Actor; Born October 1, 1921; Died February 6, 2009.

JAMES Whitmore, who has died of lung cancer aged 87, was a many-faceted character actor who delivered strong performances in film, television and especially US theatre with his popular one-man shows about Harry Truman, Will Rogers and Theodore Roosevelt.

His long-running Give 'em Hell, Harry, tracing the life of the 33rd President, was released as a theatrical movie in 1975. Whitmore was nominated for an Oscar for best actor, marking the only time in Oscar history that an actor has been nominated for a film in which he was the only cast member. His Teddy Roosevelt portrait, Bully, was also made into a film.

Born in 1921 in White Plains, New York, Whitmore was active in school sports and played in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, though his strict Methodist family disapproved of the profession. After a year at an Ivy League prep school, in 1939 Whitmore enrolled in pre-law at Yale University, where he had won an American football scholarship. Two knee injuries ended his sporting career and he devoted himself to drama.

After graduating from Yale, he enlisted in the Marines and served in the South Pacific. "I had a lot of time to think in the Marine Corps," he recalled, "and so I decided it wasn't the law I wanted, but the theatre."

In New York, he studied at the American Theatre Wing under the GI Bill, living on $20 a week and sharing a room with another hopeful actor, Jack Warden. After a season in summer stock in New Hampshire, he returned to New York and won the role of Sergeant Harold Evans in Command Decision. Rave reviews put his career into motion.

While not known for his politics, Whitmore was an early supporter of President Barack Obama. He campaigned for Obama during a 2007 rally at the Gibson Theatre at Universal Studios, telling the crowd that Obama had the wisdom "to deal with a very, very confused and complex country, and the world".

Whitmore started both his Broadway and Hollywood careers with acclaimed performances, both as tough-talking sergeants. In 1947, discharged a year early from Marine duty, he made his Broadway debut in a taut air force drama, Command Decision. He was awarded a Tony for outstanding performance by a newcomer.

Two years later, Whitmore was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe as supporting actor in the war movie Battleground.

He followed with memorable performances in scores of films, refusing to be typecast. Besides war movies, he appeared in westerns (The Last Frontier, Chato's Land), musicals (Kiss Me Kate, Oklahoma!), science-fiction (Planet of the Apes, Them), dramas (The Asphalt Jungle, The Shawshank Redemption - where he played the part of Brooks, the elderly inmate who looks after the prison library) and comedies (Mr O'Malley and Mrs Malone, The Great Diamond Robbery).

Shirley Jones, a teenager when she starred in Oklahoma!, said she came to know Whitmore during months of filming in Nogales, Arizona, and recalled being impressed by her good-humoured and highly disciplined colleague.

"He told me, If you're going to be in this business, you better learn your craft'," Jones recalled. "And he never stopped learning."

His favourite film was Black Like Me (1964), a true story about a white reporter who used medication to darken his skin to experience life as an African-American in the south. Another of his rare starring roles was The Next Voice You Hear (1950), in which a family hears the voice of God via the radio. He played opposite Nancy Davis, the future Mrs Ronald Reagan.

Whitmore often appeared on US television, starring in the series The Law and Mr Jones (1960-1962), My Friend Tony (1969) and Temperatures Rising (1972-1973). He received an Emmy in 1999 as guest actor in a series for The Practice. Jones recalled seeing him in a 2007 episode of the TV drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and marvelling at his still-sharp talent. "I was absolutely blown away by that. He had a huge role, playing a lawyer, and it was phenomenal," she said.

A student of history, Whitmore delighted in portraying famous Americans. He played Ulysses S Grant in a 1960 TV movie, Admiral William F "Bull" Halsey in the Pearl Harbor attack spectacle Tora! Tora! Tora!, and Walt Whitman in a dramatic reading, A Whitman Portrait.

The monologues of Harry Truman, Will Rogers and Teddy Roosevelt brought Whitmore his greatest success. In 2000, he appeared in Will Rogers, USA at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC, his eighth engagement in the show based on the works of the American humorist and social commentator at Ford's over a 30-year period.

President Gerald Ford attended a performance of Give 'em Hell, Harry at Ford's Theatre after Richard Nixon resigned. Whitmore worried about Ford's reaction to Truman's sharp words about Nixon.

The actor recalled: "I was three feet from Gerry Ford when I said to the press as Truman, "Nixon is a no-good lying (expletive); if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he'd tell a lie just to keep his hand in.' After the show, (Ford) came up on stage and put his arm around me and said, That was a pretty good blocking back'." Ford had been line coach when Whitmore played American football at Yale.

He married Nancy Mygatt in 1947 and the couple had three sons, James, Steven and Daniel. They later divorced, and in 1971 he married an actress, Audra Lindley. They often appeared in plays together, even after their 1979 divorce.

He remarried his first wife in the 1980s, but another divorce ensued. Nearing 80 in 2001, Whitmore married actress-writer Noreen Nash.

Whitmore is also survived by eight grandchildren. By BOB THOMAS