Carol White

Infobox Actor
name = Carol White
birthname = Carole Joan White
birthdate = birth date|1941|4|1
birthplace = London, England
deathdate = death date and age|1991|9|16|1941|4|1
deathplace = Miami, Florida
yearsactive = 1949 - 1990

Carol White (1 April, 1941 - 16 September, 1991) was a British actress best known for her roles in the television play "Cathy Come Home" (1966) and the film "Poor Cow" (1967).

Considered to be one of the most promising actresses of the British cinema at the end of the 1960s, she never attained the level of stardom predicted for her, due to substance abuse and a series of tumultuous relationships with some of the most famous male film stars of the 1960s and 1970s, including people such as Richard Burton, Frank Sinatra and Oliver Reed.

She was the sister in law of British composer Denis King, most famous for composing the theme to The Adventures of Black Beauty

The diminutive actress, a London scrap merchant's daughter who had already made her mark in the television version of Nell Dunn's "Up the Junction" in 1965, consequently became something of a Sixties icon. She was born in Hammersmith, London. At the age of 11, White heard about the theatre from a hairdresser and thereafter attended the Corona Academy Stage School in London; having been dubbed at the start of her career as 'The Poor Man's Julie Christie'. She had her debut three years later in "Circus Friends" and went on to appear in "Carry On Teacher", "Best Girl" and "Never Let Go" in which she played the girlfriend of Peter Sellers.

She appeared in "Dulcima" in 1971, as comely country lass; a movie which had been adapted from a story by H E Bates. She also showed her calibre as an actress opposite Alan Bates, Dirk Bogarde and Ian Holm in the film of Bernard Malamud's "The Fixer". Her performance as Raisl Bok won her a Hollywood contract in 1968 to make "Daddy's Gone A-Hunting". After this her career became rather more chequered. White's attempts to establish herself in the United States were dogged by ill fortune. Unfortunately, her name became more familiar in the press in connection with her amours, divorces, court appearances, drink and drugs than with her acting.

After living in Hollywood for several years, White returned to London to star in Nell Dunn's play "Steaming" at the West End's Comedy Theatre. In spite of excellent reviews, she was often late, regularly missed performances, and was finally sackedFact|date=February 2007. It was at this same time, 1981, that her biography, "Carol Comes Home", by Clifford Thurlow, was published. The combination of the play and the book brought Carol White back to public notice in her home country, but her tendency to self-destruction closed the doors that were opening for her and she went back to the United States, never to return to England again. White died in 1991 in Florida, at the age of 50, although the exact cause of her death is disputed, with some sources claiming she took a drug overdose, whilst others have suggested she succumbed to liver disease [http://www.retrosellers.com/features48.htm] .

A TV film of her life, 'The Battersea Bardot', was shown in 1994 with Wendy Morgan as White. She had two sons from her first marriage.

External links

*imdb name|id=0924576|name=Carol White