Actors - James Mitchell

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	Actors - James Mitchell

James Mitchell (born February 29, 1920 in Sacramento, California) is an American actor and dancer, probably best known for his role as Palmer Cortlandt on the long-running soap opera All My Children.

Like many male dancers of his generation, Mitchell began studying dance fairly late--in his case, at age 19. After graduating from Los Angeles City College with a degree in drama, he started his professional career in Lester Horton's modern dance company. But he is best known for his longstanding association with Agnes de Mille -- as both dancer and assistant choreographer/director -- which began when she cast him in Bloomer Girl (1944). De Mille went on to use him in the principal male dance roles in the original Broadway productions of Brigadoon
(for which he received a Theatre World Award and the Donaldson Award for Best Dancer) and Paint Your Wagon
. At her invitation, he later performed with American Ballet Theatre and the Agnes de Mille Dance Theater. The two last collaborated on the 1969 Broadway flop Come Summer, starring Ray Bolger. Mitchell also worked off-and-on with Jerome Robbins, beginning with the 1946 musical Billion Dollar Baby. Other significant stage roles include Marco in the original Broadway production of Carnival!, starring Jerry Orbach; Jigger in Carousel; and Macheath in the famed off-Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera (as well as on tour). Mitchell last worked on Broadway in Jerry Herman's Mack & Mabel (1974).

Most of Mitchell's film appearances are in non-dancing roles. Significant exceptions include his first film, White Savage (1943), in which he danced with another member of Lester Horton's company, Bella Lewitzky; The Toast of New Orleans (1950); and Deep in My Heart (1954). He was also the principal dancer in Sara-Kathryn Arledge's experimental short film, Introspection (completed 1946). Mitchell's most important film role, however, is as "Dream Curly" in the ballet sequence of the movie version of Oklahoma!
(1955). Other movie roles were in The Band Wagon
, The Peacemaker, The Spook Who Sat by the Door, The Wind and the Lion
, The Turning Point and What Waits Below.

Before starting his well-known role on All My Children, he appeared in the soaps Where the Heart Is and Edge of Night. He first appeared on All My Children in 1979. For playing Palmer, he has received 7 Daytime Emmy Award nominations and 3 Soap Opera Digest Award nominations. Since Susan Lucci's Emmy win in 1999, Mitchell has the most Daytime Emmy nominations without winning.

Mitchell has taught movement for actors at Juilliard, Yale University, and Drake University; in 1985, he received an honorary doctorate from the latter.

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