RIP James Mitchell

Posted: 1/22/10 at 11:43pm

After the news of Jean this is doubly sad.

RIP to the kind, insanely gifted, James Mitchell. Agnes DeMille called him the finest America male ballet dancer of his generation, and watching him in the Oklahoma! dream ballet as Curley, or in Band Wagon it's easy to see why. He was also a gifted actor, who played Palmer Cortland on All My Children from 1979 to this past year (it's surreal as he was on their 40th Anniversary episode just two weeks back). He had a happy, healthy, and long life and career, and passed away quickly.

Not the best scene, but HERE's a classic moment of him as Palmer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ4GMumL-mk

And here's all I could find online of him in the Oklahoma dream ballet--about a minute and a half at the end of THIS clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wMFXSFKRBU

And not the best quality, but HERE he is as the male lead in Agnes DeMille's Civil War Ballet from Bloomer Girl, recreated ten years later for TV (it should be poitned out Agnes hoped to marry James but, well cuz he was gay and for the times really open about it, that never happened). And not the best quality, but [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OixjJfjgFa0

I always feel he's been a bit underated--a footnote in many ballet books because so much of his dancing was "merely" for musical theatre, and then ignored as an actor because he was "merely" a soap star.

RIP

[allofmylife]

Posted: 1/23/10 at 12:09am

And of course, Harry Beaton in "Brigadoon" and Marco The Magnificent" in "Carnival!" This guy was perhaps the best dancer on the Broadway stage in the latter half of the last century.

Posted: 1/23/10 at 12:19am

Well more mid century, 40s, 50s especially--he retired from dancing by the mid 60s (where he got his first soap role in Edge of Night, followed by playing the lead in Where the Heart Is for its entire run from '69-'73 and then Agnes Nixon was such a fan she created Palmer Cortland for him on AMC in late '78 where he was one of the main characters till his semi retirement in '99 and remained on a recurring status till 3 weeks back, his last appearance).


But yeah, for such a stunning dancer, he really is not as well remembered as he deserves to be--as you say he was perhaps the best of the best. Besides Band Wagon and Oklahoma! it's a shame more of his dance work wasn't filmed. Didn't he do a brilliant dance number in a so so film musical that was kinda pseudo oriental like Kismet? I used to see the clip on youtube,but couldn't remember thename or find the clip.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 1/23/10 at 12:24am

"With a Sword and a Rose and a Cape!"
Great Career,
R.I.P.

[Amalia Balash]

Posted: 1/23/10 at 1:22am

Beautiful dancer. He gave me so much enjoyment, first in the musicals, then on All My Children. Definitely a life to be celebrated!

[dayao]

Posted: 1/23/10 at 1:41am

I recently saw on DVD "The Desert Song" sequence in the 1954 MGM film, "Deep in My Heart", where Mitchell is paired with Cyd Charisse, and their dancing is as erotic and exciting today as it was over 50 years ago. A truly great dancer and actor.

[steveshack]

Posted: 1/23/10 at 9:17am

I knew him mostly as Palmer Courtland. He was a great actor and always has that implacability needed in a character that moved back and forth between villainous and lovable.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/23/10 at 9:33am

Wasn't he also the male ballet dancer with Cyd Charisse at the beginning of The Band Wagon?

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/23/10 at 9:57am

PJ, he wasn't the male dancer. He played the choreographer ("Paul Byrd") and Fred Astaire's romantic rival rival for Cyd's affections in the movie. He was very good, too.

RIP

I met him once in NYC back in the '80s, through a mutual friend on All My Children. A very nice man. And I was in awe of meeting such a legendary dancer (the original villain, Harry Beaton, in "Brigadoon" and the Dream Curly in the movie "Oklahoma!").

Updated On: 1/23/10 at 09:57 AM

[TimesSquareRegular]

Posted: 1/23/10 at 10:04am

Terrible news ..... nothing but great memories of his performances on film and especially in Carnival.

[WishingOnlyWounds2]

Posted: 1/23/10 at 1:09pm

May he Rest in Peace.

[thadbosley]

Posted: 1/23/10 at 8:03pm

An amazing actor and dancer. Loved him in Carnival back in the day and as Palmer on AMC. 7 EMMY nominations for that role.

There's a nice tribute to him on Youtube with some beautiful pics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnAnyCpQ4oY
James Mitchell

[daredevil]

Posted: 1/23/10 at 10:02pm

I saw him do Marco the Magnificent three times in Carnival--each time he was great---a terrific foil to Jerry Orbach's Paul. He also appeared as a malevolent Nazi doctor in The Deputy (1964), and in several David Susskind produced plays performed on Channel 13 in the late fifties, early sixties. One I remember was The Enchanted, by Jean Girodoux. By the way, that you-tube tribute was very moving.

Posted: 1/23/10 at 10:42pm

He's someone you simply never ever hear a bad word about.

This is a hilarious advertising short film he did for Motoroma (GM cars and appliances) in 1961
A Touch of Magic

[allofmylife]

Posted: 1/23/10 at 11:18pm

Even Don Draper would vomit if he had to watch that twice.

BTW, Eric, there IS film footage of all of James Mitchell's work and pretty well every great musical going back to, if memory serves me correct, the Ziegfeld revival of "Showboat" in 1932.

I've seen some of it. I spent a mouth-agape evening looking at just a few reels of what is an amazing treasure-trove of footage from great Broadway shows (where do you think the footage of Gene Kelly in Pal Joey came from?) and such amazing things as Merman, Gaxton and Moore in "Anything Goes", The Opening of Guys and Dolls, the original dream ballet in Oklahoma, all the way up to "Camelot." All filmed in Broadway theaters, and all the footage, following WWII in color...

And all, sadly in the hands of one man who is reluctant, for whatever reason, to share.

I can only hope this amazing treasure ends up in a museum or a college special arts collection (and the person who controls this film footage visits this site. You know who you are. Come on, my friend, make this a gift for the ages.)

Posted: 1/24/10 at 12:05am

I suspected as much--I meant film footage one could see, but I echo your statement.

The person who posted that youtube photo montage has posted part one of "James Mitchell in Hollywood" which has some great interviews.
James Mitchell in Hollywood

[allofmylife]

Posted: 1/24/10 at 5:59am

I was at this guys house and he opened the cupboard and it was full of film reels. When he showed them to me, all I could think was "these are one-of-a-kinds and shouldn't be projected."

It breaks the heart.

[Londonskyguy]

Posted: 1/24/10 at 12:47pm

In the mid 1980's as a student at Drake University, we were fortunate to have Mr Mitchell come and teach some classes. I will never forget what a wonderful teacher he was, and how he was so kind to all of us in the Theatre Dept. My favorite personal memory however was when friends and I were discussing what to wear to go out one night,he walked by and overheard our conversation. and having not met him yet he said to me "Dress to the nines my dear boy, dress to the nines! " A class act!

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/24/10 at 2:06pm

May he rest in peace.

[justafan2]

Posted: 1/24/10 at 4:02pm

RIP----a talented and gifted dancer/actor.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 1/24/10 at 4:13pm

I'm surprised no one has mantioned his terrific portrayal of William Desmond Taylor in MACK AND MABEL.
I can't think of one other dancer (maybe Baryshnikov to an extent) who had a whole career as a major dancer and then graduated to roles and become a wonderful actor.
Also check his acting in THE TURNING POINT.

[OtherDaryl]

Posted: 1/24/10 at 10:31pm

He made lunch hours so much fun, back in the day, sparring with Daisy and Myra.