Victor John Mature (January 29, 1913 – August 4, 1999) was an American stage, film, and television actor who was a leading man in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s.

For three years, he lived in a tent in the back yard of Mrs Willigan, the mother of a fellow student, Catherine Lewis.

[8] Roach cast Mature in a small role in The Housekeeper's Daughter (1939), for which one reviewer called him "a handsome Tarzan type".

The film was highly publicized and it raised Mature's profile; Hedda Hopper called him "a sort of miniature Johnny Weissmuller".

[11][12] Because Hal Roach only made a handful of movies every year, he loaned out Mature's services to RKO, who used him as a leading man in the Anna Neagle–Herbert Wilcox musical, No, No, Nanette.

Shortly afterward it was announced he would appear instead in the musical Lady in the Dark with a book by Moss Hart and songs from Ira Gershwin and Kurt Weill; Mature played Randy Curtis, a film star boyfriend of the show's protagonist, magazine editor Liza Elliott (Gertrude Lawrence).

[18]The musical debuted on Broadway in January 1941 and was a smash hit, making a star of Danny Kaye and Macdonald Carey and causing fresh appreciation for Mature's talents.

His performance was well received, Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times calling him "unobjectionably handsome and affable".

When Mature left Lady in the Dark, he announced that half of his contract with Hal Roach had been bought out by 20th Century Fox.

[26] Instead, Mature made another musical for Fox, supporting Rita Hayworth in My Gal Sal (a role originally meant for Don Ameche).

He assisted Coast-Guard recruiting efforts by being a featured player in the musical revue Tars and Spars, which opened in Miami, Florida, in April 1944 and toured the United States for the next year.

[31] Fox assigned him to Three Little Girls in Blue, but he was removed in order to play Philip Marlowe in an adaptation of The High Window.

However, Mature withdrew from the project and was cast by John Ford in 20th Century-Fox's My Darling Clementine, playing Doc Holliday opposite Henry Fonda's Wyatt Earp.

[38] Mature's career received a massive lift when he was borrowed by Cecil B. DeMille at Paramount to play the lead in the $3.5 million biblical spectacular Samson and Delilah.

During filming, Mature was frightened by a number of the animals and mechanical props used in the production, including the lions, the wind machine, the swords and even the water.

"[43] In late 1949, Mature was meant to fulfill another commitment at RKO, Alias Mike Fury (the new title for Mr Whiskers).

[53] Back at Fox, Mature was meant to be reteamed with Betty Grable in a musical, The Farmer Takes a Wife, but the studio instead reassigned him to a comedy with Patricia Neal, Something for the Birds.

[54] Back at RKO, Mature was meant to star in Split Second, but instead was reteamed with Jean Simmons in the romantic drama Affair with a Stranger.

He travelled to Holland in September 1953 to support Clark Gable and Lana Turner in a World War Two film made at MGM, Betrayed, another popular success.

[61][62] The Egyptian ended up starring Mature with Edmund Purdom and Michael Wilding, plus Bella Darvi; it was a box-office disappointment.

Mature went over to Universal to play the title role in Chief Crazy Horse, in exchange for a fee and a percentage of the profits.

[69] Sam Goldwyn Jr, hired him to make The Sharkfighters, released through United Artists and shot on location in Cuba.

[71] Mature signed to make two more films with Warwick Productions, No Time to Die (Tank Force) and The Man Inside.

[72] He ended up only making the first, a World War II film with Libyan locations; Jack Palance took his role in The Man Inside.

It was released by United Artists, which also distributed Timbuktu, a French Foreign Legion adventure tale that Mature made for producer Edward Small and director Jacques Tourneur.

[73] He then made his second film for Warwick under his two-picture contract with them, The Bandit of Zhobe, following this with an Italian peplum, aka "sword-and-sandal" movie, Hannibal, with Mature in the title role.

Mature played "Tony Powell," an aging American actor who is living off his reputation from his earlier body of work.

He is a strong man in a land of hundred pound weaklings, an incredible concoction of beef steak, husky voice, and brilliantine – a barely concealed sexual advertisement for soiled goods.

It told of a Los Angeles band who had taken their name from a newspaper headline describing an incident where furious wasps had ganged up on the actor during a round of golf.

The band had since opted for something a little more West Coast, so Buck considered Hornets Attack Victor Mature to be fair game.