Sammy White (actor)

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Sammy White (May 28, 1894 – March 3, 1960) was an American vaudeville song-and-dance comedian who appeared in a few films. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island. He appeared with Lew Clayton, as Clayton and White, in the Broadway show Schubert Gaieties of 1919.

Sammy White

Born	May 28, 1894(1894-05-28) Providence, Rhode Island
Died	March 3, 1960 (aged 65) Beverly Hills, California
Occupation	Stage, film, television actor
Spouse(s)	Eva Puck, Beatrice White

With his first wife, Eva Puck, White appeared in vaudeville as Puck and White. They starred in the original Broadway stage version of the classic musical Show Boat (1927). In Show Boat, he played the role of comic dancer Frank Schultz, and Puck played the role of Ellie May Chipley, who eventually marries Frank. In 1932, they reprised their roles in the first Broadway revival of the show. However, by the time the Universal Pictures film version was made in 1936, White and Puck had divorced, so the role of Ellie went to Queenie Smith, with White repeating his performance as Frank in the film. White later married Broadway actress Beatrice White (1888-1963).

White also had a notable supporting role in the Spencer Tracy - Katharine Hepburn film Pat and Mike (1952), as the man to whom Tracy says (when talking about Hepburn), "Not much meat on her, but what there is, is cherce!" White and Puck also appeared in a short film made by Lee De Forest in his Phonofilm sound-on-film process, and premiered at the Rivoli Theater in New York City on 15 April 1923. This film records their comic routine "Opera Vs. Jazz" and is preserved in the Maurice Zouary collection at the Library of Congress.

White played himself in the 1957 biopic The Helen Morgan Story, the biography of Helen Morgan, famous torch singer who had also appeared as the mulatto Julie LaVerne in the three productions of Show Boat mentioned above. He died on March 3, 1960 in Beverly Hills, California.