Gordon Mitchell(1923-2003)

Tall, massively built, imposing-looking blond Gordon Mitchell (early on dubbed the "The Bronze Giant") was one of those perfectly developed bodybuilders who jumped on the Steve Reeves bandwagon and hightailed it to Italy to seek movie stardom as a Herculean strongman. Born Charles Allen Pendleton in Denver, Colorado on July 29, 1923, and raised in Inglewood, California, Mitchell served in WWII and, at one point, became a prisoner of war at the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, Gordon went to USC in Los Angeles under the G.I. bill and became a high school teacher and guidance counselor.

A fitness nut with an incredible physique, he soon became part of the Venice, California "Muscle Beach" crowd and it took over. He literally flexed his way into the entertainment business as part of Mae West's musclebound revue. He toured everywhere with Ms. West from Las Vegas to the Latin Quarter with other "abs"normal actor wannabes Mickey Hargitay, Brad Harris and Reg Lewis. In between, Gordon obscurely posed as beefcake in such films as Mười Điều Răn Của Chúa (1956), Li'l Abner (1959) and Spartacus (1960), which, of course, did little to advance his acting career.

In 1961, after Reeves' Le fatiche di Ercole (1958) proved a box-office smash, the non-Italian-speaking Mitchell, among others, headed off to Europe to compete on the peplum film pedestal. With his fierce and progressively hardened features, Gordon wound up playing both hero and villain, appearing regularly in the popular, if poorly dubbed, sandal-and-spear epics. In the usual over-the-top style. Gordon started off as the title strongman in Maciste nella terra dei ciclopi (1961); and went on to play the Roman warrior General Metellus in Il conquistatore di Corinto (1961); massively muscled hero Obro in Il gigante di Metropolis (1961); Pluto, the God of War in Vulcano, figlio di Giove (1962); the villainous pirate Hamar in Giulio Cesare contro i pirati (1962); the title hero L'ira di Achille (1962); the barbarous villain Brenno in Brenno il nemico di Roma (1963); a slave and co-hero in Gli schiavi più forti del mondo (1964); evil tyrant Omar in Simbad contro i sette saraceni (1964); villainous assassin Sven in Erik il vichingo (1965); and the villainous Hunding in Il tesoro della foresta pietrificata (1965).

Gordon developed a strong core of fans during this brief reign. When the film fad wore off by 1965, Mitchell, unlike many of his pectoral partners who chose to drop out of sight, moved on and muscled his way into more than 100 additional films. Many of his later 60's and 70's offerings were further down the credits list in the "spaghetti western" or "giallo mystery" categories -- staying true to the country that made him a star -- 3 colpi di Winchester per Ringo (1966), Uccidi o muori (1966) a.k.a. "Kill or Be Killed", È mezzanotte... butta giù il cadavere (1966), Nato per uccidere (1967), Little Rita nel West (1967), Bersaglio mobile (1967), John il bastardo (1967), Cin cin... cianuro (1968), Al di là della legge (1968), T'ammazzo!... Raccomandati a Dio (1968), Carogne si nasce (1968), Sono Sartana, il vostro becchino (1969), Arrivano Django e Sartana... è la fine (1970), Inginocchiati straniero... I cadaveri non fanno ombra! (1970), Se t'incontro t'ammazzo (1971), Per una bara piena di dollari (1971), Giù le mani... carogna! (Django Story) (1971), Vamos a matar Sartana (1971), Il giorno del giudizio (1971), Il suo nome era Pot (1971), Era Sam Wallash!... lo chiamavano... E Così Sia (1971), Un uomo chiamato Dakota (1972), Scansati... a Trinità arriva Eldorado (1972), Allegri becchini... arriva Trinità (1972), I sette del gruppo selvaggio (1975) and La polizia ordina: sparate a vista (1976).

As the years went on, Gordon would branch out more internationally. Some of these films included The Arizona Kid (1970) (Philippines); Le saut de l'ange (1971) (France); Sette volte sette (1969) (Hong Kong); La tigre venuta dal fiume Kwai (1975) (Germany); Une femme spéciale (1979) (France); Kopfschuß (1981) (Germany); Inchon (1981) (US); the international mini-series Marco Polo (1982); Vivre pour survivre (1984) (France); Commando Invasion (1986) (Germany) and Evil Spawn (1987) (Taiwan).

Returning to the States around 1990, Gordon continued to work sporadically Bikini Drive-In (1995) and An Enraged New World (2002)) until his last film -- the crime action flick Malevolence (2004). The actor, briefly married in the early 1950's, died of a heart attack on September 20, 2003, in Marina del Rey, California. He was 80 years old.