William H. White

Biography

Born in 1870 amid the salt-sprayed lanes of Weymouth, Massachusetts, William H. White slipped onto the stage just as the footlights were beginning to glow brighter than gas lamps. Within a few seasons he had traded New England breezes for studio arc lights, lending his presence to the early screen adaptation of The Chocolate Soldier in 1914 and, two decades later, turning up again in the brassy backstage yarn Convention Girl (1935). Off-camera he shared his life with a woman named Ethel—surname unrecorded—who remained at his side until the final curtain. White’s last exit came on 7 September 1939, in New York City, the same town that had cheered his Broadway turns and now closed the book on a performer who had watched the art of acting evolve from greasepaint to talkies.