Carrie White, Hollywood Hairdresser to the Stars, Dies at 78

Hollywood hairdresser Carrie White, who famously cut hair for top 1960s and 1970s stars like Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor and Elvis Presley, has died. She was 78 years old.

White passed away in Los Angeles on May 3, longtime friend and jewelry designer Loree Rodkin told The Hollywood Reporter. No cause of death was given.

One of the most sought-after celebrity stylists, White wrote a memoir, Upper Cut: Highlights of My Hollywood Life, which Atmosphere Entertainment is developing into a movie.

Born on August 25, 1943, in Hollywood, White graduated from Hollywood High and broke into a world of hairdressing dominated by men like Jon Peters and Vidal Sassoon. She was a technical advisor on the movie Shampoo and gave David Bowie striking orange hair in The Man Who Fell to Earth.

White also styled the hair of Sharon Tate, Vanessa Redgrave, Warren Beatty, Julie Christie and Goldie Hawn, and designed Louise Fletcher’s hair to be transformed into Nurse Ratched in the 1975 classic drama One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

She also worked with celebrated celebrity photographers like Melvin Sokolsky, a star shooter for Harper’s Bazaar, Richard Avedon, Norman Parkinson and Bert Stern. Her hairdressing clients included Yardley of London, while her hairstyling work also appeared in magazines like Vogue, In Style, Allure, Vanity Fair and Glamour.

White was also CEO of Carrie White Hair in Beverly Hills.