Stuart Whitman

Whitman was born in San Francisco, California, the elder of two sons. His parents, Cecilia (née Gold) and Joseph Whitman, traveled frequently during his childhood, and as a result, he attended over twenty schools. He graduated from high school and spent three years in the Army Corps of Engineers. After leaving the army, he enrolled in Los Angeles City College and the Los Angeles Academy of Dramatic Art.<br /><br /> Whitman was a supporting actor in When Worlds Collide (1951), All American (1953), Brigadoon (1954), Silver Lode (1954), Ten North Frederick (1958), The Decks Ran Red (1958) starring Dorothy Dandridge, on whose face Whitman planted Hollywood's first interrracial kiss, These Thousand Hills (1959), and The Sound and the Fury (1959).<br /><br /> When Charlton Heston, who had originally been signed to play the lead in 1958's Darby's Rangers left the movie, James Garner was given the lead and Whitman wound up with Garner's original role in the film. Read Less