FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
This made me sad when I heard about it just now. JAMES WHITMORE was a consummate professional and a true actors’ actor. He was fabulously talented and possessed a marvelous versatility.
I loved him best as BROOKS HATLEN in THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION.
He will be greatly missed.
RIP, Mr. Whitmore.
JAMES WHITMORE, the many faceted character actor who delivered strong performances in movies, television and the theatre with his popular one person shows about HARRY TRUMAN, WILL ROGERS and THEODORE ROOSELVELT died yesterday.
He was 87.
The EMMY and TONY winning performer was diagnosed with lung cancer the week before Thanksgiving and passed away Friday afternoon at his MALIBU home, STEVE WHITMORE said.
“My father believed that family came before everything – that work was just a vehicle in which to provide for your family,” said STEVE WHITMORE, who works as spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
“At the end, and in the last two and a half months of his life, he was surrounded by his family.”
His long running GIVE ‘EM HELL, HARRY, tracing the life of the 33rd president, was released as a theatrical movie in 1975.
JAMES WHITMORE was nominated for BEST ACTOR, marking the only time in OSCAR history that a performer has been nominated for a film in which he/she was the only cast member.
His TEDDY ROOSEVELT portrait (BULLY) was also converted into a movie.
While not known for his politics, JAMES WHITMORE was an early supporter of PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA.
He stumped for Obama during a 2007 rally at the GIBSON THEATRE at UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, telling the crowd that Obama had the wisdom “to deal with a very, very confused and complex country – and the world.”
JAMES WHITMORE also appeared in TV commercials in 2008 for the FIRST FREEDOM FIRST campaign, which advocates religious liberty and preserving the separation of church and state.
He had regularly attended an OSCAR night bash, NIGHT OF 100 STARS.
He started both his BROADWAY and HOLLYWOOD careers with acclaimed performances – both as tough talking sergeants.
In 1947, discharged from a year of Marine duty, he made his BROADWAY debut in a taut Air Force drama, COMMAND DECISION.
He was awarded a TONY for outstanding performance by a newcomer.
Two years later, he was nominated for an ACADEMY AWARD and won a GOLDEN GLOBE as SUPPORTING ACTOR in the war movie BATTLEGROUND.
He followed that with memorable work in scores of films, refusing to be typed.
Besides war movies, he appeared in Westerns, musicals (KISS ME KATE, OKLAHOMA), science fiction (PLANET OF THE APES), dramas (THE ASPHALT JUNGLE, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION) and comedies (THE GREAT DIAMOND ROBBERY).
SHIRLEY JONES, a teenager when she starred in OKLAHOMA, said she came to know him during months of filming in Arizona and recalled being impressed by her good humoured and highly disciplined colleague.
“He told me, ‘If you’re going to be in this business, you’d better learn your craft,’ ” she recalled, “and he never stopped learning.”
His favourite film was BLACK LIKE ME
(1964), a true story about a white reporter who blackened his face to experience life as an African American in the South.
JAMES WHITMORE often appeared on television and starred in three short lived series during the 60s and 70s.
He received an EMMY in 1999 as guest actor in a series for THE PRACTICE.
SHIRLEY JONES remembered seeing him in a 2007 episode of the TV drama CSI and marvelling at his still sharp talent.
“I was absolutely blown away by that. He had a huge role playing a lawyer and it was phenomenal.”
A student of history, JAMES WHITMORE delighted in portraying famous American personages.
He played WALT WHITMAN in a dramatic reading, A WHITMAN PORTRAIT.
The monologues of HARRY TRUMAN, WILL ROGERS and TEDDY ROOSEVELT brought him his greatest success.
In 2000, he appeared in WILL ROGERS, U.S.A. at FORD’S THEATRE in Washington, D.C., his eighth engagement in the show at FORD’S over a 30 year period.
President Ford attended a performance of GIVE ‘EM, HELL, HARRY at FORD’S THEATRE after Richard Nixon resigned. JAMES WHITMORE worried about President Ford’s reaction to Truman’s crusty words about Nixon.
The actor reminisced: “I was three feet from Gerry Ford when I said to the press as Truman: ‘Nixon is a no good lying fuck. If he ever caught himself telling the truth, he’d tell a lie just to keep his hand in.’ ”
“After the show, Ford came up on stage and put his arm around me and said, ‘That was a pretty good blocking back.’ ”
Ford had been line coach when JAMES WHITMORE had played football at YALE.
His movie and television careers continued into the 21st century. But he admitted that he preferred the stage.
“I find the process of making movies absolutely boring,” he told a reporter in 1994. “It’s so fragmented.”
“You wait and wait and wait and then, as JACK LEMMON said, ‘It’s magic time.’ In the theatre, once the curtain goes up, the actor is in charge.”
CINEMATIC PASSIONS BY MIRANDA WILDING 