Mr. White

From The Quentin Tarantino Archives

Character in Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, played by Harvey Keitel.

His real name is Lawrence (Larry) Dimmick. The character is cool, calm, and collected through most of the film; he acts like a professional. Originally from Milwaukee, Minnesota, he's brought on Joe Cabot's current jewelry heist through prior association. Yet, he has reserves about doing it, because he feels he's jinxed. The last job he worked on, almost got him pinched by the cops. Cabot's current job aligns him with a set of characters with color code names, and Dimmick assumes Mr. White.

As Mr. White, Dimmick becomes a sort of surrogate father to young recruit Mr. Orange as they plan the job over a few days. The two become so close that he lets detials of his personal life slip like his priot whereabouts and his specialty. When Mr. Orange gets shot during escape of the heist gone wrong due to a possible undercover cop in their midst, their bond leads Mr. White to want to set him loose at a hospital. It, alas, never comes to past, as they are stuck in the warehouse for the majority of the time awaiting the arrival of Cabot to sort things out. While left alone with the psychotic Mr. Blonde who's about to kill an abducted LAPD officer, Mr. Orange blasts him away, and White defends him to the end against his old friend Joe Cabot. Mr. White's luck catches up to him, as after being shot in a crossfire of a Mexican Standoff between himself, Joe, and Nice Guy Eddie, Mr. Orange finally reveals that he has indeeed betrayed him. In the end, the cops bust in, and in a true act of honor among thieves, Mr. White puts Orange out of his misery - ultimately causing the cops to open fire on him. His job was to take the manager into the back, and make him give him the diamonds, with the help of Mr. Pink.

Fun Quotes

• Mr White: "Toby, Toby, Toby, Toby Wong, Toby Wong, Toby Chung, fuckin Charlie Chan!..."
• Mr. White (to Mr. Orange): "You're gonna be okayyyyy!!! Say the goddamn worrrrds!.."
• Mr. White: "You can't work with a psychopath, you never know what those sick assholes are gonna do next."
• Mr White (to Mr. Pink): "If I have to tell you to back off again you and me are gonna go round and round."

Trivia

• He is related to Jimmie Dimmick, Quentin Tarantino's character in Pulp Fiction. This is also a funny connection because Harvey Keitel plays The Wolf in Pulp Fiction and seems to treat Jimmie Dimmick very good offering him a new oak furniture set in return for his help.
• Steve Buscemi originally auditioned for the role of Mr. White.
• In the script and in the film, Joe Cabot mentions "Alabama" as Mr. White's partner. He reveals he hasn't worked with her in a year and a half. This is supposed to be the same Alabama Whitman-Worley from True Romance, because in the original True Romance script, Clarence should be dead, leaving Bama to go on to work with Mr. White.
• The suit Harvey Keitel wore was his own. It had been specially made as a gift from French designer Agnès B.