Veteran Actor James Whitmore Dies at 87

James Whitmore, an award-winning actor in film, television and on the stage, died on Friday of lung cancer, his son Steve tells the Associated Press. He was 87.

The character actor's colorful career included numerous one-man stage shows, such films as Black Like Me and The Shawshank Redemption, and TV's The Practice (for which he won a guest-star Emmy).

Among other accolades, Whitmore earned an Academy Award nod for his turn as President Truman in a 1975 adaptation of his long-running stage play Give 'Em Hell, Harry! It's the only time in Oscar history that an actor has been nominated for a film in which there was the only cast member.

Whitmore won a Golden Globe (and collected another Oscar nom) as a supporting actor in the 1949 war pic Battleground.

His other big-screen credits include Oklahoma!, The Asphalt Jungle and Planet of the Apes, while for the smaller screen he starred in such series as The Law and Mr. Jones and Temperatures Rising. Most recently, he guest-starred on a 2007 episode of CSI.