A full color thin film electroluminescent (TFEL) display can be fabricated by using color filters in combination with a high efficiency 'white' phosphor, such as a thin film multilayered stack of ZnS:Mn and SrS:Ce (denoted ZnS:Mn/SrS:Ce). To date, deposition of these multilayers has been limited to vacuum evaporation techniques and atomic layer epitaxy, both of which require different substrate temperatures for growth of high quality ZnS:Mn and SrS:Ce. This repeated thermal cycling during multilayer deposition can adversely affect electroluminescent (EL) performance and manufacturability. Sputter deposition of ZnS:Nln and SrS:Ce produces high quality phosphors for a wider range of substrate temperatures. We have determined a common set of radio frequency (rf) sputter deposition parameters for ZnS:Mn and SrS:Ce that result in high performance, multilayered white phosphors for use in TFEL devices. The EL performance of our samples is comparable to the best performance reported for evaporated multilayered samples. The major improvement is that the rf sputtered ZnS:Mn and SrS:Ce layers were deposited at the same substrate temperature. We report on the effects of sputter deposition parameters on the resultant composition and morphology of ZnS:Mn and SrS:Ce thin films and multilayers. Their EL performance was evaluated and correlated to composition and morphology.