Betty White, who has died at the age of 99, not long before what would have been her 100th birthday, will be remembered for her enduring ability to entertain.
One of her most popular appearances was as Sue Anne Niven, the “neighbourhood nymphomaniac” on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which ran from 1973 to 1977.
When White asked her husband Allen Ludden how similar she was to her character, he said the two characters “were the very same” except that White could not cook.
She played the naïve Rose Nylund in The Golden Girls, which ran from 1985 to 1992.
In later life, she hosted the Saturday Night Live show following a successful social media campaign for her to get the gig in 2010. Speaking about it, White said: “I think they’ve lost their minds if they have an 88-year-old woman doing the show.” The popular programme was originally devised for younger audiences.
White had a keen love of animals and said that if she had pursued a different career, it would have been as a zookeeper.
As an actress, she won five prestigious Emmy awards, the first in 1975 and the last in 2010. In 1995, she was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
Not short of accolades, in 2014 she was also awarded the Guinness World Record for the longest television career for a female entertainer.
White was born in Oak Park, Illinois, but grew up in Los Angeles. Her father, Horace White, worked in electrical engineering, while her mother Tess took care of the home.
At Beverly Hills High School, she wrote a play for her graduation so she could have the lead part.
During the Second World War, White joined the American Women’s Voluntary Services. In her role, she delivered essential goods to soldiers working at gun emplacements in Hollywood and Santa Monica.
When the war ended, she made her radio debut on the comedy show The Great Gildersleeve with small parts, but it led to further radio work.
White made her television debut in 1949. Appearing on an experimental television show, she danced the Merry Widow Waltz. DJ Al Jarvis then asked her to join him on his show.
Six days a week, White worked for five and a half hours a day on Al Jarvis’s Hollywood on Television. Four years later, she became the show host following his departure.
During her life, she married then divorced pilot Dick Barker and agent Lane Allen. In 1963, she married game show host Allen Ludden. Following his death in 1981, she did not remarry.
When interviewed by the Guinness Book of World Records before her 2014 award, she said: “I have no regrets at all. None.
“I consider myself to be the luckiest old broad on two feet.”
Betty White, actress, born 17 January 1922, died 31 December 2021
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