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A photo of Jane White

Jane White 1922 - 2011

Jane White was born on October 30, 1922, and died at age 89 years old in 2011 at New York, NY. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Jane White.

Jane White
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October 30, 1922
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2011
New York, NY
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Female
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Updated: August 19, 2018
Biography ID: 192701284 What's this
Jane White Jane White (1922 - 2011)
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Jane White's History: 1922 - 2011

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  • Introduction

    Jane White BIRTH 30 Oct 1922 New York, New York County (Manhattan), New York, USA DEATH 24 Jul 2011 (aged 88) New York, New York County (Manhattan), New York, USA Her papers were donated to SMITH COLLEGE. Actress. Born in New York City, her parents were active in civil rights causes and with the NAACP. She attended Smith College and the New School before making her professional acting debut on Broadway in the production "Strange Fruit" (1945 to 1946). During the 1950s, she accumulated TV roles on the programs "The Alcoa Hour" and "Kraft Theatre", but it would be on the stage where her most prolific work was to be accomplished, notably her origination of the role as Queen Aggravain in the Tony Award-winning comedy "Once Upon a Mattress" (1959 to 1960). Off-Broadway, she found success in Michael Cacoyannis' "The Trojan Women" (1963 to 1965) and garnered two Obies with "Love's Labor Lost" (1966) and "Coriolanus" (1966). In 1972, she repeated her role in the TV-movie "Once Upon a Mattress" and had supporting parts in the motion pictures "Klute" (1971) and "Beloved" (1998). She donated her papers to SMITH COLLEGE.
  • 10/30
    1922

    Birthday

    October 30, 1922
    Birthdate
    Unknown
    Birthplace
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  • Professional Career

    Actress Jane White in a 1941 photograph by Carl Van Vechten. A 1944 graduate of Smith College, White was the daughter of Civil Rights icon Walter White. Ms. White began her career on Broadway in 1945 when Paul Robeson helped her get her first role as the lead in Lillian Smith’s “Strange Fruit,” a story about a doomed interracial love affair. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt praised Ms. White’s work for its “restraint and beauty.”
  • mm/24
    2011

    Death

    2011
    Death date
    Unknown
    Cause of death
    New York, NY
    Death location
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9 Memories, Stories & Photos about Jane

Jane White autograph
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.7k+ favorites
04/24/2018
Jane White autograph
A photo of Jane White's autograph, right hand, on the back of the Actor's Strike Notice - she underlined her signature and was pleased I knew who she was from ONCE UPON A MATTRESS! She played Queen Agravain.
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
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Jane White
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.7k+ favorites
04/24/2018
Jane White
A photo of Jane White
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Jane White
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.7k+ favorites
04/24/2018
Jane White
A photo of Jane White singing in her one woman show down in the Village. I saw the show.
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
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Jane White
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.7k+ favorites
04/24/2018
Jane White
A photo of Jane White
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
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Jane White
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.7k+ favorites
04/24/2018
Jane White
A photo of Jane White
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
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Jane White
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.7k+ favorites
04/24/2018
Jane White
A photo of Jane White
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
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Jane White
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.7k+ favorites
04/24/2018
Jane White
A photo of Jane White by Carl Vechten in 1941.
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
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Jane White
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
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09/02/2017
Jane White
A photo of Jane White in Once Upon A Mattress
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
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Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.7k+ favorites
04/24/2018
I met jane White three times and talked to her on the telephone. She was very versatile and talented. She could act, sing and dance. She was charming and lovable.
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Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.7k+ favorites
09/02/2017
Jane White
Actress and Singer Who Found Racial Attitudes to Be an Obstacle, Dies at 88
By PAUL VITELLO AUG. 7, 2011
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Jane White, an actress who made her reputation in the 1960s and ’70s in Shakespearean and classical Greek drama in New York but who felt hampered by the racial attitudes of casting directors toward light-skinned black performers like herself, died on July 24 at her home in Greenwich Village. She was 88.
The cause was cancer, said Joan K. Harris, her friend and executor.
Ms. White, who also employed a rich mezzo-soprano voice as a sometime cabaret singer, spoke openly about the peculiar racial challenge she faced in the 1960s: though roles for black performers were increasing, casting agents were continuing to think mainly in terms of “black” parts and “white” parts.
“I’ve just always been too ‘white’ to be ‘black’ and too ‘black’ to be ‘white,’ which, you know, gets to you after a while, particularly when the roles keep passing you by,” she told an interviewer in 1968.
In her first major Broadway role, in 1959, as Queen Aggravain (to a young Carol Burnett’s princess) in “Once Upon a Mattress,” Ms. White was asked to lighten her complexion — or “white up” in the terminology of the day — so as not to confuse the audience with what a production staff member called her “Mediterranean” looks.
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Jane White's Family Tree & Friends

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Other Biographies

Other Jane White Biographies

White, Jane (Mar 9, 1935 - Jun 8, 1994) White, Jane Cocks, Jane Frances (Mar 5, 1857 - Sep 8, 1946) White, Jane Holdsworth, Jane White, Jane (Born 1864) White, Jane (Feb 8, 1923 - Oct 19, 2012) White, Jane (Jun 6, 1921 - Oct 29, 1965) White, Jane (Dec 27, 1932 - Sep 14, 1991) White, Jane (Jan 14, 1924 - Apr 24, 1963)
White, Jane (Jan 8, 1924 - Mar 24, 2001) White, Jane (Apr 18, 1924 - Nov 1, 1998) White, Jane (Jan 20, 1952 - Oct 10, 2005) White, Jane (Apr 28, 1892 - Apr 1974) White, Jane (Nov 14, 1932 - Nov 14, 2006) White, Jane (Apr 12, 1898 - Apr 15, 1967) White, Jane (Jan 1, 1907 - Jun 1977) White, Jane (Jan 13, 1884 - Jun 1965) White, Jane (May 26, 1907 - Sep 1986) White, Jane (Apr 4, 1903 - Jul 3, 2000)

Other White Family Biographies

White, Ethel (Born Sep 7, 1886) White, Caroline (Born Jun 14, 1829) Youle, Ada (Born Feb 4, 1889) White, Cornelius (Born Sep 15, 1854) White, Winifred (Born Sep 21, 1884) White, Leo Reginald (Born Jan 27, 1891) White, Madge White, Robert (Born 1842) Schwiesow-White, Eva (Born Jan 15, 1893) White, Alice (Born Jan 13, 1888)
White, John (Aug 28, 1835 - 1933) White, Louis (Born Aug 12, 1889) White, Kenneth (Born 1920) White, Ruth White, Martha (Born Oct 26, 1895) White, Tom (Born Dec 31, 1866) White, Elmira (Born Jun 20, 1854) White, Stevie (Born Feb 28, 1873) White, Willie (Born Mar 16, 1893) White, Sidney (Born Oct 13, 1888)
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