Wilfred Hyde-White was an English character actor of stage, film, and television, who achieved international recognition in his later years for his role as Colonel Hugh Pickering in the film version of the musical My Fair Lady (1964).
Early life[]
Wilfrid Hyde-White was born in Bourton-on-the-Water in Gloucestershire, England on May 12, 1903, to the Rev. William Edward White, canon of Gloucester Cathedral, and his wife, Ethel Adelaide (née Drought). He was the nephew of the actor J. Fisher White. He attended Marlborough College and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, of which he said "I learned two things at RADA - I can't act and it doesn't matter."
He made his stage debut in the farcical play Tons of Money on the Isle of Wight in 1922 and appeared in the West End for the first time three years later in the play Beggar on Horseback. 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 Josser on the Farm (1934) where he was credited as "Wilfrid Hyde-White" (without the hyphen). He also appeared in some earlier films as plain "Hyde-White". He later added the hyphen, as well as his first name.
Following a supporting role in The Third Man (1949), he became a fixture in British films of the 1950s. His other films of this period include Carry on Nurse and the Danny Kaye film On the Double. Two-Way Stretch displays the more roguish side to some of the characters he played in this period. He continued to act on the stage and played opposite Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in the repertory performance of Caesar and Cleopatra and Antony and Cleopatra in 1951. He also appeared on Broadway and was nominated for a Tony Award in 1956 for his role in The Reluctant Debutante. His first Hollywood appearance came alongside Marilyn Monroe in the film Let's Make Love (1960), followed by other higher-profile films, including My Fair Lady (1964).
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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The article or pieces of the original article was at Wilfrid Hyde-White. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Warner Bros. Entertainment Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |