White, who was raised in San Francisco, California from an early age, decided to embark on an acting career after he had been employed as a janitor in Golden Gate Park for eight years. White has won a number of awards for his theatre work. He later became a member of the American Conservatory Theater company for three years, performing in more than seventeen plays, from Shakespeare to Playwright Tennessee Williams, who was Playwright in residence at the time. White originated the role of the military officer in Williams' play This Is (An Entertainment). In 1976, the group went to the Soviet Union for a bicentennial cultural exchange, performing at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, as well as in Leningrad and Riga.
