Today James Whitmore passed away. Whitmore was a prolific actor from the 50's up until a few years ago. Most recently/popularly he played Brooks in The Shawshank Redemption. He was also in "Bonanza", THEM!, Planet of the Apes and "The Twilight Zone", among many many other shows and movies. He was one of those actors that you'd always recognize because he had such a great face. Frank Darabont always has a way with casting actors with great, expressive faces and Whitmore's was one of the best.
It's sad when someone who contributed so much to our entertainment passes away, but at least we've got all of his work saved on DVDs and such. "The Twilight Zone" episode he was in is called, "On Thursday We Leave for Home". It is an hour-long episode about a group of astronauts led by Whitmore's character who are marooned on a distant planet awaiting rescue from Earth. Whitmore's character, William Benteen, makes sure to keep everyone's spirits up, but when the actual rescue comes he tries to keep everyone under his control by forcing them to stay on the planet. His group revolts and as the rescue ship leaves with everyone else from the planet, Benteen comes to his senses too late and is left alone forever. It's a great episode, one of many from "The Twilight Zone".James Whitmore starred in THEM! as well. THEM! is a sci-fi B-movie from 1954 wherein people fight for their lives against huge mutated insects. It's a fun flick and is an icon of the genre and era. In celebration of Whitmore's work on THEM! I present you with the trailer for another B-movie sci-fi bug flick: Infestation. It's gonna be a lot of fun...kind of like Slither, but with different types of monsters. (That reminds me, I should write about the diamond-in-the-rough that is Slither. The to-do list grows.)
1 comment:
I just loved him as Brooks and would love to see more of his older work. He came out of retirement to do that role. Have to check out the trailer later, but I'm sure it's going to be its own brand of special. :-)
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