'All My Children' Star Peter White Dead at 86
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Peter White and Francesca James in a still from 'All My Children'
Peter White, who played Linc Tyler on the popular soap opera All My Children for several decades, has died. He was 86.
Castmate Kathleen Noone, who played Ellen Shepherd Dalton on the long-running series, confirmed his passing to The Hollywood Reporter, sharing that he passed at his home in Los Angeles on Nov. 1. following a battle with melanoma.
He was the third actor to step into Lincoln Tyler's shoes, appearing from 1974 to 1980 before returning for episodes in 1981, 1984, 1986, 1995, and, finally, 2005.
The actor is also well known for his role in the original stage production of The Boys in the Band, as well as its following film adaptation. He starred as Alan McCarthy in the off-Broadway opening of the drama detailing a group of gay men attending a birthday party in a Manhattan apartment, though it was never made clear if his character, in particular, was gay. In 1968, when the play premiered, gay characters in American theater tended to be "veiled or demonized," as described by THR.
In a 2008 interview, White recalled how he and the rest of the cast and crew had no idea what would become of the show on opening night.
“We all just thought, ‘It’s a play, it’s something new, it’s different and it’s good.’ It was a 100 percent gay audience — and then the next day, it went crazy," he recalled. “We got a call to come to the theater early, because there was such a crowd around the theater, you couldn’t get near it. Everyone at the time wanted to call it a gay play — [I always thought] it wasn’t [so much] a gay play [as] it was a play with gay characters.”
He returned, along with the rest of his costars, for the 1970 film version, and made his Broadway debut in 1975's P.S. Your Cat Is Dead, though the production would only play 16 performances, in comparison to over 1,000 performances of The Boys in the Band.
He guest-starred in shows like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Mad About You, The X-Files, The West Wing and Cold Case, and could be seen in films like Flubber and First Daughter.
In his later years, he veered away from camera work and coached other actors preparing for auditions.
White was not married and had no children.
