Jim Mitchum, actor and son of Robert Mitchum, dies at 84

Jim Mitchum, an actor who carried forward the Mitchum family presence in Hollywood and who appeared in more than three dozen films and television productions, died September 20 at his ranch home in Skull Valley, Arizona. He was 84. His death, following a lengthy illness, was announced by a family spokesperson, who said his wife Pamela was at his side along with the couple's poodle.

Born May 8, 1941, in Los Angeles to actor Robert Mitchum and Dorothy Spence Mitchum, Jim Mitchum made his screen debut at age eight in the Raoul Walsh Western Colorado Territory. He came to wider attention at 16 when he was cast opposite his father in the 1958 film Thunder Road, produced by Robert Mitchum and dramatizing clashes between Southern whiskey runners, federal agents and organized crime. The role, in which he played an auto mechanic, helped establish the youthfully rugged persona that would shape much of his early career.

Through the 1960s Mitchum built a steady body of work in both films and television, with credits that included The Victors (1963), Ride the Wild Surf (1964), In Harm's Way (1965) and Ambush Bay (1966). He had a cameo in Two-Lane Blacktop and traveled with a group of...