RIP Stuart Whitman

Stuart Whitman, the rugged actor who starred on TV's Cimarron Strip and received an Oscar nomination for playing a convicted child molester trying to rid himself of psychological demons in The Mark, died at his Montecito, California home on March 16, 2020. He was 92. Born Stuart Maxwell Whitman on February 1, 1928 in San Francisco, California, he made his movie debut in When Worlds Collide (1951), then appeared on TV shows like Boston Blackie and Lux Video Theatre and made an impression opposite Ethel Barrymore and Carolyn Jones as the wild title character in Johnny Trouble (1957). When Charlton Heston bowed out of the high-profile Warner Bros. war movie Darby’s Rangers (1958), James Garner replaced him and Whitman took on Garner's role, playing the soldier Hank Bishop. He starred twice opposite John Wayne, first as the New Orleans gambler Paul Regret in The Comancheros (1961), Michael Curtiz's final feature, and then as an army lieutenant in the all-star World War II epic The Longest Day (1962). Though CBS' Cimarron Strip lasted just one season (1967-68) and 23 original episodes, Whitman remains known for his turn as Marshal Jim Crown on the ambitious series, one of the first on television to run for 90 minutes. He produced and had a financial interest in the period Western as well. He stated that he was offered the role of “The Man With No Name” but turned it down because it was a terrible script. He did appear in one Euro-western as Griffin in 1971’s “Captain Apache”.