MICHAEL WHITE

(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