Actor James Whitmore died 6 February 2009 of lung cancer. Born 1 October 1921 in White Plains, New York, he won a Tony Award for his Broadway debut (1947’s Command Decision), a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in 1950 (for Battleground) and an Emmy for Guest Actor in a Drama in 2000 (for The Practice). He was also nominated for another Golden Globe in 1976 (Give ’em Hell, Harry!, Best Actor), Academy Awards in 1950 (Battleground) and 1976 (Give ’em Hell, Harry!), an Emmy in 2003 (Mister Sterling, Guest Actor in a Drama Series). He was a leading character actor on stage, screen, and television, and in the 1970s, starred in three one-man shows, as Will Rogers (Will Rogers’ U.S.A., 1974), President Harry Truman (Give ’em Hell, Harry!, which was filmed and earned him the Golden Globe and Oscar nominations), and President Theodore Roosevelt (Bully, 1977).
His genre roles, both film and television, include: The Relic (1997), The Ray Bradbury Theater (1990), Zoo Ship (1985), The Canterville Ghost (1974), Planet of the Apes (1968), The Invaders (1967), The Twilight Zone (1963), Them! (1954), and Angels in the Outfield (1951).
Whitmore’s son, James Whitmore, Jr., is an actor, director, and producer, who has worked on many genre productions, including Star Trek: Enterprise, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, and Quantum Leap.
Whitmore attended Yale and then served in the Marines during World War II. After the war, he studied at the Actors Studio and the American Theatre Wing, where he met his first wife, Nancy Mygatt. They had three sons, all of whom survive him. Whitmore’s first marriage ended in divorce, and then he married actress Audra Lindley in 1972. That marriage lasted seven years, and following that divorce, he remarried Mygatt. They divorced again, and in 2001, he married Noreen Nash, who survives him, as do eight grandchildren.