Stuart Whitman(1928-2020)

The San Francisco, California-born Stuart Whitman had acting in his blood from an early age. When he was 3 years old, he and his family moved to Brooklyn in New York City, New York and remained pretty much on the hop, which resulted in him attending (according to his own account) about 26 different schools. "Stu" (as he was nicknamed) eventually graduated from Hollywood High School in 1945 and joined the Army Corps of Engineers for a three-year stint. As a light-heavyweight pugilist he won all but one of his fights, but the one that he lost ended his boxing career for good because of a broken nose. Nevertheless, he continued on his athletic path, playing football while studying law and drama at Los Angeles City College. The young man showed some canny business acumen by earning extra money through the acquisition and subsequent hiring out of a bulldozer. Undergoing further acting training at the Ben Bard Drama School in Hollywood (and a strong performance in a production of "Here Comes Mr. Jordan") also paid off, as Whitman managed to attract the attention of talent scouts. Bit parts in several films followed, beginning with the classic science fiction films When Worlds Collide (1951) and The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). His career was further boosted by TV appearances, the most notable of which was as a prizefighter in an episode of Dr. Christian (1956) that was scripted by Gene Roddenberry and starred Macdonald Carey. This led to his first starring part as Johnny, a wild ex-Marine, in the film Johnny Trouble (1957) and a seven-year contract with 20th Century Fox the following year.

Whitman's career as a leading actor truly began in earnest when he landed the part of a convicted child molester in the film The Mark (1961), a British production that was actually shot in Dublin, Ireland. The part had been originally intended for Richard Burton, but, as it turned out, the Welsh thespian was already busy doing "Camelot" on Broadway. Bringing a sense of humanity to what was essentially an unsympathetic part earned Whitman an Academy Award nomination. A reviewer for "The New York Times" was rather more sober in his review, however, writing, "Although Mr. Whitman's performance is largely laconic, he does manage to convey the turmoil that would unnerve a physically strong, but mentally sensitive, man." Whitman was now a minor star, but he primarily remained in demand for second lead parts. Making the best of his ruggedly handsome facial features, he gave a good account of himself as the New Orleans gambler Paul Regret in Michael Curtiz's sprawling Western film The Comancheros (1961) and was nominated for a Golden Laurel Award for Best Action Performance in it. In fact, the part in the film had already been cast, but Whitman wanted it badly and he was able to talk John Wayne (who was top-billed in it) into giving it to him instead. Wayne ended up directing much of the film himself, however, as Curtiz was seriously ill with cancer at the time and died within six months of its original theatrical release.

From 1964 onward, Whitman acted on both sides of the Atlantic, filming in the U.S., Great Britain, Spain and Italy. While playing his fair share of heroes and good guys (in such films as The Longest Day (1962), Rio Conchos (1964), Shock Treatment (1964) and Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes (1965)), he also never shied away from darker, edgier parts (in such films as Signpost to Murder (1964), Sands of the Kalahari (1965), An American Dream (1966) and Mean Johnny Barrows (1975)). On TV, he played the fanatical leader of a cult who leads his followers to mass suicide in the made for TV film Guyana: Cult of the Damned (1979) (which was very much based on the Jim Jones affair, but with the names of both the people and the places in it being altered for unknown reasons). Whitman went on to make several appearances in numerous TV series and miniseries, most frequently in Fantasy Island (1977), Knots Landing (1979) and Murder, She Wrote (1984). He briefly starred as tough Oklahoma Marshal Jim Crown in his own Western TV series Cimarron Strip (1967), which he also produced and co-financed. However, the TV series and its 90-minute format never really caught on with audiences and it only lasted one season before it was canceled.

A self-confessed workaholic, Whitman continued to act on-screen, but he actually no longer even needed the money any more, having long since established a lucrative sideline as a real estate developer. In October 1980, he bought the rights to the Rudyard Kipling classic "Gunga Din", hoping to both produce and star in a new film version of it, but it was never made. Two years before his retirement in 1998, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He spent the remaining years of his life on his ranch in Montecito in Santa Barbara County where his friends and neighbors had included Jane Russell, Richard Widmark and Robert Mitchum and, according to his family, where he pursued his fondness for "Jack Daniel's, Padron Cigars, getting his hands dirty with work on his ranch, watching the birds and gazing out upon the Pacific Ocean". As for his career and acting, he once said, "It's the image that makes a star. John Wayne is a great example of a super actor. Gary Cooper is another one. My image? I think it's being free and easy and all man." Whitman died of skin cancer on March 16, 2020.