| Wilfrid Hyde-White | |
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Hyde-White in Ada (1961) |
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| Born | Wilfrid Hyde White 12 May 1903 Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, England, UK |
| Died | 6 May 1991 (aged 87) Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Film, television actor |
| Years active | 1934–83 |
| Spouse | Blanche Glynne (1927-1946; her death); 1 child Ethel Drew (1957-1991; his death); 2 children) |
Wilfrid Hyde-White (12 May 1903 — 6 May 1991) was an English character actor.
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Wilfrid Hyde White was born at the rectory in Bourton-on-the-Water in Gloucestershire, the son of William Edward White, canon of Gloucester Cathedral, and his wife, Ethel Adelaide Drought. He was educated at Marlborough College, where he decided on an acting career — his uncle was the actor J. Fisher White. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made his stage début as Maitland in the Evans-Valentine hit comedy Tons of Money (1922) at Ryde, Isle of Wight, and his London début as a juror in Beggar on Horseback (1925) at the Queen's.
He worked steadily on the stage, including a tour of South Africa in 1932 before making his film debut, in Josser on the Farm credited as "Hyde White" in 1934. He appeared in the George Formby comedy, Turned Out Nice Again (1941), and after a memorable supporting role in The Third Man, he became a fixture in British films of the 1950s. Two-Way Stretch displays the more roguish side to some of the characters he played in this period. His debonair charm was recognized by critics and audiences: "[his] unfailing imperturbability and unruffled acceptance of every eventuality made him an ideal choice for light comedy of the drawing room school."[1] From 1962-65 he also starred in the BBC radio comedy The Men from the Ministry.
On 17 December 1927, Hyde-White married Blanche Hope Aitken, a Glamorganshire-born Welsh actress known professionally as Blanche Glynne (born 1893—died 1946),[2] who was a decade his senior. The couple had one son. Following the death of his first wife in 1946,[3] Hyde-White (he had added the hyphen for effect) married American actress Ethel Korenman (stage name Ethel Drew) in 1957. They had two children: a son, actor Alex Hyde-White, and a daughter, Juliet.
Hyde-White was increasingly busy on screen, usually as lords, gentlemen, or conmen, often "smallish roles which he somehow succeeded in making appear bigger",[1] such as The Browning Version as the headmaster, and in his own favourite role, as the bogus Reverend Fowler (alias "Soapy" Stevens) in Two Way Stretch. He was in Hollywood for Let's Make Love with Marilyn Monroe, and many other films followed. In particular, he co-starred in My Fair Lady from the Lerner and Loewe musical as Colonel Pickering, the avuncular companion of Rex Harrison's Professor Higgins. It was a role which brought him international recognition.
He continued to act on the stage, and played opposite Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in Caesar and Cleopatra and Antony and Cleopatra in 1951. He also appeared on Broadway and was nominated for two Tony Awards as best actor. In the 1970s and 1980s, he featured in the US TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Battlestar Galactica and The Associates.
His television movies and guest appearances kept him busy from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. His lifestyle had been expensive to maintain in real life, exemplified by Rolls-Royces, racehorses, and mistresses, which led to his being declared bankrupt in London in 1979.[1] He gave up gambling on horses for a year, becoming even busier on television.[4]
He appeared in two episodes of the mystery series Columbo, starring Peter Falk as the rumpled detective. Although the first, Dagger of the Mind (1972), was set in England and concerned Columbo paying a visit to Scotland Yard, Hyde-White's ongoing tax problems in Britain meant that, unlike American actors Falk and Richard Basehart, and British actors appearing in the episode, Honor Blackman, Bernard Fox, John Fraser, and Arthur Malet, he was unable to take part in location filming in the UK. His scenes as a butler were therefore filmed in California.[5] His second appearance was in the episode Last Salute to the Commodore (1976).
His career was somewhat revived by the television series The Associates, in which he played the senior partner of a New York law firm. He also memorably portrayed Barkley, an employee of wealthy businessman U.S. Bates (Jackie Gleason) in the film The Toy. His last film appearance was in the British/West German co-production Fanny Hill (1983).
In 1985, White became a resident of the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, for his last few years being almost bedridden. He died of congestive heart failure on 6 May 1991 (6 days before his 88th birthday), survived by his second wife and his three children.