Dan White was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actor, well known for appearing in several Western

Western (genre)

The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 films.

Early life

Dan White was born to George and Orpha White in Falmouth, Florida, one of twelve siblings. The Whites moved to Lakeland

Lakeland, Florida

Lakeland is a city in Polk County, Florida, United States, located approximately midway between Tampa and Orlando along Interstate 4. According to the 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimate, the city had a population of 94,406...

 during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. By age 14, White was in show business. He left home to travel thousands of miles throughout the South in tent, minstrel

Minstrel

A minstrel was a medieval European bard who performed songs whose lyrics told stories of distant places or of existing or imaginary historical events. Although minstrels created their own tales, often they would memorize and embellish the works of others. Frequently they were retained by royalty...

, vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 and theatre

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

 shows. His brother Willard joined him for nine years in a show in Tampa

Tampa, Florida

Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....

's Rialto Theater. Frances Langford

Frances Langford

Julia Frances Langford was an American singer and entertainer who was popular during the Golden Age of Radio and also made film appearances over two decades.-Birth:...

 worked with White during the time, and he convinced her to go to Hollywood. During this period, he met Tilda Spivey and proposed marriage on February 25, 1933. She had a 2-year-old child, Arthur Gifford, before her wedding. Dan left show business for financial reasons to work with the Civilian Conservation Corps

Civilian Conservation Corps

The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D...

. He still longed for a career in entertainment and took a cruise to Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

. He and his family made extra stops at cities all over the country to earn money to continue the tour.

In January 1937, he stopped at Texarkana, Arkansas

Texarkana, Arkansas

As of the census of 2000, there were 26,448 people, 10,384 households, and 7,040 families residing in the city. The population density was 830.5 people per square mile . There were 11,721 housing units at an average density of 368.1 per square mile...

, where Tilda awaited the birth of their child. Her sister, Mary, who was in Texarkana, invited the Whites to stay there for a few months. The baby, June Larue White, was finally born, and the Whites continued toward California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

.

In Hollywood

They arrived 16 days later and rented a house for 23 years, even film scripts were written in their own living room. Dan had a hard time finding a job and was in Panama

Panama

Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

 working on the Pan American Highway. Although, upon return in 1938, he got work with the Republic Pictures Corporation, making 6 films in his first year. The first film was, Prairie Moon, with Gene Autry

Gene Autry

Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...

. White made $55 a week during that picture. He'd claimed to have made about 300 films and 150 television cameos during his years in Hollywood. Around 70 percent were Westerns. Among some of his well-known films were, The Yearling, Distant Drums

Distant Drums

Distant Drums is a 1951 film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Gary Cooper. It is set during the Second Seminole War in the 1840s, with Cooper playing an Army captain who destroys a fort held by the Seminole Indians then retreats into the Everglades while under chase.The actual location of the...

, Red River, To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird (film)

To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1962 American drama film adaptation of Harper Lee's novel of the same name directed by Robert Mulligan. It stars Mary Badham in the role of Scout and Gregory Peck in the role of Atticus Finch....

, Giant, Duel in the Sun, Four Faces West

Four Faces West

Four Faces West is a 1948 Western film starring Joel McCrea, his real-life wife Frances Dee, and Charles Bickford. It is based on the novel Pasó por aquí by Eugene Manlove Rhodes...

, Jailhouse Rock

Jailhouse Rock (1957 film)

Jailhouse Rock is an American musical film directed by Richard Thorpe for MGM. The film stars Elvis Presley in his third film and MGM debut, Judy Tyler, and Mickey Shaughnessy....

and Touch of Evil

Touch of Evil

Touch of Evil is a 1958 American crime thriller film, written, directed by, and co-starring Orson Welles. The screenplay was loosely based on the novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson...

. During this time, White and his wife had a third child, Donald Curtis White, born on November 9, 1941. The films that made White most famous were his numerous appearances in B-Westerns, where he portrayed the antagonist

Antagonist

An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...

. During the 1950s and 1960s, he started turning to television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

. He was offered the role of, "Sam the Bartender," in, Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....

, but he didn't commit to the idea. He asked Glenn Strange

Glenn Strange

Glenn Strange was an American actor who appeared mostly in Western films. He is best known for playing the Frankenstein Monster in three Universal films during the 1940s and for his role as Sam Noonan, the bartender on CBS's Gunsmoke television series...

 to apply for the job.

Post-acting

Dan loved California for the almost 40 years he was there, but his true love was his old town in Florida. Upon retirement, he returned to Tampa and made appearances in Western Film Round-Ups and talk shows. He was often visited by his family until his death on July 7, 1980, in Tampa

Tampa, Florida

Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....

, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

.

Filmography

Note: An asterisk (*) means that Dan White had an uncredited role; two asterisks means that he was credited as either Daniel White or Daniel M. White.

• Beyond the Bermuda Triangle (1975)
• Smoke in the Wind (1975)
• Skyjacked (1972)
• The Cheyenne Social Club
  The Cheyenne Social Club
  The Cheyenne Social Club is a 1970 Western comedy film written by James Lee Barrett and directed and produced by Gene Kelly, starring James Stewart, Henry Fonda, and Shirley Jones....
  
  (1970)*
• Red Tomahawk (1967)
• Waco
  Waco (1966 film)
  Waco is a 1966 western film starring Howard Keel and Jane Russell. The film was directed by R. G. Springsteen and written by Max Lamb, Steve Fisher, and Harry Sanford...
  
  (1966)
• Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter
  Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter
  Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter is a low-budget western/horror hybrid film filmed in 1966, in which a fictionalized version of the real-life western outlaw Jesse James encounters the fictional granddaughter of the famous Dr. Frankenstein. The film was originally released as part of a...
  
  (1966)
• The Bounty Killer (1965)*
• A Tiger Walks
  A Tiger Walks
  A Tiger Walks is a 1964 family drama film, directed by Norman Tokar and produced by Walt Disney Productions. It is based on a novel of the same name by Ian Niall...
  
   (1964)*
• To Kill a Mockingbird
  To Kill a Mockingbird (film)
  To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1962 American drama film adaptation of Harper Lee's novel of the same name directed by Robert Mulligan. It stars Mary Badham in the role of Scout and Gregory Peck in the role of Atticus Finch....
  
  (1962)*
• The Sergent Was a Lady (1961)
• Ma Barker's Killer Brood
  Ma Barker's Killer Brood
  Ma Barker's Killer Brood is a crime film, released in 1960. The low budget film was directed by Bill Karn and starred Lurene Tuttle as the title character, Ma Barker, and Tristam Coffin as Arthur Dunlop....
  
  (1960)**
• Beloved Infidel (1959)*
• Attack of the Giant Leeches
  Attack of the Giant Leeches
  Attack of the Giant Leeches is a low-budget 1959 science fiction film from American International Pictures. It was directed by Bernard L. Kowalski, produced by Gene Corman, and the screenplay was written by Leo Gordon. The film is in black and white, and runs for 62 minutes...
  
  (1959)
• This Earth is Mine
  This Earth Is Mine
  This Earth Is Mine is a 1959 drama film directed by Henry King and starring Rock Hudson and Jean Simmons. The film portrays the lives and loves of the Rambeau family, a California winemaking dynasty trying to survive during Prohibition in the United States.-Summary:Elizabeth , an English cousin of...
  
  (1959)
• Frontier Gun (1958)
• The Sheepman
  The Sheepman
  The Sheepman is a tongue-in-cheek 1958 Western film directed by George Marshall and starring Glenn Ford, Shirley MacLaine and Leslie Nielsen.-Plot:...
  
  (1958)
• Quantrill's Raiders (1958)
• Escape from Red Rock (1958)**
• Touch of Evil
  Touch of Evil
  Touch of Evil is a 1958 American crime thriller film, written, directed by, and co-starring Orson Welles. The screenplay was loosely based on the novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson...
  
  (1958)*
• Gunfire at Indian Gap (1957)
• Jailhouse Rock
  Jailhouse Rock (1957 film)
  Jailhouse Rock is an American musical film directed by Richard Thorpe for MGM. The film stars Elvis Presley in his third film and MGM debut, Judy Tyler, and Mickey Shaughnessy....
  
  (1957)*
• Giant (1956)*
• Gun Brothers (1956)*
• The Last Hunt
  The Last Hunt
  The Last Hunt is a 1956 MGM western film directed by Richard Brooks and produced by Dore Schary. The screenplay was by Richard Brooks from a novel by Milton Lott...
  
  (1956)*
• The First Traveling Saleslady
  The First Traveling Saleslady
  The First Traveling Saleslady was a 1956 American film starring Ginger Rogers and Carol Channing. The cast includes James Arness, and a young Clint Eastwood . Commercially unsuccessful, it was among the films that helped to close RKO Pictures.-External links:...
  
  (1956)**
• Great Day in the Morning
  Great Day in the Morning
  Great Day In The Morning is a 1956 film. It was directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Robert Stack and Virginia Mayo, set in 1860s Denver.-Plot and overview:...
  
  (1956)*
• The Americano
  The Americano
  The Americano is a 1916 film directed by John Emerson and starring Douglas Fairbanks. This was Fairbanks' last film for Triangle Film Corporation.-Cast:*Douglas Fairbanks as Blaze Derringer*Alma Rubens as Juana deCastalar...
  
  (1955)
• The Road to Denver (1955)*
• Suddenly
  Suddenly (1954 film)
  Suddenly is an American film noir  directed by Lewis Allen with a screenplay written by Richard Sale. The drama features Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden, James Gleason and Nancy Gates, among others....
  
  (1954)*
• Jubilee Trail (1954)*
• Taza, Son of Cochise
  Taza, Son of Cochise
  Taza, Son of Cochise is a 1954 western film directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Rock Hudson and Barbara Rush. The film was shot in 3D, but only released in 2D at the time.-Plot synopsis:...
  
  (1954)
• Inferno
  Inferno (1953 film)
  Inferno is a 1953 American film noir drama/thriller directed by Roy Ward Baker, shot in Technicolor and shown in 3-D Dimension and stereophonic sound on prints for the few theaters equipped for that sound system in 1953.-Plot:...
  
   (1953)
• Born to the Saddle
  Born to the Saddle
  -Plot:Bent on revenge for the death of his father and the theft of their ranch, young Bill Walton rides into town seeking the aid of his uncle. As he rides into town, he takes a bullet meant for gambler Matt Daggett and across the street lies his uncle, victim of the gambler's gun...
  
  (1953)
• The Silver Whip (1953)
• Horizons West
  Horizons West
  Horizons West is a 1952 Western film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Robert Ryan.-Cast:* Robert Ryan - Dan Hammond* Julie Adams - Mrs Lorna Hardin * Rock Hudson - Neil Hammond* Judith Braun - Sally Eaton...
  
  (1952)*
• Wait 'Til the Sun Shines, Nellie (1952)
• The Frontier Phantom (1952)*
• Distant Drums
  Distant Drums
  Distant Drums is a 1951 film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Gary Cooper. It is set during the Second Seminole War in the 1840s, with Cooper playing an Army captain who destroys a fort held by the Seminole Indians then retreats into the Everglades while under chase.The actual location of the...
  
  (1951)*
• The Red Badge of Courage
  The Red Badge of Courage (film)
  The Red Badge of Courage is a 1951 war film made by MGM. It was directed by John Huston and produced by Gottfried Reinhardt with Dore Schary as executive producer. The screenplay is by John Huston, adapted by Albert Band from the Stephen Crane novel of the same name. The cinematography is by...
  
   (1951)*
• Red Mountain (1951)
• Drums in the Deep South
  Drums in the Deep South
  Drums in the Deep South is an American Civil War war film designed and directed by William Cameron Menzies, produced by independent company King Brothers Productions, filmed in SuperCineColor and released by RKO Pictures in September 1951.-Plot:...
  
  (1951)
• His Kind of Woman
  His Kind of Woman
  His Kind of Woman is a black-and-white 1951 film noir starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell. The film features supporting roles by Vincent Price, Raymond Burr, and Charles McGraw...
  
  (1951)*
• Vengeance Valley
  Vengeance Valley
  Vengeance Valley is a Western film starring Burt Lancaster, based on the novel by Luke Short. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer failed to renew the copyright on this film in 1978, so it is now in the public domain in the United States.-Plot:...
  
  (1951)*
• Rawhide
  Rawhide (1951 film)
  Rawhide is a 1951 western film made by Twentieth Century-Fox. It was directed by Henry Hathaway and produced by Samuel G. Engel from a screenplay by Dudley Nichols. The music score was by Sol Kaplan and the song "A Rollin' Stone" by Lionel Newman. The cinematography was by Milton R...
  
  (1951)
• Return of the Frontiersman (1950)
• Intruder in the Dust
  Intruder in the Dust
  Intruder in the Dust is a novel by the Nobel Prize-winning American author William Faulkner publishedin 1948.The novel focuses on Lucas Beauchamp, a black farmer accused of murdering a white man. He is exonerated through the efforts of black and white teenagers and a spinster from a...
  
  (1949)*
• Roseanna McCoy
  Roseanna McCoy
  Roseanna McCoy is a 1949 American drama film directed by Irving Reis. The screenplay by John Collier, based on the 1947 novel of the same title by Alberta Hannum, is a romanticized and semi-fictionalized account of the Hatfield-McCoy feud.-Plot:...
  
  (1949)
• Cover-Up
  Cover Up (film)
  Cover Up is a 1949 black-and-white mystery film written by and starring Dennis O'Keefe. O'Keefe is credited as screenwriter Jonathan Rix. The murder mystery takes place during the Christmas season.-Plot:...
  
  (1949)
• Dynamite (1949)*
• Outlaw Country (1949)
• Gunning for Justice (1948)
• Unknown Island
  Unknown Island
  Unknown island is a 1948 adventure film directed by Jack Bernhard. The Film Stars Virginia Grey, Phillip Reed, Richard Denning and Barton MacLane. Ray Corrigan also stars in this film, playing a Giant sloth...
  
  (1948)**
• Sunset Carson Rides Again
  Sunset Carson Rides Again
  - Cast :*Sunset Carson*Al Terry as Bob Ward aka Kansas Kid*Pat Starling as Joan Carson*Dan White as Sheriff Norton*Pat Gleason as Referee Brown*John L...
  
  (1948)
• Station West
  Station West
  Station West is a black-and-white 1948 film based on a Western novel by Luke Short. The film, considered film noir as well as a Western, was directed by Sidney Lanfield, who was known for directing comedies such as The Lemon Drop Kid. Station Wests cinematographer was Harry J. Wild...
  
  (1948)*
• Red River (1948)*
• Four Faces West
  Four Faces West
  Four Faces West is a 1948 Western film starring Joel McCrea, his real-life wife Frances Dee, and Charles Bickford. It is based on the novel Pasó por aquí by Eugene Manlove Rhodes...
  
  (1948)
• Shaggy (1948)
• Albuquerque (1948)
• The Sea of Grass
  The Sea of Grass
  The Sea of Grass is a 1936 novel by Conrad Richter. It is set in New Mexico in the late 19th century, and concerns the clash between rich ranchers, whose cattle range freely through the vast sea of grass, and the farmers, or "nesters," who build fences and turn the sod. It is an epic depiction of...
  
  (1947)*
• Duel in the Sun (1946)*
• The Yearling (1946)*
• Gun Town (1946)
• Trail to Vengeance (1945)*
• San Antonio
  San Antonio (film)
  San Antonio is a 1945 western Technicolor film starring Errol Flynn and Alexis Smith. The movie was written by W. R. Burnett and Alan Le May, and directed by David Butler as well as uncredited Robert Florey and Raoul Walsh....
  
  (1945)*
• Beyond the Pecos (1945)*
• The Return of the Durango Kid (1945)*
• Rough Ridin' Justice (1945)*
• The Big Bonanza
  The Big Bonanza
  The Big Bonanza is a 1944 American film starring Jane Frazee, Richard Arlen, Gabby Hayes, and Bobby Driscoll....
  
  (1944)*
• Harmony Trail (1944)
• Black Arrow (1944)*
• The Utah Kid
  The Utah Kid (1944 film)
  - Cast :*Hoot Gibson as Marshal Hoot Higgins*Bob Steele as Bob Roberts*Beatrice Gray as Marjorie Carter*Ralph Lewis as Cheyenne Kent*Evelyn Eaton as Dolores*Mauritz Hugo as Barton*George Morrell as Sheriff*Dan White as Henchman Slim...
  
  (1944)
• The Invisible Man's Revenge
  The Invisible Man's Revenge
  The Invisible Man's Revenge is a 1944 horror film directed by Ford Beebe and written by Bertram Millhauser. It stars John Carradine as a mad scientist who tests his experiment on Jon Hall....
  
  (1944)*
• Arizona Whirlwind (1944)
• Voodoo Man
  Voodoo Man
  - Plot summary :George Zucco runs a filling station in the sticks. But really, it's a front! George is helping Bela Lugosi capture comely young ladies, and transfer their life essences to his long-dead wife. Also assisting Bela is John Carradine, who lovingly shepherds the leftover zombie girls and...
  
  (1944)
• Marshal of Gunsmoke (1944)*
• Westward Bound (1944)
• The Phantom (1943)*
• Smart Guy (1943)
• False Colors (1943)*
• Boss of Rawhide (1943)
• Outlaws of Stampede Past (1943)
• Blazing Guns (1943)
• Arizona Trail (1943)
• Trail of Terror (1943)*
• Fighting Valley (1943)*
• Lady of Burlesque
  Lady of Burlesque
  Lady of Burlesque is a 1943 American mystery film starring Barbara Stanwyck and Michael O'Shea, based on the novel The G-String Murders written by famous strip tease artist Gypsy Rose Lee...
  
  (1943)*
• Juke Girl (1942)*
• Overland Stagecoach (1942)*
• Sheriff of Sage Valley
  Sheriff of Sage Valley
  - Cast :*Buster Crabbe as Billy the Kid / Kansas Ed Bonney*Al St. John as Fuzzy*Dave O'Brien as Jeff*Maxine Leslie as Janet Morley - Casino Singer*Charles King as Sloane, Casino Proprieter*John Merton as Nick Gaynor - Kansas Henchman...
  
  (1942)*
• Prairie Pioneers
  Prairie Pioneers
  Prairie Pioneers is a 1941 American Western "Three Mesquiteers" B-movie directed by Lester Orlebeck.- Cast :* Robert Livingston as Stony Brooke* Bob Steele as Tucson Smith* Rufe Davis as Lullaby Joslin* Esther Estrella as Dolores Ortega...
  
  (1941)*
• The Grapes of Wrath
  The Grapes of Wrath (film)
  The Grapes of Wrath is a 1940 drama film directed by John Ford. It was based on John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. The screenplay was written by Nunnally Johnson and the executive producer was Darryl F...
  
  (1940)*
• Our Town
  Our Town
  Our Town is a three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. It is a character story about an average town's citizens in the early twentieth century as depicted through their everyday lives...
  
  (1940)*
• Days of Jesse James
  Days of Jesse James
  Days of Jesse James is a 1939 American film directed by Joseph Kane and starring Roy Rogers.-Cast:*Roy Rogers as Roy Rogers*George "Gabby" Hayes as Gabby Whittaker*Don "Red" Barry as Jesse James*Pauline Moore as Mary Whittaker...
  
  (1939)*
• Destry Rides Again
  Destry Rides Again
  Destry Rides Again is a western starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. The supporting cast includes Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger, Brian Donlevy, Allen Jenkins, Irene Hervey, Billy Gilbert, Bill Cody, Jr., and Una Merkel. The original Max Brand novel was translated into an "oater" with the...
  
  (1939)*
• In Old Monterey (1939)*
• The Law Comes to Texas (1939)*
• Rough Rider's Round-Up (1939)*
• Prairie Moon (1938)*

External links

• http://www.b-westerns.com/villan33.htm at The Old Corral http://www.b-westerns.com/