There is a rugged sensuality about Stuart Whitman with his thick black hair and that sexy cleft in his strong chin. I’ve been totally gone gaga over the man for as long as I can remember. Although he doesn’t possess the typical pretty leading man poise or magnetism like Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Alain Delon, or Ray Lovelock, Whitman has an offbeat sex appeal that I’m drawn to more than the obviously handsome guy. Maybe it’s his commanding brows framing his deep, drawn blue eyes. Or perhaps it’s his raspy suede voice one octave down from middle C and that outre cool swagger that gets me. I love the self-assured manner that he exudes in every one of his roles. There are over 180 films and television roles to his credit. It seems like he lived a very full life on his terms, and had a great appreciation for the ladies– lucky them! He was also a long-time friend with many of his working colleagues, and that says a lot to me.

Stuart Whitman was born on Feb. 1, 1928, in San Francisco. He appeared in summer stock plays in New York until the age of 12. After living in New York, his family moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1940s. He graduated from Hollywood High School in 1945, then enlisted in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for three years. While in the service, he was secretly trained in boxing by his uncle and won boxing matches as a light-heavyweight. After an honorable discharge, he attended acting classes at night with the Michael Chekhov Stage Society and studied for four years.

He joined the Ben Bard Drama School in Hollywood, debuting in the school’s production of Here Comes Mr. Jordan, which ran for six months. 20th Century Fox scooped Stuart Whitman up while amassing new talent during the late 1950s.

Making his film debut in 1951, in the science fiction film uncredited in director Rudolph Maté’s and George Pal’s When Worlds Collide 1951, credited as Kip Whitman, and as a sentry guarding the spaceship in director Robert Wise’s The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). 

In 1952, Stuart Whitman continued to appear in small roles in George Archainbard’s Barbed Wire 1952 and Tay Garnett’s One Minute to Zero 1952. Universal signed him in December 1952, which got him a tiny part in Douglas Sirk’s All I Desire 1953 with Barbara Stanwyck and The All-American 1953 starring Tony Curtis.

Under contract to Universal, Whitman was still cast in minimal parts in 1953. The first is with director Budd Boetticher’s The Man from the Alamo 1953, co-starring Glenn Ford. Then he worked with Jacques Tourneur on his crime thriller Appointment in Honduras 1953, followed by The Veils of Bagdad  1953 and Walking My Baby Back Home 1953.

In 1954, he was still getting cast in minor roles in Charles Vidor’s Rhapsody 1954, and was loaned out to MGM. Stuart Whitman appeared in Vincent Minnelli’s musical Brigadoon 1954. He performed on stage at the Coast Theater in Christopher Fry’s Venus Observed.

In 1955, Whitman maintained his brief image as an uncredited quick shot as the man on the beach in Curtis Bernhardt’s Interrupted Melody. Also, that year, Whitman had a minor role in the serial King of the Carnival. He then appeared in Allan Dwan’s war drama Hold Back the Night 1956. Then came Budd Boetticher’s western Seven Men from Now in 1956, co-starring Lee Marvin and Randolph Scott.

Finally, in 1957, Stuart Whitman’s film presence gained visibility in Gerd Oswald’s noir thriller Crime of Passion 1957 and Reginald Le Borg’s western War Drums 1957.

Caroline Jones and Stuart Whitman in Johnny Trouble 1957.

He was cast in bit parts in film and stage productions, then he finally had his breakthrough with the drama Johnny Trouble in 1957, co-starring Ethel Barrymore in her last role. In John H. Auer’s Johnny Trouble 1957, Whitman plays Johnny Chandler, a belligerent young man whom Ethel Barrymore believes is her grandson. The films that followed were the noir crime drama Hell Bound 1957, co-starring Broderick Crawford and James Mason.

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