Biography
James Whitmore was an American actor who appeared in more than 150 stage, film and television roles over a career spanning five decades. Born James Allen Whitmore Jr. on 1 October 1921 in White Plains, New York, he studied at Yale University and served in the US Marine Corps during the Second World War before training as an actor at the American Theatre Wing.
He made his Broadway debut in Command Decision (1947), winning a Tony Award, and received an Academy Award nomination for his early film role in Battleground (1949). Whitmore was known for character parts in films including The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Them! (1954), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) and The Shawshank Redemption (1994), in which he played the prison librarian Brooks Hatlen. He also performed one-man stage shows as Harry S. Truman, Theodore Roosevelt and Will Rogers, earning a second Oscar nomination for the film version of Give 'em Hell, Harry! (1975). Whitmore won a Grammy and an Emmy Award, and died on 6 February 2009 in Malibu, California.
