Alice White: Biography

Blonde "boop-a-doop," silent film leading lady Alice White worked as a Hollywood secretary and script girl before getting her acting break in The Sea Tiger (1927). White's popularity hit her peak just before the silent films gave way to the talkies. Her voice matched her screen image perfectly, and she made a successful switchover to sound. Unfortunately, the "flapper" roles in which she specialized went out of fashion; also, at least according to one of her co-stars, White was terrified of the microphone and found it more difficult to perform in each successive film. By the mid-'30s, White was playing brassy "bad girl" second leads in lesser pictures; by the 1940s, movie opportunities dried up and she went back to work as a secretary. Alice White made her last screen appearance in a tiny role in Joan Crawford's Flamingo Road (1949). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide