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Alex Hyde-White

Born in London on 30 January 1959, Alex Hyde-White is an American-British actor whose career has moved between television, studio pictures, independent filmmaking and work behind the camera. He is the son of stage manager and actor Ethel Drew and actor Wilfrid Hyde-White, and grew up in Palm Springs, California. After attending Georgetown University for a year, he left to pursue acting. Hyde-White was under contract to Universal Pictures by the age of 18. His first television job amounted to a single line delivered to Jack Klugman on Quincy M.E., but he returned to the series in several episodes as different characters. Appearances in Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century followed, placing him firmly within the busy world of late-1970s and early-1980s genre television. His film roles include a younger version of Henry Jones Sr. in Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Dick Kesner, the divorce lawyer, in Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can. In Pretty Woman, he played the polo-playing grandson of Ralph Bellamy’s character. These are supporting parts, but they show the dependable versatility that has allowed Hyde-White to fit comfortably into adventure, comedy and drama. One of the more unusual chapters in his career came in 1994, when he played Reed Richards, better known as Mister Fantastic, in The Fantastic Four. The low-budget film was never released, although bootleg copies circulated and developed a following. More than three decades later, Hyde-White and his co-stars made cameo appearances in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Hyde-White’s work also extends to screenwriting, directing and producing. Through his production company TMG, he produced the 2002 independent romantic drama Pursuit of Happiness. It is a varied career, built not around one defining screen persona but around a willingness to move between character roles, major productions and independent projects.