James Mitchell (actor)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Mitchell (born February 29, 1920 in Sacramento, California) is an American actor and dancer, probably best known for his role as Palmer Cortlandt on the long-running soap opera All My Children.
Like many male dancers of his generation, Mitchell began studying dance rather belatedly--in his case, at age 19. After graduating from Los Angeles City College with a degree in drama, he started his professional career in Lester Horton's modern dance company. (During the 1970s, Mitchell returned to his modern dance roots when he served as President of the Board of Directors of the Bella Lewitzky Dance Foundation.) But he is best known for his longstanding association with Agnes de Mille -- as both dancer and assistant choreographer/director -- which began when she cast him in Bloomer Girl (1944). De Mille went on to use him in the principal male dance roles in the original Broadway productions of Brigadoon (for which he received a Theatre World Award and the Donaldson Award for Best Dancer) and Paint Your Wagon. At her invitation, he later performed with American Ballet Theatre and the Agnes de Mille Dance Theatre. The two last collaborated on the 1969 Broadway flop Come Summer, starring Ray Bolger. Mitchell also worked off-and-on with Jerome Robbins, beginning with the 1945 musical Billion Dollar Baby. Other significant stage roles include Marco in the original Broadway and West End productions of Carnival!, starring Jerry Orbach; Jigger in Carousel; and Macheath in the famed off-Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera (as well as on tour). He last worked on Broadway in Jerry Herman's Mack & Mabel (1974).
Beginning in the late 1940s, Mitchell was a contract player at first Warner Brothers (very briefly) and then Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Most of Mitchell's film appearances are in non-dancing roles. Significant exceptions include one of his first films, White Savage (1943), in which he partnered another member of Lester Horton's company, Bella Lewitzky; The Toast of New Orleans (1950) with Rita Moreno; and Deep in My Heart (1954) with Cyd Charisse. He was also the principal dancer in Sara-Kathryn Arledge's experimental short film, Introspection (completed 1946). Mitchell's most important film role, however, is as "Dream Curly" in the ballet sequence of the movie version of Oklahoma! (1955). Other movie roles include The Band Wagon, The Turning Point, Border Incident, Colorado Territory, and The Peacemaker.
Mitchell performed frequently on television in the 1950s and 1960s, mostly as a dancer. Before starting his well-known role on All My Children, he appeared in the soaps Where the Heart Is and Edge of Night. He first appeared on All My Children in 1979. For playing Palmer, he has received 7 Daytime Emmy Award nominations and 3 Soap Opera Digest Award nominations. Since Susan Lucci's Emmy win in 1999, Mitchell has the most Daytime Emmy acting nominations without winning.
After he retired from dancing in the mid-1960s, Mitchell earned an MA from New York University. He has taught dance and movement for actors at Juilliard, Yale University (where one of his students was Richard Bey), and Drake University; in 1985, he received an honorary doctorate from the latter.
[edit] External links
- James Mitchell at the Internet Movie Database
- James Mitchell - Internet Broadway Database
- Brief interview about the filming of Oklahoma!
- Mitchell and Cyd Charisse in rehearsal (1959)
- A Touch of Magic (1961 industrial film) at Archive.org
[edit] Further reading
- Easton, Carol. No Intermissions: The Life of Agnes De Mille. New York: Little, Brown, & Co., 1996. ISBN 0-316-19970-2. (Mitchell is interviewed extensively.)
- Gilvey, John Anthony. Before the Parade Passes By: Gower Champion and the Glorious American Musical. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2005. ISBN 0-312-33776-0. (For Mitchell's performance in Carnival!)
- Lawrence, Greg. Dance with Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2001. ISBN 0-399-14652-0. (For Mitchell's work in Billion Dollar Baby, American Ballet Theatre, and the American Theatre Laboratory.)
