Oscar Profile #618: James Whitmore

Born October 1, 1921 in White Plains, New York to a park commission official and his wife, James Whitmore went to Choate school in Waterford, Connecticut on a football scholarship and then Yale University where he turned to acting after suffering a knee injury. He joined the U.S. Marines at the outbreak of World War II.

After the war, Whitmore studied at the American Theatre Wing and the Actors Studio. It was around this time that he met his first wife, Nancy Mygatt, with whom he would have three children including TV director, James Whitmore Jr. He made his Broadway debut in Command Decision in 1947, for which he won a Tony.

MGM bought the film rights to Command Decision but gave his role to Van Johnson in the 1948 film version. He was third billed behind Glenn Ford and Nina Foch in his first film, 1949’s The Undercover Man. His second film was the same year’s Battleground in which Van Johnson was top-billed, and Whitmore ninth, but it was Whitmore who earned the film’s best reviews in the Oscar nominated film. He won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar for his performance.

Major roles followed for the actor in The Asphalt Jungle, The Next Voice You Hear, Mrs. O’Malley and Mister Malone, Angels in the Outfield, The Red Badge of Courage, Above and Beyond, Kiss Me Kate, All the Brothers Were Valient, Them! , Battle Cry, The McConnell Story, Oklahoma! , The Eddy Duchin Story, and Crime in the Streets.

TV work consumed most of Whitmore’s time from the late 1950s through 1971 when he and Mygatt were divorced. He married second wife, actress Audra Lindley in 1972. They would divorce in 1979 when he would remarry Mygatt. They would divorce for a second time in 1981.

In the 1970s, Whitmore performed one-man shows as Will Rogers, Harry Truman, and Teddy Roosevelt. In 1972, he was nominated for a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Recording or Will Rogers, USA and in 1976 won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for Give ‘em Hell, Harry! . He was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Oscar for the 1975 film version of the latter.

TV, stage, and film work continued for the actor well into his 80s. He had a high-profile role in 1994’s Oscar nominated The Shawshank Redemption. He won an Emmy for his guest appearance in TV’s The Practice in 2000. The following year he married third wife, actress Noreen Nash when he was 80 and she was 77.

James Whitmore’s last appearance was in an episode of TV’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in 2007. He died in 2009 at the age of 87. His widow, Nash, whose first credited screen role was in 1945’s The Southerner, is now 98.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

BATTLEGROUND (1949), directed by William A. Wellman

Nominated for 5 Oscars including Best Picture, Director, and Supporting Actor (Whitmore), and winner of 2 for Screenplay and Black-and-White Cinematography, this realistic retelling of the Battle of the Bulge centers on a specific squad led by Staff Sergeant Kinne played by Whitmore who is ninth billed in the film’s mostly all-male cast. Van Johnson, John Hodiak, George Murphy, Ricardo Montalban, Marshall Thompson, Jerome Courtland, Don Taylor, and Bruce Cowling are billed above him. Also featured in the cast are Richard Jaeckel, James Arness, Scotty Beckett and Denise Darcel as the lone female.

KISS ME KATE (1953), directed by George Sidney

A rare comedic role for Whitmore and one of only two musicals in which he was featured, the other being 1955’s Oklahoma! , he and Keenan Wynn play singing gangsters whose eleventh hour “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” is a memorable addition to a show that had already given so audiences so much with the singing and dancing of Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Ann Miller, Tommy Rall, and Bob Fosse in this high-flying film version of the Cole Porter musical that combines a modern backstage tale with the on-stage retelling of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.

BATTLE CRY (1955), directed by Raoul Walsh

Based on Leon Uris’ bestselling novel, this classic tale of men in war and the women who love them is narrated by Whitmore, this time playing a Master Sergeant instead of a Staff Sergeant. The huge cast includes Van Heflin, Aldo Ray, Tab Hunter, Mona Freeman, Nancy Olson, Dorothy Malone, Raymond Massey, Anne Francis, L.Q. Jones, William Campbell, John Lupton, Fess Parker, and Allyn Ann McLerie. A huge hit in its day, it is especially remembered for Hunter’s liaison with Malone while Hunter’s sweetheart Freeman waits at home and for Ray’s tender New Zealand romance with Olson.

GIVE ‘EM HELL, HARRY! (1975), directed by Steve Binder

Whitmore is the only actor ever given an Oscar nomination for a performance in a film in which he was the only player. Based on the presidency of Harry Truman, Whitmore’s performance is essentially one long monologue in which he discusses everything the former president recalls about his time in office. The title comes from a 1948 campaign instance in which a supporter yelled the phrase at the Democratic president in a rally in which he blasted the Republicans. His response was “I don’t give them Hell. I just tell the truth about them, and they think it’s Hell.” He also won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for his recording of the show.

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994), directed by Frank Darabont

Nominated for 7 Oscars including Best Picture, Director, and Actor (Morgan Freeman), this surprise hit was based on Stephen King’s Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Remption, a huge poster of Hayworth having dominated the cell of lifer Tim Robbins whose story it is. Freeman plays a fellow prisoner and fellow lifer. Both give memorable performances as does Whitmore in the role of an elderly prisoner who is given parole and doesn’t know what to do with himself having been institutionalized for most of his life. The film was a moderate success in theatres but became a sensation when released on DVD.