Al White

American actor Allen Cliffton White was born in Houston, Texas. He grew up in San Francisco and began his working life as a janitor in Golden Gate Park while accumulating his first acting experience with local community theatres. An early starring role in the prison drama 'The Ballad of Dangerous George' led to White being invited to join the ensemble of the American Conservatory Theatre. In the course of the next three years, he appeared in seventeen productions, including works by Shakespeare, Dickens and Williams. He originated the role of Memphis Lee in August Wilson's 1990 urban play 'Two Trains Running' which ended up on to Broadway and won the actor a coveted Theatre World Award for Outstanding New Talent. White has also been lauded for his performance as Charles Henry "Jack" Blackburn (1883 -1942), boxing champion and trainer of 1937 World Heavyweight Champion Joe Louis, in Steven Drukman's play 'In this Corner'. On screen from 1970, White has been prolific on both the small and the big screen, often seen as police or military officers. He is, however, best known as the Second Jive Dude in the comedy spoof Airplane! (1980), a role for which he prepared by studying library books on black idioms and slang, including the 1972 lexicon 'Black English' by J. L. Dillard. Along with actor Norman Alexander Gibbs (playing the First Jive Dude), he spent hours instructing white actress Barbara Billingsley, the passenger who (incongruously) translates the jive-talk to a puzzled stewardess. White's many TV roles have included a recurring appearance in The Gangster Chronicles (1981) (as Harlem policy banker Big Joe Isson) and supporting guest spots on Quincy, M.E. (1976), The A-Team (1983), Hill Street Blues (1981), Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983), MacGyver (1985), Simon & Simon (1981), JAG (1995) and Criminal Minds (2005). White has also sidelined as a writer of both humorous and dramatic poetry.