| Jacqueline White | |
| Birth Name: | Jacqueline Jane White |
| Birth Date: | 27 November 1922 |
| Birth Place: | Beverly Hills, California, U.S. |
| Alma Mater: | University of California, Los Angeles |
| Occupation: | Actress |
| Years Active: | 1942–1952 |
| Children: | 5 |
| Relatives: | Frank Knox (cousin) |
Jacqueline Jane White (born November 27, 1922) is an American former actress, who had a brief career in Hollywood as a leading lady in motion pictures during the early and post-WW2 years from 1942 until 1952, with starring and playing smaller roles in around 25 feature films.
White, at the age of 17, signed on a film contract at MGM[1] and subsequently with RKO, where she found her greatest success and is perhaps best remembered for her roles in films Crossfire (1947), Banjo (1947), Mystery in Mexico (1948) and The Narrow Margin (1952). She is one of the last surviving actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
According to most sources, White was born on November 27, 1922, in Beverly Hills, California[2] (although she claimed in an interview her birth year was 1924)[3] to Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Garrison White.[4] Her cousin, Frank Knox, was a Secretary of the Navy and a newspaper owner and publisher. She was from Beverly Hills, California.[5] She attended Beverly Hills High School and the University of California, Los Angeles.[6]
White and actress Lynn Merrick were childhood friends until White moved. They were reunited when both were in the cast of Three Hearts for Julia (1943).[7]
White's film debut resulted from her work in a drama class at UCLA.
She appeared in a couple of small roles, but her first lead roles came in Air Raid Wardens in 1943 with comedy duo Laurel and Hardy (there debut at MGM as a duo).
A casting director saw her in a production of Ah, Wilderness! and arranged for a screen test for her. That led to her film appearance, in Song of Russia (1944).[6]
White usually played either featured actresses in B-movies or supporting parts in A-movies. White was under contract to both Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she was cast mostly in uncredited small roles.
White had starring roles in RKO'S Banjo and Mystery in Mexico[8] and also appeared in Crossfire (1947).).[9] [10] Her first western film was at RKO and starred in Return of the Bad Men (1948), opposite Randolph Scott, her nemesis in the film was Anne Jeffreys, those sister played the film stand-in for White.[8]
White married in 1948, then moved with her husband to Wyoming in 1950. When she returned to Los Angeles for the birth of her first child, she was spotted in the RKO commissary visiting friends by director Richard Fleischer and producer Stanley Rubin, who offered her a featured role in The Narrow Margin (1952),[11] a B-picture film noir, which was her final picture.[12]
On November 12, 1948, White married Neal Bruce Anderson in Westwood Hills.[13] She left the film industry in 1952 and relocated to Wyoming with her husband, who started an oil business.
White has four sons and one daughter.[14] Her husband died in 2000. She currently resides in Houston, Texas, with family.
White occasionally appeared at film conventions. In 2013, she made an appearance at the annual TCM Classic Film Festival.
| Year | Film | Role | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1942 | Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant | Telephone Operator | |
| 1942 | Reunion in France | Danielle | |
| 1943 | Air Raid Wardens | Peggy Parker | |
| 1943 | Three Hearts for Julia | Kay | |
| 1943 | That's Why I Left You | Mary Thompson | |
| 1943 | Pilot ♯5 | Party Girl | |
| 1943 | Swing Shift Maisie | Grace | |
| 1943 | A Guy Named Joe | Helen | |
| 1944 | Song of Russia | Anna Bulganov | |
| 1944 | Easy Life | Train Passenger | |
| 1944 | Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo | Emmy York | |
| 1944 | Dark Shadows | Nurse Jean Smith | |
| 1946 | The Harvey Girls | Harvey Girl | |
| 1946 | Magic on a Stick (Short) | Mrs. John Walker | |
| 1946 | Our Old Car (Short) | Mrs. Nesbitt | |
| 1946 | The Show-Off | Clara Harlin | |
| 1947 | Banjo | Elizabeth Ames | |
| 1947 | Seven Keys to Baldpate | Mary Jordan | |
| 1947 | Crossfire | Mary Mitchell | |
| 1948 | Night Song | Connie | |
| 1948 | Return of the Bad Men | Madge Allen | |
| 1948 | Mystery in Mexico | Victoria Ames | |
| 1949 | Riders of the Range | Priscilla "Dusty" Willis | |
| 1950 | The Capture | Luana Ware | |
| 1952 | The Narrow Margin | Ann Sinclair |