LOS ANGELES — James Whitmore, the veteran Tony- and Emmy Award-winning actor who brought American icons Will Rogers, Harry Truman and Theodore Roosevelt to life in one-man shows, died Friday. He was 87.

Whitmore died of lung cancer at his home in Malibu, said his son Steve. He was diagnosed with the disease a week before Thanksgiving.

“He cared about acting; his whole life was dedicated to the theater and to movies,” said actor David Huddleston, a longtime friend who appeared in Whitmore’s 1964 movie “Black Like Me” and did a couple of plays with him. “I asked James Cagney one time to tell me the best thing you can about acting. He said never to get caught at it. That’s kind of how I’d sum up Jim Whitmore.”

James Arness, who appeared with Whitmore in the movies “Them!” and “Battleground,” said Whitmore was “an actor’s actor,” adding that “it was always a treat to work with him.”

Arness also remembered the “great intensity” Whitmore could bring to a role.

“When we wanted to get an actor to play a character who had that quality, Jimmy was the guy you’d think of,” said Arness, who starred in “Gunsmoke,” a TV series that Whitmore appeared on a number of times.

In 1947, Whitmore married his first wife, Nancy Mygatt, with whom he had three sons. They were divorced after 24 years. After Whitmore’s second marriage in the 1970s, to actress Audra Lindley, he and his first wife were remarried but divorced after two years.

When he died Friday, Whitmore “was surrounded by what he considered to be the most important thing in his life, which was his family,” his son Steve said.

In addition to his son, Whitmore is survived by his wife, Noreen, sons James Jr. and Dan, eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.