Betty White, ‘Golden Girls’ Star and TV Legend, Dies at 99
Betty White, the Emmy-winning TV star who had a remarkable later-career resurgence in films, TV commercials and the hit series “The Golden Girls” and “Hot in Cleveland,” has died. She was 99.
The Los Angeles Police Department responded to a death investigation
on the 500 block of N. Carmelina Ave. in Los Angeles at 9:30 a.m. Friday
morning. White would have celebrated her 100th birthday on Jan. 17.
White is believed to have died Thursday night at her Brentwood home.
White’s agent and close friend Jeff Witjas confirmed her death to Variety.
“Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live
forever,” Witjas said in a statement. “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.”
Witjas emphasized that White had not been ill but had been extremely
cautious during the COVID-19 pandemic. She spent most of the past two
years at the home she loved with her many pets. She had round-the-clock
caretakers in her final years, Witjas said.
White’s work schedule had slowed considerably as she reached her late 90s. She told Variety
in an email Q&A in 2020 that her career blossomed in the early days
of TV because she was fascinated by the medium. “I just love to work
and the word ‘no’ did not exist,” White told Variety.
The approach of White’s 100th birthday sparked numerous tributes and
appreciations of her long run in the industry. Just this week, White
graced the cover of People magazine. “I’m so lucky to be in such good
health and feel so good at this age,” White told the magazine. White was
also the subject of a recent book by Variety alum Ray Richmond, “Betty White: 100 Remarkable Moments in an Extraordinary Life.”
White, who played Sue-Ann Nivens on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”
in the 1970s and Rose on “The Golden Girls” from 1985-92, was a staple
on TV for more than 60 years, having started as the sidekick on a local
Los Angeles daytime show that kept her on live TV five hours a day, five
days a week.
The energetic blonde with the honeyed voice and girl-next-door beauty
was one of the rare performers to remain as popular into her nineties
with new generations of viewers — thanks to reruns of “Golden Girls” —
as she was in her sitcom heyday.
In her 80s, White was still stealing scenes in film comedies such as
“The Proposal,” “You Again” and “Bringing Down the House,” as well as
making regular appearances on late night talkshows, where she delighted
audiences with her quickfire repartee with Jay Leno, Craig Ferguson and
other hosts.
Her well-reviewed turn alongside Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds in
2009’s “The Proposal” boosted her profile, and suddenly she was
everywhere: starring in the well-received Super Bowl commercial spot for
Snickers and hosting “Saturday Night Live” after a fan campaign to land
her the job started on Facebook (White had actually been offered the
gig years before but turned it down).
She was hired by producers of “Hot in Cleveland” for a guest shot in
the pilot but was quickly pressed into service as a series regular.
“Cleveland” was an instant hit thanks in no small measure to White’s
star power. She earned SAG Awards for her work on the show in 2011 and
2012 and her 17th career Emmy nomination.
The hits she had in the series department were giant ones and made
her a household name. Her characters on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” a
homemaker with a rather saucy reputation, and on “Golden Girls,” a
rather befuddled simpleton, were part of television history. Both
programs brought her Emmys, two for “Moore” and three for “Golden
Girls.”
Born in Oak Park, Ill., she moved with her family to Los Angeles,
where her acting aspirations began at Beverly Hills High School. Shortly
after graduation, she made her professional stage debut as part of the
Bliss Hayden Little Theater, of which she was a member for several
years. She also did guest stints on radio shows such as “Blondie,” “This
Is Your FBI” and “The Great Gildersleeve” before branching into early
television. White made her first screen appearance, however, in the 1945
educational short “Time to Kill,” promoting the benefits of the G.I.
Bill.
In 1953 White landed her first sitcom, “Life With Elizabeth,” which
was short-lived, as was daytime talkshow “The Betty White Show” in 1954,
“A Date With the Angels” in 1957 and comedy variety skein “The Betty
White Show” in 1958.
She then drifted into gameshows, including “To Tell the Truth,” “I’ve
Got a Secret,” “Match Game,” “Password” and “What’s My Line?” White was
also a regular on the nighttime “Jack Paar Show” and the syndicated
woman’s daytime show “Girl Talk.” During that time she had her own radio
show on CBS, “Ask Betty White.”
White had worked with “Password” host Alan Ludden and was appearing
in summer stock with him in 1962 in “Critic’s Choice” when they became
romantically involved; they married the next year. (White had been
briefly married to Frederick Barker and to Lane Allen but had been
single since 1949). They would co-star for years in summer stock in
productions such as “Brigadoon,” “Any Wednesday” and “Guys and Dolls” as
well as on TV on “Password.”
In 1971, White, an animal lover, had a talkshow called “The Pet Set,”
about celebrities and their pets. (She later wrote the book “Betty
White’s Pet Love.”)
White was a friend of Mary Tyler Moore when Moore’s producers were
looking for a regular like Cloris Leachman. The character of Sue Ann was
created with White in mind but offered to several actresses before the
producers decided to go with White (who claimed, perhaps rightly, that
for a time her gameshow persona was so ingrained in everyone’s mind that
she was ignored for other acting jobs). The character of the Happy
Homemaker, who always had sex on the brain, was an instant success and
brought her back-to-back Emmys as supporting actress in 1974 and 1975.
After the Moore show ended, another series was developed for White in
which she co-starred with Georgia Engel. “The Betty White Show” debuted
in 1977 but was cancelled after half a season. She returned to
gameshows as well as miniseries and TV movies like “The Best Place to
Be,” “This Ring,” “Before and After” and “The Gossip Columnist.”
In 1983 she hosted another gameshow, “Just Men.” The show was panned
but brought her another Emmy. She had a recurring role in “Mama’s
Family,” a spinoff of a regular skit on “The Carol Burnett Show” in
which Rue McClanahan also recurred.
Though she was originally slated for the role of the promiscuous
southern Belle on “The Golden Girls,” she chose instead to play Rose,
the slightly akilter but sweet-hearted character in the series targeted
at an older demo (McClanahan got the Belle role). It was a huge hit
running into the early ’90s and added two more Emmys to White’s shelf.
She carried on for another season in the spinoff “The Golden Palace” and
then segued into a regular role on Newhart series “Bob” and 1995’s
“Maybe This Time.”
Television movies and regular guest appearances on shows as diverse
as “St. Elsewhere” and “Suddenly Susan” kept White constantly in front
of the camera, as did the occasional TV movie like “Weekend in the
Country.”
In 1999 an appearance in David E. Kelley’s monster crocodile movie
“Lake Placid” renewed attention on White: She lampooned her love of
animals by playing a smiling but foul-mouthed woman who protects the
predator that’s dispatching humans.
She was a television phenomenon in the 2000s, guesting as herself on
“Ugly Betty” as well as in animated form on both “The Simpsons” and
“Family Guy” and providing voices for many animated films and TV shows.
White recurred on soap “The Bold and the Beautiful” from 2006-09, on
“That ’70s Show” and as Catherine Piper both on “The Practice” and on
“Boston Legal.” In 2010 she became the oldest person ever to host
“Saturday Night Live.”
In January 2012 the NBC special “Betty White’s 90th Birthday: A
Tribute to America’s Golden Girl’’ was the most-watched program on the
night. White hosted and produced the hidden-camera reality show “Off
Their Rockers” in 2012-13, earning two more Emmy nominations.
Her most recent book, “If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t),” was
published in 2011. She won a Screen Actors Guild life achievement award
in 2010.
Ludden died in 1981, and White never remarried.
(Carmel Dagan contributed to this report.)
-Variety
