RIP James Whitmore

RIP James Whitmore.


james_whitmore.jpg



Being one of the more "mature" posters around here, I remember this accomplished actor very well. He was not a leading man in most movies in his career, but he had significant roles in a lot of movies I saw over the years. He was in a movie that scared me as a kid: THEM, a 50's sci-fi flick. He also had a very memorable role in Shawshank.

It makes me sad to read of his passing
frown.gif
 
I was watching Battlefield last week with Whitmore and Van Johnson then they both die within two months of each other.
RIP to a great actor.
 
I've been watching Shawshank almost every night recently(i have no cable so dvds is it) and he had such a memorable role in that, even as small as it was. But like Rabid, my best recollection is of Sgt Kinnie in Battleground. I grew up watching old war movies with my dad and that seemed to be on just about every Saturday or Sunday it seemed when I was a kid. Loved him in that. Got such a geniune feeling of a soldier from him.
Also had a very small but great role as Halsey in Tora Tora Tora.

Also Rabid, Ricardo Montelban just died from Battleground. All the major players from that movie are gone sadly.

Here's to JW and one of the best parts of Battleground...

Sgt. Kinnie: All right, come on! Come on! What do you want these guys to think, you're a bunch of WACs? Alright, alright pick it up now. Hut, two, three. Hut, two, three, four. Hut, two, three, four. You had a good home but you left...
I Company: You're right!
Sgt. Kinnie: Jody was there when you left...
I Company: You're right!
Sgt. Kinnie: Your Baby was there when you left...
I Company: You're right!
Sgt. Kinnie: Sound off!
I Company: One, two
Sgt. Kinnie: Sound off!
I Company: Three, four.
Sgt. Kinnie: Cadence Count
I Company: One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four!
Sgt. Kinnie: Your baby was lonely - as lonely as could be ...
I Company: Until Jody provided company!
Sgt. Kinnie: Ain't it great to have a pal...
I Company: Who works so hard to keep up morale!
Sgt. Kinnie: You ain't got nothing to worry about...
I Company: He'll keep her happy till I get out!
Sgt. Kinnie: You won't get out until the end of the war...
I Company: In nineteen hundred and seventy-four!
Sgt. Kinnie: Sound off!
I Company: One, two.
Sgt. Kinnie: Sound off!
I Company: Three, four...
 
Fantastic actor. As already mentioned he played Sgt. Kinnie. He was also in "The Guns of the Magnificent Seven" as Levi and covered in makeup in the "Planet of the Apes". I checked his bio and his last appearance will be on CSI in April.
 
In the late 60s (or maybe the early 70s), he was in a sitcom called "My Friend Tony" with an unknown Italian hottie named Enzo Cerusico. The series only lasted one year, but it was my favorite show.

James Whitmore was a fine actor and his presence in Hollywood will be missed.

RIP James Whitmore.
 
other fine movie performances:

The Asphalt Jungle
Black Like Me
and one of the best 50's sci-fi films: Them!

Whitmore did alot more tv than movies. one the best was in the first season of The Twilight Zone where he was a criminal who had been sent to solitary life on another planet. he was eventually given a fem-bot for company who he fell in love with, but had to leave her behind when he was pardoned.

he was a good actor. RIP
 
FWIW, Mesohorny, I'm pretty sure the Twilight Zone episode you are referring to starred Jack Warden. James Whitmore was in the hour-long TZ episode where he portrayed the leader of some space colonists on a barren and harsh giant asteroid or planet. When a rescue ship from Earth finally came to pick him & the colonists up, he ended up staying behind...by himself.
 
He is the guy I always had to look twice because he look so much like Spencer Tracy.

SpencerTracy.jpg


It does seem like he has been in films for forever.

RIP
 
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