Gordon Mitchell

Gordon Mitchell — Biography

Gordon Mitchell was one of the best-known American bodybuilder-actors who went to Europe in the 1960s, remembered as a hard, imposing face of sword-and-sandal and Italian western films. Born Charles Allen Pendleton, he died on 20 September 2003 in Marina del Rey, California.

Born in Denver, he served in the US Army in World War II, fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was taken prisoner. After the war he studied at the University of Southern California on the G.I. Bill and became a high school teacher and guidance counselor in Los Angeles. He re-enlisted for the Korean War and on his return found extra work in films such as Prisoner of War, The Man with the Golden Arm and The Ten Commandments. After the success of Steve Reeves in Hercules he sent a photo to an Italian producer, won a contract, and received his screen name in Rome. After historical adventures such as The Centurion, Caesar Against the Pirates and Invasion 1700, he moved into westerns, including I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death and Django and Sartana Are Coming... It's the End, and also appeared in Fellini Satyricon.

From the 1970s he worked across genres, from horror (Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks) to Nazi exploitation, from The Umbrella Coup to Endgame. He returned to the United States in the late 1980s, largely left acting, and became chief operating officer of World Gym in Marina del Rey.