James Whitmore | |
|---|---|
 Whitmore in 1955 | |
| Born | James Allen Whitmore Jr. (1921-10-01)October 1, 1921 White Plains, New York, U.S. |
| Died | February 6, 2009(2009-02-06) (aged 87) Malibu, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Yale College |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1946–2007 |
| Spouses |
|
| Children | 4, includingJames Whitmore Jr. |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Marine Corps |
| Rank | Second Lieutenant |
| Unit | Marine Forces Reserve 4th Marine Division |
| Conflicts | World War II |
James Allen Whitmore Jr. (October 1, 1921 – February 6, 2009) was an American actor, who appeared in over 150 stage, film, and television roles over a 50-year career. He was the recipient of numerous accolades, including three of the fourEGOT honors – aGrammy Award, aPrimetime Emmy Award, and aTony Award.[1] He was nominated for twoAcademy Awards,Best Supporting Actor forBattleground (1949) andBest Actor forGive 'em Hell, Harry! (1975).
James Allen Whitmore Jr. was born inWhite Plains, New York, to Florence Belle (née Crane) and James Allen Whitmore Sr., a park commission official.[citation needed] Whitmore attendedAmherst Central High School inSnyder, New York, for three years,[1] before transferring to theChoate School inWallingford, Connecticut, on a football scholarship. He studied atYale College, but he had to quit playing football after severely injuring his knees.[2]
After giving up football, Whitmore turned to the Yale Dramatic Society and began acting.[3] While at Yale, he was a member ofSkull and Bones,[4] and was among the founders of the Yale radio station (the student-run WOCD-AM, later renamed WYBC-AM).[5] Whitmore planned on becoming a lawyer and graduated with a major in government from Yale University.[citation needed]
InWorld War II, he enlisted in theUnited States Marine Corps Reserve in 1942 while finishing his degree, which he completed in 1944.[6] In the Marines, he trained atParris Island andQuantico, Virginia, andOfficers Candidate School, and was commissioned asecond lieutenant. After further training he was assigned to the4th Marine Division onSaipan in July 1944. While atTinian, he contractedamoebic dysentery and was hospitalized. Following his hospitalization, he served guard duty at thePanama Canal Zone until his discharge in March 1946.[7][8]
Whitmore appeared on Broadway in the role of the sergeant inCommand Decision.[9] His first major picture for MGM wasBattleground, in a role that was turned down bySpencer Tracy. He was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actor for this role, and won theGolden Globe Award as Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role.[citation needed] Other major films includedAngels in the Outfield,The Asphalt Jungle,The Next Voice You Hear,Above and Beyond,Kiss Me, Kate,Them!,Oklahoma!,Black Like Me,Guns of the Magnificent Seven,Tora! Tora! Tora!, andGive 'em Hell, Harry!, a one-man show for which Whitmore was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of former U.S. PresidentHarry S Truman.[citation needed] In the filmTora! Tora! Tora!, he playedAdmiral William F. "Bull" Halsey.
Whitmore appeared during the 1950s on many televisionanthology series. He was cast as FatherEmil Kapaun in the 1955 episode "The Good Thief" in theABC religionanthology seriesCrossroads. Other roles followed onJane Wyman Presents the Fireside Theater,Lux Video Theatre,Kraft Theatre,Studio One in Hollywood,Schlitz Playhouse,Matinee Theatre, and theFord Television Theatre. In 1958, he carried the lead in "The Gabe Carswell Story" ofNBC'sWagon Train, withWard Bond.(S1 E18 which aired 1/14/1958).
In 1963, Whitmore played Captain William Benteen inThe Twilight Zone episode "On Thursday We Leave for Home". Whitmore also appeared inRoute 66 on January 18, 1963, as Ralph Vincent in “A Gift for a Warrior.” He appeared twice inTwelve O'Clock High. In 1965, Whitmore guest-starred as Col. Paul "Pappy" Hartley in Season 1, Episode 32 "The Hero" and as Col. Harry Connelly in 1966 Season 3, Episode 12 "The Ace". He also appeared in an episode ofCombat! titled "The Cassock", as a German officer masquerading as a Catholic priest. In 1967, he guest-starred as a security guard inThe Invaders episode, "Quantity: Unknown". That same year, Whitmore also appeared on an episode of ABC'sCuster starringWayne Maunder in the title role.
In 1968, he appeared as head of the Simian Assembly in thePlanet of the Apes. In 1969, he played the leading character of Professor Woodruff in the TV seriesMy Friend Tony, produced by NBC. Whitmore also made several memorable appearances on the classic ABCWesternThe Big Valley starringBarbara Stanwyck, and the classic NBC WesternThe Virginian starringJames Drury, during the second half of the 1960s.
From 1972 to 1973, Whitmore played Dr. Vincent Campanelli in the short-lived ABC medical sitcomTemperatures Rising.
Whitmore appeared as GeneralOliver O. Howard in the 1975 television filmI Will Fight No More Forever, based on the1877 conflict between the United States Army and theNez Percé tribe, led byChief Joseph. In 1979, Whitmore hosted a talk show of 22 episodes called simplyComeback. One of those segments focuses on the helicopter inventorIgor Sikorsky.[10] In 1980 he starred as Borski, a therapist treating imprisoned sex-offenders, in the made-for-television movieRage! directed byWilliam A. Graham. In 1980, Whitmore appeared as Jake Reeves the terminally ill father of coach Reeves in a two episode arc of the television seriesWhite Shadow. In 1986, Whitmore voicedMark Twain in the firstclaymation feature filmThe Adventures of Mark Twain.
In 1994, Whitmore appeared in the role of prison librarian Brooks Hatlen in the critically acclaimed andAcademy Award-nominatedFrank Darabont filmThe Shawshank Redemption, starringTim Robbins andMorgan Freeman; Whitmore received much praise for his poignant portrayal of Brooks, the old con and his performance won him a legion of new fans. Two years later, he co-starred in the 1997 horror/sci-fi filmThe Relic. In 1999, he played Raymond Oz in two episodes ofThe Practice, earning aPrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.
In 2002, Whitmore played the role of the grandfather in the Disney Channel original filmA Ring of Endless Light. Also in 2002, Whitmore played a supporting role inThe Majestic, a film that starred Jim Carrey. In 2003, Whitmore appeared asJosh Brolin's father on the short-lived NBC drama seriesMister Sterling, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award.
In April 2007, he made his last screen appearance in aC.S.I. episode titled "Ending Happy" as Milton, an elderly man.
"Whitmore often said he found acting in films and television boring because of the long waits between scenes; his passion was for the theater, and he continued to act on stage throughout his long career."[2] Whitmore first ventured into acting at Yale University – severe knee injuries sidelined him from football, so he turned to the Yale Dramatic Society.[11] After serving in the Marines he toured the South Pacific in a USO tour, then returned to America, where he studied acting for six months at the American Theatre Wing in New York and the Actors Studio. Afterward, he was hired by a summer stock company in Peterborough, New Hampshire – The Peterborough Players. In 1947 he was selected to appear in a production ofAll My Sons, representing the U.S. at theWorld Youth Festival in Prague.[12]
His first play on Broadway –Command Decision – in which Whitmore played the part of Tech Sergeant Harold Evans, was the smash hit of 1947, and Whitmore received a non-competitiveSpecial Tony Award for "Best Newcomer of the Season". Whitmore continued to be active in the theatre for all of his career, performing on Broadway, at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC, and on tour. He later won the title "King of the One Man Show"[13] after appearing in the solo vehiclesWill Rogers' USA (1970) (repeating the role for TV in 1972); asHarry Truman inGive 'em Hell, Harry! (1975) (repeating the role in the film version, for which he was nominated for anOscar); and asTheodore Roosevelt inBully (1977), although the latter production did not repeat the success of the first two.
"Whitmore, who was an early student at the Actors Studio in New York in the late '40s, taught an acting workshop after moving to Hollywood. Among his students in the early '50s was young James Dean, whom Whitmore advised to go to New York. 'I owe a lot to Whitmore,' Dean toldSeventeen magazine in 1955. 'One thing he said helped more than anything. He told me I didn't know the difference between acting as a soft job and acting as a difficult art.'"[2] Whitmore often returned to New Hampshire to the Peterborough Players, where he got his start in summer stock – in 2008 he played the stage manager inOur Town.[14] Each year the Peterborough Players award the "James Whitmore Award" to an excellent intern at the theatre.[15]
Whitmore married his first wife, Nancy Mygatt, in 1947.[16] The couple had three sons before their divorce in 1971. The eldest son, James III, found success as a television actor and director under the nameJames Whitmore Jr. The second son, Stephen, became the public spokesman for theLos Angeles County Sheriff's Department.[17] The youngest son, Daniel, was aForest Service Snow Ranger and firefighter before he launched his own construction company. In 1979, Whitmore and Mygatt remarried, but they divorced again after two years.
Whitmore was married to actressAudra Lindley from 1972 until 1979. He co-starred in several stage performances with her both during and after their marriage. These includedElba (a play by Vaughn McBride about an elderly couple who escape from their nursing home);William Gibson'sHandy Dandy (he as a conservative judge, she as a liberal nun); and Tom Cole'sAbout Time (in which they played characters identified simply as the Old Man and the Old Woman).[18]
In 2001, he married actress and authorNoreen Nash. Whitmore is the grandfather ofSurvivor: Gabon contestantMatty Whitmore. In 2010, James Whitmore Jr., and his two children (grandchildren of James Whitmore), actress-director Aliah Whitmore and artist-production designer Jacob Whitmore, formed the theatre group Whitmore Eclectic. They perform in Los Angeles, California.[14]
In his later years, Whitmore spent his summers inPeterborough, New Hampshire, performing with the Peterborough Players.[19]
Although he was not always politically active, in 2007, Whitmore generated some publicity with his endorsement ofBarack Obama for U.S. President.[17] In January 2008, Whitmore appeared in television commercials for the First Freedom First campaign, which advocates preserving "the separation of church and state" and protecting religious liberty.[16]
According to theLos Angeles Times, "An avid flower and vegetable gardener, Whitmore was also known to TV viewers as the longtime commercial pitchman forMiracle-Gro garden products."[2]
He had a cat called Monkey, whose playful photos are preserved inLIFE photo collection in New York.
Whitmore was diagnosed withlung cancer in November 2008. He died from the disease at the age of 87 on February 6, 2009, at hisMalibu, California home.[2][20] He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in thePacific Ocean.
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
James Whitmore's theatre roles included:[21]
Whitmore has a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame at 6611 Hollywood Boulevard. The ceremony was held on February 8, 1960.[40]
