Mattox was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and became a protégé of the legendary jazz dance pioneer Jack Cole, with whom he worked on Broadway in Magdalena: a Musical Adventure (1948).
His other Broadway credits include creating and performing the role of the Jester in the original production of Once Upon a Mattress (1959), and Harry Beaton in the 1957 revival of Brigadoon.
His best-known film role is Caleb Pontipee in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,[2] but he was also a principal dancer in, among others, Yolanda and the Thief, The Band Wagon (Cyd Charisse's partner in the ballet sequence), Till the Clouds Roll By, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and There's No Business Like Show Business.
[3] One of the world's most influential teachers of jazz dance—or, as he called it, "freestyle dancing"—[4] Mattox lived and worked in Perpignan, France.
He formed a concert jazz dance company in 1975 in England and eventually brought it to France.