National Treasure Betty White Dies at 99
On New Year’s Eve, beloved television actress and comedian Betty White died at her Los Angeles home at the age of 99. She was only weeks away from celebrating her 100th birthday.
TMZ first reported the news on White’s passing, and it is believed that she died from natural causes.
Her agent and close friend Jeff Witjas said in a statement to People Magazine, “Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever. I will miss her terribly and so will the animal world that she loved so much. I don’t think Betty ever feared passing because she always wanted to be with her most beloved husband Allen Ludden. She believed she would be with him again.”
Ahead of her centennial, which would have been January 17, People did an exclusive cover story on the star where she opened up about how she was feeling about turning 100 years old.
“I’m so lucky to be in such good health and feel so good at this age,” she said. “It’s amazing.”
According to White, being “born a cockeyed optimist” was the key to her upbeat nature. Of course, she also cracked a joke about the secret to her long life.
“I try to avoid anything green. I think it’s working.”
A trailblazer and pioneer in media, White has been a pop culture icon for decades and earned the title of “Longest TV Career for a Female Entertainer” in the Guinness Book of World Records. An only child, she was born in Oak Park, Illinois and moved to Los Angeles with her parents during the Great Depression. White dreamed about becoming a forest ranger or a writer, but fell in love with performing after taking the lead in the high school senior play that she wrote.
“I guess that’s when the bug bit,” she told the Archive of American Television.
White officially began her career in showbiz in the 1940s, but it was interrupted by World War II, in which she served in the American Women’s Voluntary Services. After the war, she worked in theater and eventually started to pick up radio roles on shows such as The Great Gildersleeve and Blondie.
In 1949, Los Angeles radio host Al Jarvis asked her to be his “girl Friday” for a five-and-a-half-hour live TV show that was intended to be his radio show on television but quickly turned into a loose variety-talk show, Hollywood on Television. After a little more than two years, White became the sole host.
Steadily working throughout the 50s and 60s, White appeared on several sitcoms, talks shows, and game shows, which eventually led her to meeting Ludden, her third husband. He was the host of Password, and White was a panelist on the show’s third week in 1961. The two were married for 18 years until Ludden’s death of cancer in 1981. White never remarried.
In the 1970s, White gained worldwide fame by playing man-hungry happy homemaker Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Originally meant to be a one-off, the chemistry between White and the cast was so strong that she became a regular. The role earned her two Emmy Awards.
Following MTM, White did one season of The Betty White Show and landed a recurring role on Mama’s Family in 1983. However, it wasn’t until 1985 when she scored her second signature role as the naive but adorable Rose Nylund on NBC’s smash hit The Golden Girls. She was originally offered the role of Blanch Devereaux, but the pilot’s director suggested she and Rue McClanahan swap roles since they both already played similar characters on long-running shows.
The switch was a success, and White scored another Emmy for “Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series” for the first season. She was nominated again every season for the run of the show.
When The Golden Girls ended in 1992, she, McClanahan and Estelle Getty reprised their roles in a spin-off, The Golden Palace. Unfortunately, it only ran for one season.
After The Golden Girls went off the air, White never really left the public eye and landed several more guest and recurring roles on various TV shows, including The Bold and the Beautiful and Boston Legal. She was also a dedicated animal activist and a trustee of the Morris Animal Foundation for more than 40 years.
Because of her popularity and witty sense of humor, a Facebook campaign circulated petitioning for White to host Saturday Night Live, which happened in May 2010. Not only was she the oldest person to host the long-running show, but she helped deliver the show’s highest ratings in over a year and half. The appearance also led to her winning her seventh Emmy.
In June 2010, White landed another series regular as Ella Ostrovsky in TV Land’s first scripted sitcom, Hot In Cleveland with Valerie Bertinelli, Wendie Malick and Jane Leeves. Her scene-stealing turn would lead to her 17th Emmy nomination.
Although she never imagined to be one of the world’s most adored entertainers. White never took any of it for granted. She remained the same down-to-earth, slightly impish, engaging woman the public first saw many decades before.
“I am the luckiest old broad on two feet,” she told CNN in 2017. “I’m still able to get a job, at this age. I will go to my grave saying ‘Can I come in and read for that tomorrow?'”
White was also a fierce LGBTQ advocate and ally who believes in equality. The community loved her back just as much.
In a 2010 Parade Magazine interview, she definitively stood up for queer people and marriage equality.
“I don’t care who anybody sleeps with,” she said. “If a couple has been together all that time—and there are gay relationships that are more solid than some heterosexual ones—I think it’s fine if they want to get married. I don’t know how people can get so anti-something. Mind your own business; take care of your affairs, and don’t worry about other people so much.”
She appeared in a 2019 video for GLAAD in support of Spirit Day, which campaigns against bullying of LGBTQ youth.
Last month, it was announced that a documentary, Betty White: 100 Years Young – A Birthday Celebration, would be released in theaters across the country on her centennial. The cast includes many of White’s friends including Ryan Reynolds, Robert Redford, Tina Fey, Carol Burnett, Craig Ferguson, and Jennifer Love-Hewitt.
According to producers Steve Boettcher and Mike Trinklein, the film will be released as scheduled.
“Our hearts mourn today with the passing of Betty White,” they say in a statement. “During the many years we worked with her, we developed a great love and admiration for Betty as a person, and as an accomplished entertainer. We are thankful for the many decades of delight she brought to everyone. Betty always said she was the ‘luckiest broad on two feet’ to have had a career as long as she did. And honestly, we were the lucky ones to have had her for so long. We will go forward with our plans to show the film on January 17 in hopes our film will provide a way for all who loved her to celebrate her life—and experience what made her such a national treasure.”
On behalf of OFM, rest in peace, Betty. Thank you for being a friend.
Photos Courtesy of Social Media
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