Dan White
1908-1980
Known for To Kill a Mockingbird, Touch of Evil, Gone with the Wind.
Biography
Dan White (March 25, 1908 - July 7, 1980) was born to George & Orpha White about one mile from the Suwannee River in Falmouth, Florida. Falmouth was a small sleepy town then, as it is still today. He was one of 12 siblings who were moved to Lakeland sometime around WW I. Lakeland is where Dan was introduced into show business in 1922 at the age of 14. He ran away from home when the show moved on and traveled thousands of miles throughout the South in tent, minstrel, vaudeville and theater shows. Dan performed on stage with his brother Willard for nine years with a stock company in Tampa's old Rialto Theater. Frances Langford worked with him during this time and it was Dan who told her to go to Hollywood. During this period he met Matilda "Tilda" Mae Spivey on the stage, and married her on February 25, 1933. Tilda had a two-year-old child from a previous marriage by the name of Arthur "Art" Grant Gifford. Times were tough, so Dan had to get out of show business for a while to make some real money. In 1934 he found work with the Conservation Corps in Homestead, Florida, but show business was always in his heart. Dan knew he had what it took to "make it" in Hollywood, so he decided to make the move to California in 1935. They packed all their possessions into their Ford and started the long, arduous trek across the country. This was during the Great Depression, and money was very tight. They had to stop frequently in various cities across the country to make extra money to continue their journey. Dan was a very good auto mechanic and never had a problem finding this type of work wherever he went. This skill paid off once during the filming of To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). During the "mob" scene, one of the cars they were to drive away in would not start. Dan opened the hood, stepped onto the front bumper, and had the car running in no time flat.
Movie Credits
Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959)
The Americano (1955)
Four Faces West (1948)
Arizona Whirlwind (1944)
Arizona Trail (1943)
This Earth Is Mine (1959)
Cover Up (1949)
Westward Bound (1944)
The Road to Denver (1955)
Distant Drums (1951)
Boss of Rawhide (1943)
The Last Hunt (1956)
Blazing Guns (1943)
Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (1966)
Station West (1948)
Red Tomahawk (1967)
The Proud Rebel (1958)
Great Day in the Morning (1956)
Albuquerque (1948)
The Phantom (1943)
Roseanna McCoy (1949)
Inferno (1953)
Dynamite (1949)
They Call It Murder (1971)
Taza, Son of Cochise (1954)
Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie (1952)
Red Mountain (1951)
El Paso (1949)
Voodoo Man (1944)
Suddenly (1954)
Apache Uprising (1965)
Texas (1941)
Beyond Tomorrow (1940)
Ma Barker's Killer Brood (1960)
Our Town (1940)
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
Rawhide (1951)
The Walls of Jericho (1948)
The Sheepman (1958)
I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes (1948)
San Antonio (1945)
Border Patrol (1943)
The Howards of Virginia (1940)
False Colors (1943)
The Lone Rider in Ghost Town (1941)
The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944)
The Lonely Man (1957)
Gunmen from Laredo (1959)
The Tall Men (1955)
Too Many Girls (1940)
Touch of Evil (1958)
Days of Jesse James (1939)
Born to Be Wild (1938)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Intruder in the Dust (1949)
Red River (1948)
In Old Monterey (1939)
Rough Riders' Round-up (1939)
The Lusty Men (1952)
Lonely are the Brave (1962)
Duel in the Sun (1946)
The Kansan (1943)
Deadwood Dick (1940)
The Country Girl (1954)
Destry Rides Again (1939)
Horizons West (1952)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
The Tall Target (1951)
I Married a Witch (1942)
The Gunfighter (1950)
His Kind of Woman (1951)
Adventures of Red Ryder (1940)
The Red Badge of Courage (1951)
Silver River (1948)
