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Leonard Whiting
Born	Leonard Whiting June 30, 1950 (1950-06-30) (age 59) London, England, U.K.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1968-1990
Spouse(s)	Cathee Dahmen (1971-1977) Lynn Presser (1995-present)

Leonard Whiting (born June 30, 1950 in London, England) is a British actor who starred as Romeo in the 1968 Zeffirelli film version of Romeo and Juliet opposite Olivia Hussey's Juliet, a role which earned him the Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actor.

Biography

Early life

Whiting was born in the Wood Green area of London, England, the only son of Arthur Leonard Whiting and Peggy Joyce O'Sullivan. He has English, Irish, and some Romani/Gypsy ancestry.[1] Whiting attended the St. Richard of Chichester School, Camden and graduated just a week or two before beginning work on Romeo and Juliet (1968).

Career

Whiting was spotted by an agent at a recording studio at the age of 12. After hearing him sing, the agent suggested he try out for Lionel Bart's Oliver! which constantly needed replacement for its child performers. Whiting played the Artful Dodger in the long-running London musical for 18 months, and for 13 months appeared in the National Theatre production of Congreve's "Love for Love", which toured Moscow and Berlin.

Director Franco Zeffirelli described his discovery, made from 300 youngsters auditioned during more than three months: "He has a magnificent face, gentle melancholy, sweet, the kind of idealistic young man Romeo ought to be."

In the mid-1970s, his voice caught the attention of Abbey Road and The Dark Side of the Moon engineer Alan Parsons, who was in the process of recording what was to be the first album by The Alan Parsons Project, Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Whiting performed lead vocals on the song "The Raven".

Filmography

External links

• LeonardWhitingFans at Yahoo!
• Leonard Whiting at the Internet Movie Database
• Leonard Whiting Tribute Site