Renauld White Dies: ‘The Guiding Light’ Soap Star And Pioneering Black Model Was 80

(l-r) Josh Lucas and Renauld White during "Poseidon" After Party Johnny Nunez/WireImage

Renauld White, who helped forge greater diversity on designer runways and later spent two years on soap opera “The Guiding Light,” died June 26 at age 80.

White was under hospice care at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan at the time of his death, according to his friend Jeffrey Banks, the fashion designer, as told to WWD. The cause of death was not given.

In November 1979, White became the second Black model to appear on the cover of GQ.

White worked with such top designers as Bill Blass, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan, among many others.

White’s funeral will be held on July 12 at 11 a.m. at the Whigham Funeral Home in his hometown of Newark, N.J.