Barbara White (actress)

Barbara White (11 December 1923 – 6 February 2013) was a British actress. She played several leading roles during a brief film career during the 1940s.^[1] She also appeared on stage in Lesley Storm's Great Day amongst others.^[2]

Barbara White
Born	(1923-12-11)11 December 1923 Sheerness, Kent, England
Died	6 February 2013(2013-02-06) (aged 89) Oakham, Rutland, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1944–1950 (film & TV)
Spouse	Kieron Moore ​ (m. 1947)​
Children	Theresa (Soeur Miriame-Therese), Casey, Colm, Seán

Life

From the age of ten, White viewed a future career as a concert pianist, but it was identified the hands of the 'pocket Venus' could not stretch to the required keys.^[3] Instead she then began training at a dramatic school ran by her aunt.^[3] In the 1948 movie This Was a Woman, Russian-born composer Mischa Spoliansky (1898–1985) wrote a concerto especially for White to play, additional to several other compositions she played in the film.^[3]

White was described as 5 feet 1.5 inches (1.562 m), dark curly hair, and brown eyes.^[4]

As part of stage superstition, White stated in 1947 that she wore an ankle bracelet of tiny silver hearts, a token from an RAF officer who had been shot down in World War II over Germany.^[5] She owned a black spaniel called 'Notchka'.^[6]

Working with the J. Arthur Rank film studio, it was reported she received the biggest fan mail from Australia for a female actor.^[7]

On 4 December 1947 at St Patrick's Church, Soho Square, London,^[7] she married the Irish actor Kieron Moore (1924–2007) whom she acted with in The Voice Within (1946) and Mine Own Executioner (1947). The reception was in the Savoy Hotel.^[8] They went on to have a daughter and three sons.^[9] Her husband retired from acting in 1994 and they moved to France.^[9] He died in 2007 while White died in 2013.

Selected filmography

• It Happened One Sunday (1944), as Irish servant girl Moya Malone
• The Voice Within (1946), as Kathleen
• Quiet Weekend (1946), as nearly 18-year-old house guest Miranda Bute
• While the Sun Shines (1947), as Lady Elisabeth Randall
• Mine Own Executioner (1947), as Molly Lucian, where Moore played her on-screen husband
• This Was a Woman (1948), as Fenella Russell