John Sylvester White
American actor (1919-1988)
John Sylvester White Jr. (October 31, 1919 – September 11, 1988) was an American actor. Best known as Mr. Michael Woodman in Welcome Back, Kotter (1975–1979).
Early life
John Sylvester White was born in 1919 on Halloween in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but grew up in the new town of Colmar Manor, Maryland, a bedroom community suburb of northeast Washington, D.C., where his father, an attorney also of the same name, was elected the first mayor of the community in July 1927.
Acting career
Before becoming known in the 1970s as the assistant principal (and later head principal) Mr. Woodman on the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter, White had been best known for his starring role as Keith Barron, the first husband of Mary Stuart's character Joanne Gardner on the television soap opera Search for Tomorrow from 1951 to 1952. Starting in 1970, he had guest appearances on various television shows, including Kojak and Baretta, and TV movies such as The Marcus-Nelson Murders, before landing a recurring role on Welcome Back, Kotter. In 1983, he appeared as Mr. Vogelman, the proprietor of the Raytown Travel Agency in the episode titled "Mama Gets a Job" (Season 1 – Episode 7) on Mama's Family.
The public source identifies “John Sylvester White” as american actor (1919-1988). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around John, Sylvester and White.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3182555. VIAF identifies the subject as 96073465. The Library of Congress control number is no2015113652. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1919, 1988, 1975 and 1979.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Sylvester White” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.