Betty White Dies

We got the bad news today, New Years’ Eve 2021, that the near 100-year-old Betty White had passed away. She was an American actress and comedian born in Oak Park, Illinois, on January 17, 1922.

Betty Marion White moved to Los Angeles at a year old and because of the depression, her dad would build crystal radios and either sell or trade them. She attended the Beverly Hills Unified School District in Beverly Hills, and Beverly Hills High School, graduating in 1939. began her career in 1939 singing an abridged version of Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow on an experimental television transmission.

During WWII she volunteered for the American Women’s Voluntary Services. Afterward, she found work appearing on radio shows such as The Great Gildersleeve, and provided voiceovers for radio commercials. She co-hosted the live talk show “Hollywood on Television” from 1949 to 1953. After her co-host, Al Jarvis resigned, White hosted solo; she is believed to have been the first female television talk show host.

Betty played the title character on the sitcom “Life with Elizabeth” from 1952-1955. She got her own talk show “The Betty White Show” in 1954 on NBC (she had a previous radio show by the same name). after that, she appeared as Vicki Angel on the ABC sitcom Date with the Angels from 1957 to 1958.

In the 60s Betty White was a game and talk show staple including both Jack Paar and later Johnny Carson’s era of The Tonight Show. She appeared many times on the game show Password as a celebrity guest from 1961-1975. She married the show’s host, Allen Ludden, in 1963.

She appeared on the updated versions, Password Plus, Super Password, and Million Dollar Password that had five different hosts Allen Ludden, Bill Cullen, Tom Kennedy, Bert Convy, and Regis Philbin.

Betty made frequent appearances on other game shows like What’s My Line? (starting in 1955), To Tell the Truth (in 1961, 1990, and 2015), I’ve Got a Secret (in 1972–73), Match Game (1973–1982), and Pyramid (starting in 1982).

She made her film debut in the 1962 drama “Advise & Consent” as a Kansas Senator. In 1973 she won Emmys for her appearances on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” 4th season as Sue Ann Nivens. In 1977 she had her own sitcom called “The Betty White Show” which was canceled after one season.

In 1983 she was deemed the “First Lady of Game Shows” and won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Game Show Host. From 1983-1984 she had a recurring role on  “Mama’s Family” as Ellen Harper (a character she had developed on The Carol Burnett Show). In 1985 she started the biggest hit of her career as St. Olaf, Minnesota native Rose Nylund on “The Golden Girls”.

The show also starred Bea Arthur, Estelle Getty, and Rue McClanahan was immensely successful and ran from 1985 through 1992. She won another Emmy, this time for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series, and was nominated each year she was on the show.

“The Golden Girls” ended in 1992. Betty appeared in the spin-ff called “The Golden Palace” that lasted one season. She also played her Golden Girls character Rose in guest appearances on “Empty Nest” and “Nurses”.

In the 90s she would appear on shows such as Suddenly Susan, The Practice, Yes Dear, and The John Larroquette Show. In 2006 she joined “The Bold and the Beautiful” for 22 appearances. She also began a recurring role on “Boston Legal” from 2005 to 2008. In 2010, ay 88 years, she was the oldest person to host “Saturday Night Live”. n June 2010, White took on the role of Elka Ostrovsky the house caretaker on TV Land’s original sitcom “Hot in Cleveland”

along with Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, and Wendie Malick. Betty was only supposed to appear in the pilot but due to its success, she was asked to become a regular. The series ran for six seasons, a total of 128 episodes, with the hour-long final episode airing on June 3, 2015. From 2012 to 2014, White hosted and executive produced “Betty White’s Off Their Rockers”, in which senior citizens play practical jokes on the younger generation.

She also published several books “Betty White’s Pet-Love: How Pets Take Care of Us” (1983), “Betty White in Person” (1987), “The Leading Lady: Dinah’s Story” (with Tom Sullivan 1991), “Here We Go Again: My Life In Television” (1995), “Together: A Novel of Shared Vision” (with Tom Sullivan 2008), “If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t) (2011) and “Betty & Friends: My Life at the Zoo” (2011).

Betty White died of natural causes at her home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles on the morning of December 31, 2021, seventeen days before what would have been her 100th birthday.