Jesse White (January 3, 1917 – January 9, 1997) was an American actor, best known for portraying Ol' Lonely, the Maytag repairman, from 1967 to 1988.
As a stage actor, he had roles in plays such as The Moon is Down, My Dear Public, Harvey, Kelly and The Front Page.
His film credentials include the 1950 and 1972 versions of Harvey, Callaway Went Thataway, Designing Woman, Marjorie Morningstar, Three Blondes in His Life, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Reluctant Astronaut (with Don Knotts) and Matinee.
In television, White made appearances in shows such as Make Room for Daddy, The 20th Century Fox Hour, The Real McCoys, Perry Mason, The Donna Reed Show, The Andy Griffith Show, The Ann Sothern Show, The Twilight Zone, The Jack Benny Program, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, Love, American Style, Happy Days, The Love Boat, Hart to Hart, MacGyver and Seinfeld.
White was the first to voice the title character of Inspector Gadget, which later went to Gary Owens and finally Don Adams (Frank Welker also had a brief contribution). He voiced Claudius Crow in Linus the Lionhearted and Chesty in Pandemonium. He played multiple characters in the Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America series and The Funny Side of Bonnie and Clyde. He also did voiceover in Calvin and the Colonel, Jonny Quest, These Are the Days and Devlin.
Voiceover roles[]
Garfield and Friends[]
Trivia[]
- According to Mark Evanier, White was considered for a recurring role as Howie. Due to White's declining health, the role was recreated and re-cast to Carl Ballantine.
- Lorenzo Music had been considered as White's replacement as Ol' Lonely. Music declined, with Gordon Jump taking over the role. Music later regretted his decision after finding out how much money White had earned from Maytag.[1]