James Whitmore, the many facetted of the actor who has delivered strong performances in films, television and theater in particular with his popular one-man show about Harry Truman, Will Rogers and Theodore Roosevelt, died Friday, says his son. He was 87.
James Whitmore
“My father believed the family came before everything, that the work was a vehicle in which to provide your family,” said Whitmore, who works as a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. “At the end, and during the last two and a half months of his life he was surrounded by his family.”
The long-running “Give ‘em Hell, Harry,” tracing the life of the 33rd president, has been released as a film in theaters in 1975. Whitmore was nominated for an Academy Award as best actor, which marks the first time in Oscar history that the actor was nominated for a film in which he was the only member of the troupe. His portrait of Teddy Roosevelt, “Bully”, was also converted into a movie.
He later became the television pitchman for Miracle-Gro plant food, and used the product as a large vegetable garden at his Malibu home.
Although not known for its policy, Whitmore was one of the first chairman of Barack Obama. He stumped for Obama at a rally in 2007 at the Theater at Universal Studios Gibson, telling the crowd that Obama had the wisdom to face a very, very confusing and complex, and the world. “Whitmore also appeared in TV commercials in 2008 for the” First Freedom First “campaign, which advocates religious freedom and the preservation of separation of church and state.
Whitmore has regularly participated in an Oscar night bash, Night of 100 Stars, and had sent in his RSVP for this year, “said Edward Lozzi, a spokesman for the agent Norby Walters gala.
Whitmore began his two careers of Broadway and Hollywood with performances by renowned, as Sergeant hard to speak. In 1947, published a year of maritime law, he made his Broadway debut in tense drama Air Force, Command Decision. “He won a Tony for outstanding performance by a newcomer.