Barry White

Overview

Born
September 12, 1944 · Galveston, Texas, USA
Died
July 4, 2003 · Los Angeles, California, USA (kidney failure and hypertension)
Birth name
Barrence Eugene Carter
Nicknames
- The Maestro
- The Walrus of Love
Height
6′ 3½″ (1.92 m)

Barry White first made his mark in the music business in the 1960s as a session musician, even serving for a spell as an A&R man for a small, independent Los Angeles record label. He first hit it big in 1973 with a series of albums and singles emphasizing lush orchestrations and elaborate production values, over which he laid down his big bass voice. In 1973 and 1974 alone, he sold US$16 million worth of records--not only on his own but also as the conductor and composer of instrumental records (as The Love Unlimited Orchestra) and as the primary producer and songwriter of the female vocal trio Love Unlimited (one of whom, Glodean White, became his second wife). 1974 was a prolific year for White, during which he composed the score of Together Brothers (1974) and acted in Coonskin (1974).

After a particularly pronounced fallow period in the 1980s, he rebounded in the 1990s with a series of critically and commercially acclaimed records and he beefed up his presence on TV somewhat with a famous guest appearance on The Simpsons (1989), a recurring role on Ally McBeal (1997), and a series of commercials in which he parodied his image and persona.
- IMDb mini biography by: W.B.

Had been almost 6' 4" since he was 14 years old.
Changed his last name from Carter to "White" when he first met his father.
Had a beard since he was 13 years old.
Posthumously inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame on September 20, 2004.
In August 1999, White was force to cancel a month's worth of tour dates owing to exhaustion, high blood pressure and a hectic schedule.

I'll come to you with gifts of knowledge, wisdom and truth.
Disco deserved a better name, a beautiful name because it was a beautiful art form. It made the consumer beautiful. The consumer was the star.
I kept my babies fed. I could have dumped them, but I didn't. I decided that whatever trip I was on, they were going with me. You're looking at a real daddy.
There's people making babies to my music. That's nice.
When I saw corruption, I was forced to find truth on my own. I couldn't swallow the hypocrisy.