Few movie musclemen have combined a .45 caliber wit with the 45" chest that Mature—who died of leukemia at age 86 on Aug. 4 at his home in San Diego—displayed in such barely clothed epics as Samson and Delilah (with Hedy Lamarr) and The Robe. "He was just this great hunk of sensuality," remembers Piper Laurie, one of his costars, but another, Red Buttons, joked that Mature would shrink from stunts: "He used to say to me, 'Red, I won't take a slippery step.' " The son of an Austrian immigrant, Mature had a knack for a nickel too: He began a profitable business that would endure well past his screen career by selling TVs from his Samson dressing room.
Mature—who is survived by his fifth wife, Lorey, a former Chicago opera singer, and their daughter Victoria, 24, a budding opera singer—was once dubbed "a beautiful hunk of a man" by publicity agents. No problem there. "I don't mind being called Glamor Boy," he once cracked, "as long as that check comes on Friday."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
