March 17, 2020
Stuart Whitman, a star of Westerns alongside John Wayne like
“The Comancheros” and the war movie “The Longest Day,” died in his home Monday,
his son told TMZ. Whitman was 92.
“Old Hollywood lost another one of its true stars. Stuart Whitman
was known for his rugged roles and handsome charm. We were proud of him for his
TV, film roles and his Oscar nomination, but what we will really remember is
his exuberant love of his family and friends,” Whitman’s son Justin told TMZ.
TMZ says that Whitman had recently been in and out of the hospital
due to skin cancer that seeped into his bloodstream.
Though Whitman played across many genres, he was nominated for an
Oscar for the 1961 drama “The Mark,” in which he played a man convicted of
attempting to commit child molestation who has just been released from prison
and is trying to reform.
Born in San Francisco, Whitman got his start in TV Westerns in the
early 1950s after serving a stint in the military in the U.S. Army. He served
three years in the Corps of Engineers at Fort Lewis, Washington and was
honorably discharged in 1948.
After a stint on the series “Highway Patrol” in the late ’50s, he
got his big break in the 1959 film “The Sound and the Fury” alongside Yul
Brynner and with director Martin Ritt. He’d then twice star opposite Wayne in
both “The Comancheros” and “The Longest Day” and moved into starring roles in
films like “The Day and the Hour,” “Those Magnificent Men” and “Signpost to
Murder” in the mid-’60s.
One of Whitman’s most well known roles was in the short-lived ’60s
TV series “Cimarron Strip,” where he played the tough, but fair Marshal Jim
Crown. The show lasted just one season but solidified his reputation as a star
of the Western genre. He’d later make cameos on “Walker, Texas Ranger,”
“S.W.A.T.,” “Knight Rider” and “Fantasy Island.”
Whitman’s last on-screen role was the 2000 TV action movie “The
President’s Man,” where he reunited with Chuck Norris.