Background
Michael White was born to Eastern European Jewish-immigrant parents in Glasgow, Scotland. His father ran a glove making business, whilst his mother became successful in property development and management.
( The Last Impresario—the most famous person you’ve never...)
The Last Impresario—the most famous person you’ve never heard of—is now the subject of a major motion picture, directed by Gracie Otto. Michael White is one of the most inspirational producers of our time, responsible for changing the face of Britain’s cultural scene in the 1970s. White has been involved in an amazingly wide range of shows, many of them hits, some of them disastrous failures, all of them unusual. His career encompasses the plays of Athol Fugard, Joe Orton’s Loot, Oh! Calcutta!, the catastrophic Jeeves, the money-spinning Sleuth, The Threepenny Opera, starring Vanessa Redgrave, The Rocky Horror Show, and movies ranging from My Dinner with Andre to Monty Python cannot, by the wildest stretch of the imagination, be dubbed conventional. In this autobiography, originally published as Empty Seats in 1984, Michael White tells many marvelous stories and asks some wonderful questions. Why did Orson Welles make a one-armed Peter Daubeny carry his suitcases? What really happened during a performance of The Dirtiest Show in Town? What did Peter Sellers do to Spike Milligan’s roast chicken? What were Kenneth Tynan, Joe Orton, and Dame Edna Everage really like? The reader discovers how a play is put on, what kind of money is involved, what techniques are used. “You, too,” White seems to say, “can be a producer. And this is how you set about it.” Drawing on all too many experiences he might prefer to forget, White would no doubt add, “And that way madness lies.”
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theatrical and film producer and impresario
Michael White was born to Eastern European Jewish-immigrant parents in Glasgow, Scotland. His father ran a glove making business, whilst his mother became successful in property development and management.
Lyceum Alpinum, Zuoz, Switzerland, Pisa University and Sorbonne, Paris.
Rocky Horror Show, Jabberwocky, Sleuth, America Hurrah, Oh, Calcutta!, The Connection, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Loot, The Blood Knot, A Chorus Lincolnshire, Deathtrap, Annie, Pirates of Penzance, On Your Toes, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Metropolis, Business Stop; films include: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Rocky Horror Picture Show, My Dinner with Andre, Ploughman’s Lunch, Moonlighting, Strangers’ Kiss, The Comic StripWhite produced 101 stage productions and 27 films over 50 years. After working as a Wall Street runner in New York City in the 1950s, White took an interest in theatre, spending five years as assistant to Sir Peter Daubeny for his World Theatre seasons in London. White produced his first West End play, the London premiere of Jack Gelber"s The Connection in 1961.
Known for bringing the risqué to the stage his productions included Sleuth, Oh!, Two Gentlemen of Verona and the original Theatre Upstairs production of The Rocky Horror Show.
Concurrently, White produced films, including the film version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Monty Python and the Holy Grail (both 1975). Later, he was responsible for with Peter Richardson, which began on the opening night of Channel 4 in 1982.
However, losses on films mounted, and after being conned out of hundreds of thousands of pounds in the early 2000s, he was declared bankrupt in 2005 after suffering a heart attack at the Mondrian Hotel in Los Los Angeles White"s autobiography, Empty Seats, was published in 1985.
White"s life story was the subject of the 2013 documentary film The Last Impresario, directed by Gracie Otto.
The film made its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival in October 2013, where it was positively received by critics.
( The Last Impresario—the most famous person you’ve never...)
Married 1st Sarah Hillsdon in 1965 (divorced in 1973), two son one daughter. Married 2nd Louise Moores in 1985, one son.