William Shatner famously gets tormented by a gremlin destroying the wing of the plane he’s on in one of the most iconic episodes of “The Twilight Zone,” but he wasn’t flying solo. Christine White played his worried wife.
White, born in Washington D.C. on May 4, 1926, co-starred as Julia Wilson in “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” In the episode, which aired on October 5, 1963 as part of the CBS series’ fifth season, she’s flying alongside her husband, Shatner’s Robert Wilson, for the first time since a mental breakdown he had on another airplane. When Robert starts acting crazy, claiming that there’s a man on the wing, Julia tries to assure him that everything is okay while clearly worried he’s having another breakdown.
White’s performance is an overlooked part of one of the best episodes of “The Twilight Zone.” The story needs her to be supportive of her husband while also being dismissive of his claims, ratcheting up the tension and Robert’s panic as he can’t get anyone to take his increasingly urgent gremlin concerns seriously.
Unlike many “Twilight Zone” actors who would go on to be huge, recognizable stars, White did not become especially famous, and her appearance in this episode is by far her most notable role. White’s short obituary in The New York Times in 2013 was almost entirely about her “Twilight Zone” appearance.
Christine White had more than 50 movie and TV credits
Though she was never as well-known as William Shatner, Christine White had a robust filmography, appearing in more than 50 movies and shows across nearly a quarter-century. She began acting in the ’50s and had single episode credits on TV shows like “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “The Thin Man.” White also had multi-episode appearances on “Perry Mason” and “The Loretta Young Show.”
In 1960, White played Abigail “Abby” Adams, the adult daughter of a New York newspaper man who moves to a small town in New Hampshire, in a failed pilot that aired as part of the CBS anthology series, “General Electric Theater.” A retooled version of the pilot eventually became a full-fledged show, and, in 1961, White had a leading role in “Ichabod and Me.” Reviews were middling, and it was cancelled after one season on CBS.
White’s “Twilight Zone” appearance opposite Shatner was actually towards the end of her acting career. Some of her notable credits afterwards include a 1964 episode of “The Fugitive,” and playing the ex-wife of one of Dirty Harry’s fellow cops in the 1973 movie, “Magnum Force.” Her final credit was as a secretary in a 1976 TV biopic about James Dean.
Nightmare at 20,000 Feet was actually Christine White’s second Twilight Zone episode
Christine White’s most famous role in “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” was actually her second time entering “The Twilight Zone.” On March 24, 1961, White starred in a Season 2 episode, titled “The Prime Mover.” In it, White plays Kitty, the girlfriend of a gambler, Ace, who discovers that his gambling partner has developed telekinetic powers.
“The Prime Mover” is one of the many episodes of “The Twilight Zone” that isn’t especially scary nor does it end with a cruel, ironic twist. Instead, it has a downright happy ending. Kitty and the two gamblers head to Vegas, where she grows disgusted with her boyfriend’s greed. It’s only when the telekinetic gambler pretends to have lost his powers that Ace snaps out of it and reconciles with Kitty.
Christine White, who lived in Los Angeles for most of her career before returning to her hometown of Washington D.C. later in life, died on April 14, 2013, at Brinton Woods Nursing Home. She was 86 years old.
