Theater News

Tony Award Winner James Whitmore Dies at 87

New York City
James Whitmore, who won a Tony Award for his Broadway debut in 1948’s Command Performance and later gained fame in solo shows where played, Harry Truman, Will Rogers and Theodore Roosevelt, died on February 12 in California of lung cancer. He was 87.

Both Bully, in which he portrayed Roosevelt, and Will Rogers’ U.S.A. were seen on the Great White Way; Give ‘Em Hell, Harry, in which he played Truman, was never seen on Broadway, but its 1975 film version earned him an Oscar nomination. He also appeared in three short-lived Broadway shows, Winesburg, Ohio, Inquest, and Almost an Eagle, and appeared regionally in such classics as Our Town and Death of a Salesman.

Whitmore worked steadily in film and television for over 50 years, including parts in the film versions of the musicals Oklahoma! and Kiss Me, Kate, as well as the drama Battleground, for which he received his first Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe Award. He starred in a television production of All My Sons and won an Emmy Award for a guest-starring role in The Practice and another nomination for Mister Sterling.