 KY census
 * KY birth index

I read the anecdote about his not being an actor as 'I have 67 film reviews to prove it!'. Maybe it's wrong because it's funnier, but it'd be nice to have a reference to the exact words (if there is one!).

The quote I heard was, "I'm no actor - and I've 64 pictures to prove it!" He also said, "So you value your privacy? Then don't become a fucking actor!" Hilarious, great guy.

Any truth to the rumour that Victor was a cross-dresser?


 * Never heard it in forty years of film history research with specialization in Mature's career. Never heard the rumor, I mean, much less any verification. Monkeyzpop 02:06, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

– Victor was not a cross-dresser and there were never any rumours that he was.

Yes but we are not furnished with any 'personal life' section in this article. Was he married? Was he gay? I'm only asking. fairlightseven 25 April 2009 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.9.52.218 (talk) 20:56, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

– Victor was straight and was married 5 times. He was very happily married to his fifth wife until he passed away in 1999. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.139.229.48 (talk) 08:42, 30 June 2010 (UTC)

Gypsy Heritage
Victor Mature is said to have Gypsy ancestry
 * Well, what is a gypsy? If you mean Roma people, that's highly unlikely as neither Italy, nor Switzerland, nor the British Isles (where the name Ackley stems from) had an appreciable Roma population. But they had indigenous, native "travellers". But anyhow, maybe it's just gossip based on his non-WASP-like appearance.

Comedy
I feel it should be raised that Mature was also a very gifted comic actor - his highpoint being his superb self parody, in the Italian crime romp, After The Fox.

I also remember anecdotal evidence, that he refused to undertake any active role, which a stunt man could not do instead, partly out of the belief that it kept people in work.

Other films
Possibly the film that Victor Mature is most remembered for -- at least by younger viewers primarily because it's still shown frequently on TV -- is the 1949 Cecil B. DeMille "Samson and Delilah", co-starring Hedy Lamarr (who also died in 1999 - the March 2000 Oscar show had the same scene from Samson as the memorial view of both of them). There was a 1984 TV movie of Samson (not a remake but a newly written - and very poor - telling of the Bible story), starring Elizabeth Hurley, in which Victor Mature appears briefly as Samson's father. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.178.242.140 (talk) 16:25, 23 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Lamarr actually died in 2000. Nietzsche 2 (talk) 03:20, 30 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Agreed, Samson and Delilah is the film he's best remembered for now, and perhaps the most famous thing any third party ever said about Mature was Groucho Marx's supposed comment after viewing the film. It would be good to mention the quote in the article from an appropriately reliable source.  In Mature's obit in The Independent, this quote is rendered, a bit cleaned up, as  "I don't like any movie where the leading man's chest is bigger than the leading lady's." I guess this qualifies as WP:RS, at least if the obit is specifically mentioned as the source of the quote.  The quote or some variant may appear in other obits of Mature as well.  The line has become semi-apocryphal, appearing in many different versions with different levels of vulgarity. According to this transcript (which itself unfortunately may not be WP:RS either), the version that Groucho himself told on his late album An Evening With Groucho Marx was as follows:


 * "I was once invited to Cecil De Mille's projection room, and they were running 'Samson and Delilah' with Hedy Lamarr and Victor Mature. I'm sure many of you have seen that picture, some time or other. So Cecil De Mille came up to me, when the picture was over and he said 'How did you like the picture?' I said 'It'll be a failure.' And he said 'Why? Why will it be a failure?' 'Because you got the characters wrong. Victor Mature has much bigger knockers than Hedy Lamarr.' They never asked me at the Paramount again."


 * --Arxiloxos (talk) 18:36, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

You are missing a film he was in. It was called "The Shark Fighters" and it was about research on a shark repelentant that the Navy was doing in Cuba during World War 2. I just saw this movie on thistv.com. *personal email address removed*  Pinkadelica ♣  00:18, 7 April 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.215.26.165 (talk) 23:35, 6 April 2010 (UTC)
 * It's a selected filmography. That means not every film he was in is listed.  Pinkadelica ♣  00:18, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

retail
Didn't Mature own and run a TV store in Los Angeles? I also vaguely remember him making cracks about how easily his name could be punned as "manure". He certainly had a fine sense of self-deprecatory humor. WilliamSommerwerck (talk) 19:02, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

- Yes, Vic Mature Appliances and TV at 10739 W. Pico Blvd. Here is a picture: http://www.victormature.net/appliances.jpg

Victor Mature and his friendship with Kenneth L. Sullivan
I received the following information from my father many years ago:

My father's brother, Kenneth Sullivan (better known as 'Bud') was a good friend of Victor Mature, as the two were close to the same age, moved in the same social circles, and, as my father said, they "ran around together". I believe my dad said the Mature family lived on Camp Street. Anyway, after mature left Louisville to fulfill his destiny as a Hollywood actor, I don't know how much they kept up with each other. Just before the outbreak of World War Two (for the United States, that is), my uncle joined the navy, was assigned to the heavy cruiser, U.S.S Astoria, and was killed during the nighttime naval battle off Savo Island. When Mature learned of this I do not know, but My mother saw him in Louisville one day after he joined the service and had returned to the city selling war bonds.

Just a bit of trivia now, I supposeKmsullivan12 (talk) 17:50, 4 May 2013 (UTC)

name of fifth wife
The article says Mature was married five times, but only names four of his wives: Frances Charles, Martha Stephenson Kemp, "Dorothy", and Adriene Urwick. Who was the fifth? Elsquared (talk) 05:47, 25 November 2013 (UTC)

His fifth wife is Loretta Mature. She was his true love and they were married until he died. An article about them is here: http://www.victormature.net/vmature2/inlove.htm

The "holy look"
I read somewhere that Victor Mature said that one reason he was picked for the religious movies was because "I could make with the holy look."

It's such a Mature-type quote that I think it should be included.

Thoughts? 2600:8800:785:1300:C23F:D5FF:FEC4:D51D (talk) 11:20, 20 April 2018 (UTC)


 * One thought...the statement needs a reputable reference before it is included. It might be a "Mature-type" statement, but without a reference it is just hearsay and another example of Hollywood hype. Cuprum17 (talk) 11:48, 20 April 2018 (UTC)

Swiss mother?
His mother's maiden name, Ackley, doesn't look Swiss at all. Instead it has an unmistakable British Isles appearance. So if she didn't aquire this name in an unusual way, she was at best of partial Swiss heritage. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 31.24.11.129 (talk) 22:54, 2 February 2022 (UTC)