In her autobiography, Esther Williams details a passionate affair she had with Mature during the filming of Million Dollar Mermaid (1952). According to Williams, her marriage was on the rocks, she needed love and Mature provided all she wanted.

Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 389-390. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Victor's father Marcello Gelindo Mature, a knife sharpener and cutler, was born in 1877 in the town of Pinzolo, in the Italian Tyrolean region of Trentino which was then under the rule of Austria-Hungary, and returned under Italian sovereignty in 1918 after WW I. He emigrated to the US with his brothers in 1912, and settled in Louisville, Kentucky.

Daughter, Victoria, born in 1975.

He was a Republican.

Although several sources suggest that Mature`s family name was originally Maturi, United States and Austrian birth, immigration, census and other records, as well as Victor Mature himself, are quite clear that as of 1877, the family name was Mature.

In Zarak (1956) he played perhaps the only title character in the movies to be flogged to death.

Attended the Kentucky Military Academy. One of his classmates was future fellow actor, Jim Backus (Mr. Magoo and Thurston Howell III in "Gilligan`s Island" (1964)).

Was color-blind.

He attributed his success in Biblical spectacles to his ability to "make with the holy look."

Applying for membership in the swank Los Angeles Country Club at the heighth of his fame, Mature was turned down and told that the golfing facility did not accept actors as members. His response: "I`m not an actor - and I`ve got 67 films to prove it!"

He was a petty officer in the Coast Guard during World War II. He served on the troop transport ship Admiral Mayo. His service carried him to the North Atlantic, including Normandy, the Mediterranean, Caribbean and many islands in the South Pacific. He was on Okinawa when the A-bomb was dropped on Japan.