RIP James Whitmore

Because Miracle-Gro made it possible:

In 1948, he won a Tony Award for outstanding performance by a newcomer in the role of an amusingly cynical Army Air Forces sergeant in the Broadway production of "Command Decision."

Whitmore's Broadway success brought him to Hollywood, where he received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor in his second movie, the hit 1949 World War II drama "Battleground," in which he played a tobacco-chewing, battle-weary Army sergeant.

Supporting roles and occasional leads in some 50 movies followed over the next 50-plus years, including "The Asphalt Jungle," "Them!," "Kiss Me Kate," "Battle Cry," " Oklahoma!," "Black Like Me," "Planet of the Apes," "Tora! Tora! Tora!," "The Serpent's Egg," "Nuts," "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Majestic."

A frequent guest actor on television, Whitmore also starred in three series: the 1960-62 legal drama "The Law and Mr. Jones"; the 1969 detective drama "My Friend Tony"; and the 1972-74 hospital sit-com "Temperatures Rising" (although he left after a year, he later said, "because it was just a series of jokes").

In 2000, Whitmore won an Emmy Award as outstanding guest actor in a drama series for "The Practice," and he received a 2003 Emmy nomination in the same category for "Mister Sterling."

An avid flower and vegetable gardener, Whitmore also was known to TV viewers as the longtime commercial pitchman for Miracle-Gro garden products.

As an actor, he once said, the income from doing commercials "gives you the latitude so you don't have to worry about having your kids take care of you."

Whitmore often said he found acting in films and television boring because of the long waits between scenes; his passion was for the theater, and he continued to act on stage throughout his long career.

"I've been very, very lucky," he said in a 2003 interview with the Nashville Tennessean. "The stage is human beings sharing something together -- flesh and blood together -- and the others are mechanical and shadows on the screen."

Interesting, I hadn't realized he taught James Dean at one point:

Whitmore, who was an early student at the Actors Studio in New York in the late '40s, taught an acting workshop after moving to Hollywood. Among his students in the early '50s was young James Dean, whom Whitmore advised to go to New York.

"I owe a lot to Whitmore," Dean told Seventeen magazine in 1955. "One thing he said helped more than anything. He told me I didn't know the difference between acting as a soft job and acting as a difficult art."

wasn't he nominated for Give'em Hell, Harry!?

Yup, obit confirms that, in 1975.

I do like this bit:

A pre-law major on an athletic scholarship at Yale University, he became a protege of one of the assistant football coaches -- future U.S. President Gerald R. Ford -- but had to quit playing after suffering two knee injuries.

While at Yale, Whitmore helped launch the campus radio station.

"My scholarships dried up when my knees went," he told the Tennessean in 2003. "I was able to stay in school with a nightly sports show, 'Jim Whitmore Speaks,' with interviews and sports news. I made 40 bucks a week.

"Yale was all male then, except for the gals in graduate school. I was going with one of them, and she was doing plays. They pressed me into service, and I kind of liked it."

http://filmindustrybloggers.com/thegenredirector/files/2008/08/black-like-me-poster.jpg

anyone seen this?

Terrific in Twilight Zone as the leader of an extraterrestrial colony that's given the opportunity to return back to Earth after 30 years.

always good

esp in Them! and Asphalt Jungle.

I have Battleground out from library; him, Montalban, not sure anyone else is left!

and Van Johnson was the star of Battleground. 3 very old guys from the same film in a 6-week period.

I first knew Whitmore from this '70s sitcom:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068138/combined

which he left after a season, to be replaced by ...Paul Lynde.

Oh yeah, I couldn't remember who replaced him.

Ha, looks like they brought along Alice Ghostley too. Maybe Doctor Bombay wasn't available.

Anyway, RIP.

haha, I knew you'd be the next poster!

Yup.

Looks like The Paul Lynde Show started at the same time as Temperature's Rising and then when that failed they moved Paul from one show to another.

after they figured out Lynde was not an ideal sitcom dad while he was wearing gold necklaces on Hollywood Squares.

"How goes the rat race?"
"The rats are WINNING!"

Cool story:
http://www.laobserved.com/visiting/2009/02/a_sons_tribute_to_james_whitmo.php

Inauguration morning, I was sitting with him and his wife, Noreen when Obama took the oath of office. We had to wake him up so he could see it. He was too weak to talk and could barely open his eyes. He tried to watch and listen as best he could. After the speech and just prior to the singing of the National Anthem, my dad motioned to me with great intensity, fists tight, eyes closed and teeth clenched. He appeared to be saying with his body, “Get me up! Get me up!” I thought he had to urinate.

I stood him up. He was holding me tight, legs shaky, grip weak. But he was upright. I grabbed the portable urinal and he shooed it away. The National Anthem began to play. He stood straighter. This old Marine, this proud American, was standing at attention for his country’s anthem. When it was done, he allowed me to sit him back down in his chair where he returned to his state of semi-consciousness.

My dad died on Feb. 6. He was 87. He concluded most every conversation with everybody with this saying: “Onward and awkward.”

So, I say it to you, hat in hand, “onward and awkward.” It worked for an old Marine for 87 years. I betcha it’ll work for the rest of us.