Peter White, ‘Boys within the Band’ and ‘All My Kids’ Actor, Dies at 86

Peter White, who portrayed Linc Tyler on the ABC cleaning soap opera All My Kids over 4 many years and starred within the unique stage manufacturing and movie adaptation of The Boys within the Band, has died. He was 86.

White died Wednesday at his dwelling in Los Angeles of melanoma, his All My Kids castmate Kathleen Noone (Ellen Shepherd Dalton on the present) instructed The Hollywood Reporter.

White additionally performed Arthur Cates, the legal professional for Sable Colby (Stephanie Beacham), on the primary two seasons of the ABC primetime cleaning soap The Colbys in 1985-86, and he recurred because the deceased physician dad of the characters performed by Swoosie Kurtz, Sela Ward, Patricia Kalember and Julianne Phillips on the 1991-96 NBC drama Sisters.

White first portrayed Lincoln Tyler, son of stern Pine Valley matriarch Phoebe Tyler (Ruth Warrick), from 1974-80 — he was the third actor within the function, beginning with James Karen — then returned for stints in ’81, ’84, ’86, ‘95 and 2005.

White starred as Alan McCarthy in Mart Crowley’s The Boys within the Band, which opened off-Broadway at Theater 4 in April 1968. The drama revolves round a gaggle of homosexual males attending a party in a Manhattan house for his or her buddy Harold (Leonard Frey), although it’s left unclear whether or not Alan was/is homosexual.

Till then, most homosexual characters in American theater had been veiled or demonized.

“Opening night time, none of us knew what we had,” White recalled in a 2008 interview. “All of us simply thought, ‘It’s a play, it’s one thing new, it’s completely different and it’s good.’ It was a 100% homosexual viewers — after which the following day, it went loopy!

“We bought a name to come back to the theater early, as a result of there was such a crowd across the theater, you couldn’t get close to it. Everybody on the time wished to name it a homosexual play — [I always thought] it wasn’t [so much] a homosexual play [as] it was a play with homosexual characters.”

When Crowley produced and tailored his drama for the landmark 1970 movie that was directed by William Friedkin and launched by Nationwide Normal Footage, White and his co-stars got here alongside for the trip.

Born in New York Metropolis on Oct. 10, 1937, White began out on soaps by taking part in Jerry Ames on CBS’ The Secret Storm in 1965-66, then guest-starred on an episode of N.Y.P.D. in 1968.

He was working alongside Myrna Loy in a touring manufacturing of Barefoot within the Park when he was supplied the Boys within the Band alternative.

“Issues had been form of actually shifting for me; I used to be doing so nicely, and I assumed, ‘I don’t want this sort of threat,’” he recalled. “I talked to Myrna — she grew to become my mentor — and she or he stated, ‘Peter, if you’ll be an actor, you’ll need to take some dangers in your life.’”

The play would run for greater than 1,000 performances.

White returned to the cleaning soap world in 1971 with a flip as Dr. Sanford Hiller on CBS’ Love Is a Many-Splendored Factor, and he additionally appeared within the Robert Mulligan-directed movie The Pursuit of Happiness that yr.

He made it to Broadway in 1975 in P.S. Your Cat Is Useless, although that play lasted simply 16 performances.

White guest-starred on dozens of TV reveals through the years, from Cannon, Hill Road Blues, The Jeffersons, Dynasty and Knots Touchdown to Star Trek: Deep Area 9, Mad About You, The X-Recordsdata, The West Wing and Chilly Case.

His movie résumé additionally included Dave (1993), Mom (1996), Flubber (1997), Armageddon (1998), 13 Days (2000) and First Daughter (2004). Lately, he served as an appearing coach for these making ready to audition.

Noone stated White was not married and had no youngsters. His demise was first reported by the SoapHub web site.