Celebrity Biographies
Stuart whitman
Tall, thin, with black hair, he was especially good at playing the roles of repentant criminals. His face is recognizable, especially for western fans. Stuart Whitman has died at the age of 92 in Montecito (Santa Barbara) after several years battling skin cancer. “He was accompanied by his family and friends,” says a close friend.
Born in San Francisco, California, on February 1, 1928, Stuart Maxwell Whitman came from a mixed Jewish family. “I consider myself a true American, because I have a little bit of English, Irish, Scottish and Russian, so I get along with everyone,” he said in an interview. As a child, his father, who worked as a ticket salesman in a theater, took him to see some productions that convinced him that he wanted to be an actor. After school, he enlisted in the United States Army and served in the Corps of Engineers for three years at Fort Lewis, Washington. Besides, his uncle Ben had always thought that he had potential as a boxer, so he had trained him from a young age to get into the ring. He launched a successful boxing career, winning 31 of 32 bouts.
Tras una época de estudios en la Michael Chekhov Stage Society, barajó dedicarse al fútbol americano, pero tuvo que renunciar a ese sueño por una lesión en la pierna. En ese momento se unió a la Escuela de Drama Ben Bard, de Los Ángeles. Debutó en los escenarios con “Here Comes Mr. Jordan”, una producción de la escuela. En una de las representaciones le descubrió un cazatalentos que le ofreció un contrato para el cine. Inició su singladura como secundario en Cuando los mundos chocan, de Rudolph Maté, seguida de un pequeño papel en Ultimátum a la Tierra, de Robert Wise. “Cuando entra en cámara, el público se pregunta quién es”, escribió sobre él en ese momento la periodista de chismes Hedda Hopper, que le calificó como el nuevo Clark Gable.
He played an American pilot in the French film The Day and the Hour , by René Clément , shot in Paris during World War II, in which he directed a scene. “I got so involved in the role that it was difficult for me to lead a normal life. Now I know why so many actors go to psychiatrists,” he said in an interview. From that moment on, he specialized mainly in westerns, with titles such as Rio Conchos (1964) or El desafío del búfalo blanco (1977), and the Cimarrón series , which gave him enormous popularity in the United States, from 1967. But the stalwarts of the genre remember him above all for Los comancheros , the latest feature film by the great Michael Curtiz, where he shared the spotlight with John Wayne . He did a great job as roguish gambler Paul Regret, who is captured by Texas Ranger Jake Cutter (Wayne) for dueling the son of a Louisiana judge. However, both have to join forces to face the “comancheros”, criminals who sell weapons and whiskey to Native Americans. Since Curtiz was already very ill, he died during filming, so he had to be replaced by Wayne, who objected to his name appearing in the credits.
On October 13, 1952, he married Patricia LaLonde. They had four children before divorcing in 1966. Later he was united to the French Caroline Boubis, with whom he had another offspring, and to the Russian Julia Vadimovna Paradiz, whom he met at a friend’s wedding in Saint Petersburg.
Outside of western cinema, Stuart Whitman appeared in other titles, such as Marked Man , for which he was nominated for an Oscar for best leading actor, for giving life to an inmate who is released from jail. Ken Annakin directed him in the comedy The Nuts in Their Crazy Gadgets and the war film The Longest Day , where Wayne also appeared again. In 1978 he shot in Spain La mujer de la tierra caliente , directed by José María Forqué . He retired from movies after The President’s Man , where he shared the screen with Chuck Norris .