Trivia

He was considered for the part of Bart Maverick in the Western TV series Maverick (1957), but it went to Jack Kelly instead.

He was close friends with David Janssen.

He originally studied both law and drama at Los Angeles City College after he was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army in 1948.

He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7083 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 1, 1998.

Alfred Hitchcock considered him, along with Robert Loggia, Cliff Robertson and Tom Tryon, for the part of Sam Loomis in the film Psycho (1960), but it went to John Gavin instead.

He and his French-born second wife, Caroline Boubis, had one son, Justin Whitman.

He played Jonathan Kent, the father of DJ Clark Kent, on the TV series Superboy.

He was a light-heavyweight boxer while serving in the United States Army. Luckily for him, it was his part as a prizefighter in an episode of the TV series Dr. Christian (1956) that brought him his first leading part in a film, playing the titular character of Johnny, a wild ex-Marine, in the film Johnny Trouble (1957) alongside Ethel Barrymore.

On July 1, 2006, he hosted a marathon of episodes of his TV series Cimarron Strip (1967) on the Encore Westerns Channel.

The older brother of actor Kipp Whitman.

In 1960, MGM briefly toyed with the idea of doing an all-male remake of the film The Women (1939), which would have been titled "Gentlemen's Club." Like the original all-female version, this film would have had an all-male cast and its plot would have involved a man (Jeffrey Hunter) who recently discovers among his friends that his wife is having an affair with another man (Earl Holliman) and after going to Reno, Nevada to file for divorce and start a new life, he later finds himself doing whatever he can to make things right when he discovers that the other man is only interested in his wife's money and position and he decides to win back his true love again. Although it was never made, the film would have had the following ensemble cast if it had been made: Jeffrey Hunter (Martin Heal), Earl Holliman (Christopher Allen), Tab Hunter (Simon Fowler), Lew Ayres (Count Vancott), Robert Wagner (Mitchell Aarons), James Garner (Peter Day), Jerry Mathers (Little Martin), James Stewart (Mr. Heal), Ronald Reagan (Larry), Troy Donahue (Norman Blake) and Stuart Whitman himself (Oliver, a bartender who tells the man about his wife's affair).

On October 12, 2007, he received a Silver Spur Award at the Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City.

The ex-brother-in-law of Jan Smithers.

He had been booked to play the part of Bowen Tyler in the film The Land That Time Forgot (1974), but American International Pictures vetoed his casting and he was replaced by Doug McClure instead.

The father-in-law of Mary Ann Kellogg.

After his death in 2020, he was cremated at Hollywood Forever Cemetery and his ashes were returned to his widow and third wife, Julia Paradiz.

He was born and raised entirely in San Francisco, California.

He had five children, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

He was a lifelong Democrat.