R.I.P. James Whitmore
Feb. 6th, 2009 07:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fabrisseIn the 1970s there were a lot of one person plays that came to Washington DC.
60 Minutes did a piece on one of them -- Give 'em Hell, Harry -- and I ended up fascinated by James Whitmore. Someone in my class was going to see it with her family within the month, and I literally got down on my knees and begged her to take me if they ended up with an extra ticket. On the day of the performance, she came in and told me her teenaged brother refused to go. When her mom started panicking over the extra ticket, my classmate mentioned me.
We were in the third row dead center. Of all the things that made me want to be an actress, I'd say that performance was in the lead. It was at Ford's Theater, and James Whitmore was stunning in the role. There were times when I would swear there were others on stage with him. He created the atmosphere that let us all suspend our disbelief. I was on the edge of my seat through most of it -- literally, the straight backed wooden chairs at Ford's Theater were terribly uncomfortable.
He'd done Will Rogers, USA a year or so earlier, and when I was fifteen I got to see it in revival also at Ford's Theater.
Those two plays were pretty famous, but most people don't remember that he also did a one man play about Teddy Roosevelt. I saw it, at the National Theater, with my family sometime between the other two shows. Unlike the other two, that one never really toured and never hit a chord with audiences. My father and I loved it.
I remember Whitmore in all of them. But I seem to remember a different person in each. It's a tribute to his ability to create a character and hold an audience that I do.
There never seemed to be a television series or movie that captured him the way those one man shows did. He was hilarious in Kiss Me Kate singing "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" and doing a respectable soft shoe.
I think the Harry and Will Rogers may have been filmed at some point. If you have a chance to see them, do. James Whitmore was fantastic.
60 Minutes did a piece on one of them -- Give 'em Hell, Harry -- and I ended up fascinated by James Whitmore. Someone in my class was going to see it with her family within the month, and I literally got down on my knees and begged her to take me if they ended up with an extra ticket. On the day of the performance, she came in and told me her teenaged brother refused to go. When her mom started panicking over the extra ticket, my classmate mentioned me.
We were in the third row dead center. Of all the things that made me want to be an actress, I'd say that performance was in the lead. It was at Ford's Theater, and James Whitmore was stunning in the role. There were times when I would swear there were others on stage with him. He created the atmosphere that let us all suspend our disbelief. I was on the edge of my seat through most of it -- literally, the straight backed wooden chairs at Ford's Theater were terribly uncomfortable.
He'd done Will Rogers, USA a year or so earlier, and when I was fifteen I got to see it in revival also at Ford's Theater.
Those two plays were pretty famous, but most people don't remember that he also did a one man play about Teddy Roosevelt. I saw it, at the National Theater, with my family sometime between the other two shows. Unlike the other two, that one never really toured and never hit a chord with audiences. My father and I loved it.
I remember Whitmore in all of them. But I seem to remember a different person in each. It's a tribute to his ability to create a character and hold an audience that I do.
There never seemed to be a television series or movie that captured him the way those one man shows did. He was hilarious in Kiss Me Kate singing "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" and doing a respectable soft shoe.
I think the Harry and Will Rogers may have been filmed at some point. If you have a chance to see them, do. James Whitmore was fantastic.
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Re: oh god, i'm crying
Date: 2009-02-08 12:24 pm (UTC)