MICHAEL WHITE

8 Mar

(16 January 1936 - 7 March 2016)

Chiefly known as a theatre impresario responsible for such delights as Jack Gelber’s druggie drama The Connection, Son of Oblomov with Spike Milligan, Oh! Calcutta! Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, Edna Everage in Housewife Superstar, A Chorus Line, Sleuth and Deathtrap, Michael White also entered film and television production, beginning with Oh! Calcutta! in 1972, based on the theatrical sex revue. He then produced Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the film version of his hit Frankenstein spoof in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Peter Cook and Dudley Moore appeared in The Hound of the Baskervilles, a comic version of Conan Doyle that wasn’t funny, although it was packed with British comedy talent including Kenneth Williams as Sir Henry. Shock Treatment was Richard O’Brien’s sequel to Rocky Horror but it never reached the giddy heights of the original. Moonlighting was a better bet, Jerzy Skolimowski’s tale of Polish workers in London in 1982, with Jeremy Irons. Other films from White the producer include White Mischief with Joss Ackland, Sarah Miles and Greta Scacchi as ex-pats in Kenya. The Comic Strip repertory company worked on TV and in the cinema, the latter’s films included The Supergrass, Eat the Rich and The Pope Must Die. Perhaps Michael White’s best film was Enigma, the story of the code-breakers at Bletchley Park, with a screenplay by Tom Stoppard based on Robert Harris’s book. White always claimed he only put money into projects he himself would enjoy. They didn’t always turn up trumps but he had a lot of fun along the way to becoming bankrupt.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

MICHAEL WHITE

GEORGE MARTIN

NANCY REAGAN (née Davis)