Wilfrid Hyde-White
Wilfrid Hyde-White | |
---|---|
Born | Wilfrid Hyde White 12 May 1903 Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom |
Died | 6 May 1991 Woodland Hills, California, United States | (aged 87)
Resting place | Water Cemetery, Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom |
Occupation(s) | Actor, singer |
Years active | 1934–1983 |
Spouse(s) |
Blanche Glynne
(m. 1927; died 1946)Ethel Drew
(m. 1957; "his death" is deprecated; use "died" instead. 1991) |
Children | 3; including Alex Hyde-White |
Wilfrid Hyde-White (12 May 1903 – 6 May 1991) was an English character actor of stage, film and television, who achieved international recognition in his later years for his role as Colonel Pickering in the 1964 film version of the musical My Fair Lady.
Early life and career
Wilfrid Hyde-White was born in Bourton-on-the-Water in Gloucestershire, England in 1903 to the Rev. William Edward White, canon of Gloucester Cathedral, and his wife, Ethel Adelaide (née Drought). He attended Marlborough College and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
He made his debut in Tons of Money on the Isle of Wight in 1922. He then gained steady work on the stage in a series of comedies produced at the Aldwych Theatre in London. He joined a tour of South Africa in 1932 before making his film debut in 1934 (in Josser on the Farm, credited as "Wilfrid Hyde White"; he later added the hyphen, although he also appeared in some films as plain "Hyde White"). He appeared in the George Formby comedy, Turned Out Nice Again (1941). Following a memorable supporting role in The Third Man (1949), 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. Between 1962 and 1965, he also starred in the BBC radio comedy The Men from the Ministry.
Later career
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 was featured on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, the Battlestar Galactica pilot episode "Saga of a Star World" and The Associates. His television films and guest appearances kept him busy from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. [citation needed]
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 Britain and concerned Columbo paying a visit to Scotland Yard, Hyde-White's ongoing UK tax problems 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.[1] His second appearance on Columbo was in the episode "Last Salute to the Commodore" (1976). He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1976 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews.[citation needed]
Personal life
On 17 December 1927, he married Blanche Hope Aitken, a Glamorganshire-born Welsh actress known professionally as Blanche Glynne (1893–1946),[2] who was a decade his senior. The couple had one son. Blanche Glynne died in 1946, aged 53,[3] and Hyde-White remarried, in 1957, to actress Ethel Drew. He and Drew remained married until his death in 1991. The couple had two children, including actor Alex Hyde-White.
Death
Hyde-White died on 6 May 1991 at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, from heart failure, six days before his 88th birthday. His body was returned to England and buried in the family grave at Water Cemetery, Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire.[4]
Complete filmography
- Josser on the Farm (1934) as Brooks
- Smith's Wives (1935) (uncredited)
- Night Mail (1935) (uncredited)
- Admirals All (1935) as Mr. Stallybrass
- Murder by Rope (1936) as Alastair Dane
- Rembrandt (1936) as Civil Guardsman (uncredited)
- The Scarab Murder Case (1936) as Philo Vance
- Elephant Boy (1937) as Commissioner
- Bulldog Drummond at Bay (1937) as Conrad (uncredited)
- Change for a Sovereign (1937) as Charles
- Murder in the Family (1938) as Purvitt - Estate Agent (uncredited)
- The Claydon Treasure Mystery (1938) as Holmes (uncredited)
- Meet Mr. Penny (1938) as Mr. Wilson
- I've Got a Horse (1938) as Police Constable
- Keep Smiling (1938) as Assistant Hotel Clerk (uncredited)
- The Outsider (1939) as Patient (uncredited)
- Over the Moon (1939) as Dwight - Sanitarium Spokesman (uncredited)
- The Lambeth Walk (1939) as Lord Battersby
- Poison Pen (1939) as Postman
- The Briggs Family (1940) as Man with Moustache at Party (uncredited)
- Turned Out Nice Again (1941) as Removal Man (uncredited)
- Lady from Lisbon (1942) as Ganier
- Asking for Trouble (1942) as Pettifer
- The Demi-Paradise (1943) as Nightclub Waiter (uncredited)
- Night Boat to Dublin (1946) as Taxi Driver
- Wanted for Murder (1946) as Guide in Madame Tussaud's
- Appointment with Crime (1946) as Cleaner
- While the Sun Shines (1947) as Male Receptionist
- Meet Me at Dawn (1947) as Garin - News Editor
- Laburnum Grove (1947 TV movie) as Bernard Baxley
- A Month in the Country (1947 TV movie) as Bolshintsov
- The Ghosts of Berkeley Square (1947) as Staff Captain
- My Brother Jonathan (1948) as Mr. Gaige
- The Winslow Boy (1948) as Wilkinson (uncredited)
- Bond Street (1948) as Jeweller
- My Brother's Keeper (1948) as Harding
- Quartet (1948) as 2nd. Clubman (segment "The Colonel's Lady")
- The Passionate Friends (1949) as Lawyer
- The Forbidden Street (1949) as Mr. Culver
- That Dangerous Age (1949) as Mr. Potts
- The Bad Lord Byron (1949) as Mr. Hopton
- Adam and Evelyne (1949) as Col. Bradley
- Helter Skelter (1949) as Dr. B. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde
- Conspirator (1949) as Lord Pennistone
- The Third Man (1949) as Crabbin
- The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949) as Professor Grollet
- Golden Salamander (1950) as Agno
- The Angel with the Trumpet (1950) as Simmerl
- Last Holiday (1950) as Chalfont
- Trio (1950) as Mr. Gray (in segment Mr. Know-All)
- The Mudlark (1950) as Tucker (uncredited)
- Highly Dangerous (1950) as Mr. Luke - British consul
- Midnight Episode (1950) as Mr. Knight
- Blackmailed (1951) as Lord Dearsley
- Mister Drake's Duck (1951) as Mr. May
- The Browning Version (1951) as Dr. Frobisher
- No Highway in the Sky (1951) as Fisher, Inspector of Accidents (uncredited)
- Outcast of the Islands (1951) as Vinck
- Mr. Denning Drives North (1952) as Woods
- The Card (1952) as Lord at Liverpool Boat Harbour (uncredited)
- Affairs of State (1952, TV Movie)
- Top Secret (1952) as Sir Hubert Wells
- The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan (1953) as Mr. Marston
- Four Sided Triangle (1953) as Government Minister (segment "Priceless Pocket")
- The Million Pound Note (1954) as Roderick Montpelier
- The Rainbow Jacket (1954) as Lord Stoneleigh
- Duel in the Jungle (1954) as Pitt
- Betrayed (1954) as Gen. Charles Larraby
- To Dorothy a Son (1954) as Mr. Starke
- See How They Run (1955) as Brig. Buskin
- John and Julie (1955) as Sir James
- The Reluctant Debutante (1955, TV Movie) as Jimmy Broadbent
- The Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955) as Master Oliver
- The March Hare (1956) as Col. Keene
- My Teenage Daughter (1956) as Sir Joseph
- The Silken Affair (1956) as Sir Horace Hogg
- Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957) as 'Doodles' Fletcher
- That Woman Opposite (1957) as Sir Maurice Lawes
- The Vicious Circle (1957) as Maj. Harrington, aka Robert Brady
- The Truth About Women (1957) as Sir George Tavistock
- Up the Creek (1958) as Adm. Foley
- Wonderful Things! (1958) as Sir Bertram
- The Lady Is a Square (1959) as Charles
- Carry On Nurse (1959) as The Colonel
- Life in Emergency Ward 10 (1959) as Professor Bourne-Evans
- North West Frontier (1959) as Bridie
- Libel (1959) as Hubert Foxley
- Two-Way Stretch (1960) as Soapy Stevens
- Let's Make Love (1960) as George Welch
- His and Hers (1961) as Charles Dunton
- On the Double (1961) as Colonel Somerset
- Ada (1961) as Sylvester Marin
- On the Fiddle (1961) as Trowbridge
- Crooks Anonymous (1962) as Laurence Montague
- In Search of the Castaways (1962) as Lord Glenarvan
- Aliki My Love (1963) as Richard Caraway
- My Fair Lady (1964) as Colonel Hugh Pickering
- John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965) as Mustafa Guz
- You Must Be Joking! (1965) as Gen. Lockwood
- Ten Little Indians (1965) as Judge Cannon
- The Liquidator (1965) as Chief
- Our Man in Marrakesh (1966) as Arthur Fairbrother
- The Sandwich Man (1966) as Lord Uffingham
- Chamber of Horrors (1966) as Harold Blount
- Lucy in London (1966, TV Movie) as Madame Tussauds Guide
- The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967) as Colonel Baisbrook
- P.J. (1968) as Billings-Browne
- The Sunshine Patriot (1968, TV Movie) as Morris Vanders
- Fear No Evil (1969, TV Movie) as Harry Snowden
- Run a Crooked Mile (1969, TV Movie) as Dr. Ralph Sawyer
- The Magic Christian (1969) as Captain Reginald K. Klaus
- Gaily, Gaily (1969) as The Governor
- Ritual of Evil (1970, TV Movie) as Harry Snowden
- Skullduggery (1970) as Eaton
- Fragment of Fear (1970) as Mr. Copsey
- A Brand New Life (1973, TV Movie) as Mr. Berger
- The Cherry Picker (1974) as Dobson
- The Great Houdini (1976, TV Movie) as Supt. Melville
- No Longer Alone (1976) as Lord Home
- Battlestar Galactica (1978) as Sire Anton
- The Cat and the Canary (1979) as Cyrus West
- The Rebels (1979, TV Movie) as Gen. Howe
- King Solomon's Treasure (1979) as Oldest Club Member
- A Touch of the Sun (1979) as M-1
- Xanadu (1980) as Male Heavenly Voice (voice)
- In God We Tru$t (1980) as Abbot Thelonious
- Scout's Honor (1980, TV Movie) as Uncle Toby "Nuncle" Bartlett
- Oh, God! Book II (1980) as Judge Thomas Miller
- Father Damien: The Leper Priest (1980, TV Movie) as Bishop Maigret
- Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981) as Club Member (voice)
- The Letter (1982, TV Movie) as Judge
- The Toy (1982) as Barkley
- Fanny Hill (1983) as Mr. John Barville (final film role)
133 Films
Partial television credits
- The Twilight Zone: "Passage on the Lady Anne" (1963)
- Mission: Impossible: "Echo of Yesterday" (1967)
- Daniel Boone: "Who Will They Hang From The Yardarm If Willy Gets Away" (1968)
- It Takes a Thief: "To Lure a Man" (1969)
- Columbo: "Dagger of the Mind" (1972)
- Columbo: "Last Salute to the Commodore" (1976)
- Battlestar Galactica (1978)
- The Associates (1979)
- Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1981)
References
- ^ IMDb profile
- ^ 1893 year of birth per census records for Blanche Hope Aitken, Hyde-White's first wife
- ^ Blanche White (professional name Blanche Glynne) died in England, aged 53, in 1946, not 1948, as per England and Wales death records at findmypast.co.uk website: Registration District: Chard, County: Somerset, Year of Registration: 1946, Quarter of Registration: Apr-May-Jun, Age at death: 53, Volume No: 5C, Page No: 340
- ^ Wilfrid Hyde-White at Find a Grave
External links
- Use dmy dates from July 2013
- 1903 births
- 1991 deaths
- Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
- English expatriates in the United States
- English male film actors
- English male stage actors
- English male television actors
- English male radio actors
- People from Bourton-on-the-Water
- People educated at Marlborough College
- Male actors from Gloucestershire
- 20th-century English male actors
- British expatriate male actors in the United States