Daniel White was born on May 22, 1912, in Malakoff, a charming suburb of Paris, France, where his Scottish ancestors had settled. Growing up in West Yorkshire, surrounded by the breathtaking moors, Daniel's family later relocated to Paris when he was still young, and he was initially expected to follow in the family's textile business footsteps. However, after the company's unfortunate demise, Daniel was fortunate enough to pursue his passion for music.
During World War II, Daniel worked as an interpreter with the British army and narrowly escaped death during the evacuation of Dunkirk. Following the war, he played piano in nightclubs and cabarets, and in 1947, he composed his first film soundtrack. Daniel's remarkable talent for music also led him to write jingles for numerous 1950s TV commercials, including iconic spots for Polo and Kit-E-Kat, which aired on British television.
Daniel's extensive filmography includes composing scores for many movies made by the maverick Spanish exploitation filmmaker Jesús Franco, starting with La mano de un hombre muerto in 1962. He also worked with directors Pierre Chevalier and León Klimovsky, and under various pseudonyms, he recorded a vast array of albums, including comedy records as Emile Doryphore, rock records as Guy Forlane, and organ music as Virginie Morgane.
Notably, Daniel was a remarkably fast and prolific musician, capable of recording 12 tracks for an album in a single day. He was particularly inspired by the works of Debussy and Ravel, and he had a special fondness for composing music for the human voice. Besides composing scores for Franco, Daniel also acted in a handful of Franco's films, often playing the role of a police inspector, and even worked as a production assistant on a few features during Franco's busy early-1970s period in Portugal.
Daniel White passed away at the age of 85 on May 24, 1997.
