Stuart Whitman

San Francisco-born Whitman had acting aspirations from an early age. When he was three, he and his family moved to Brooklyn and remained pretty much on the hop, which resulted in their son attending (by his own account) some 26 different schools. 'Stu' 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 bouts but the one he lost ended his boxing career due to a broken nose. He nonetheless continued on his athletic path playing football while studying law and drama at Los Angeles City College. The youngster showed some canny business acumen by earning extra cash 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 Stu managed to attract the attention of talent scouts. Bit parts in several motion pictures followed, beginning with 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), scripted by Gene Roddenberry and starring Macdonald Carey. This led to his first starring role as a wild ex-marine in the movie Johnny Trouble (1957) and a seven-year contract with 20th Century Fox the following year.

Whitman's career as a leading actor began in earnest when he landed the part of a convicted child molester in The Mark (1961), a British production shot in the vicinity of Dublin. The role had been earmarked for Richard Burton, but, as it turned out, the Welsh thespian was already engaged doing Camelot on Broadway. Bringing a sense of humanity to what was essentially an unsympathetic role earned Whitman an Oscar nomination. A reviewer for the New York Times was rather more sober in his appraisal, 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 remained primarily in demand for second leads. Making the best of his ruggedly handsome features, he gave a good account of himself as the New Orleans gambler Paul Regret in Michael Curtiz's sprawling western The Comancheros (1961). He was nominated for a Golden Laurel Award for best action performance. In fact, the role had already been cast, but Whitman wanted it badly and he was able to talk John Wayne (who was top-billed) into giving it to him instead. Wayne ended up directing much of the film as Curtiz was seriously ill with cancer and died within six months of the picture's release.

From 1964, Whitman acted on both sides of the Atlantic, filming in Italy, Spain, Britain and the U.S.. While portraying his fair share of heroes and good guys (The Longest Day (1962), Rio Conchos (1964), Shock Treatment (1964), 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 roles (Signpost to Murder (1964), Sands of the Kalahari (1965), An American Dream (1966), Mean Johnny Barrows (1975)). For television, he played the fanatical leader of a cult who leads his followers to mass suicide in Guyana: Cult of the Damned (1979) (very much based on the Jim Jones affair, but with the names of people and places unaccountably altered). Whitman went on to make appearances in numerous TV shows and miniseries, 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 series, Cimarron Strip (1967), which he also produced and co-financed. However, the show and its 90-minute format never really caught on with audiences and Cimarron Strip ran for just a single season.

A self-confessed workaholic, Whitman continued to act on screen but no longer needed the money, having long since established a lucrative sideline as a real estate developer. In October 1980, he bought the rights to Gunga Din, hoping to produce and star in a new adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling classic, but nothing came of it. 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 neighbours had included Jane Russell, Richard Widmark and Robert Mitchum, according to his family pursuing his fondness for "Jack Daniel, Padron cigars, getting his hands dirty with work on his ranch, watching the birds and gazing out upon the Pacific Ocean". As to his career and acting, he once remarked "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".