Betty White, the self-described “happy old broad” whose charmingly sardonic senior citizen characters were a beloved staple on TV shows and films including “The Golden Girls,” “Boston Legal,” and “Hot in Cleveland,” died Friday, according to her agent and close friend Jeff Witjas.
She was only a few weeks away from celebrating her 100th birthday on Jan. 17 at the age of 99.
“I felt Betty would live forever, even though she was about to become 100,” Witjas remarked. “I’ll miss her dearly, as will the animal world, which she adored. Betty never seemed to be afraid of dying since she always wanted to be with her beloved husband Allen Ludden. She was confident that she would see him again.”
Witjas has been contacted by CNN for comment.
White was a regular, although not well-known, presence on radio and television for the first half of her career, which was later recognized by Guinness World Records as the longest television career by a female artist.
There were 1950s sitcoms, a 1954 talk show, and even a cameo in “Advise and Consent,” a 1962 film. She’d occasionally appear on game programs, particularly “Password,” which was hosted by her third husband, Allen Ludden.
In a 2017 interview with CNN, White reflected on her early days in Hollywood, saying, “It was a little out of character, a little unfeminine, to be… you shouldn’t be funny.” “No, it’s so much more fun to get that chuckle,” White argued, noting that women were expected to simply “come in and be pretty” at the time.
White acquired a talent for portraying the seemingly pure-hearted elder, full of Midwestern earnestness, but had a randy inner life, beginning with her appearance as sarcastic kitchen diva Sue Ann Nivens on the 1970s sitcom “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” which she began when she was 51. As a result, she spawned a new generation of devotees, who rose in number as she approached her 90s.
On “The Golden Girls,” she played Rose Nylund, a sexually experienced but otherwise naive character.
On “Boston Legal,” White plays a feisty and occasionally violent secretary. She starred in a self-mocking Snickers campaign and was a guest star on “The Simpsons.” She also hosted “Saturday Night Live” as the oldest person ever to do so.
Throughout it all, she was unconcerned with her success, if not her work.
She told the Huffington Post in 2012, “I’m having the fun of my life, and the fact that I’m still working — how lucky can you get?”
Betty White was destined for the small screen.
She was on an experimental TV show when she was barely 17 years old, in 1939. After making its public premiere at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, the technology was still in its infancy. “I danced on an experimental TV show in downtown Los Angeles, the first on the West Coast,” she told Guinness World Records. “I dressed up in my high school graduation gown and danced the ‘Merry Widow Waltz’ with our Beverly Hills High student body president, Harry Bennett.”
White was born in Oak Park, Illinois, on January 17, 1922, and grew up in the Midwest. (Her formal name was Betty, not Elizabeth.) Her mother was a stay-at-home mom, while her father worked for an electrical company as an executive.
Her family relocated to the Los Angeles area when she was two years old, and her father began making radios. During the Great Depression, business was so tight that he exchanged them for dogs in the hopes of turning them into a company. White recalls her family having as many as 20 dogs at one time. She became an animal lover for the rest of her life. White went to Beverly Hills High School and even authored a play in which she played a major role. She told the Archive of American Television, “I guess that’s when the bug struck.” After the TV appearance, White went on to become a model, albeit her career was cut short by World War II, when she participated in the American Women’s Voluntary Services. She worked in the theater after the war and ultimately moved into radio parts on shows like “The Great Gildersleeve” and “Blondie.” In 1949, Al Jarvis, a Los Angeles radio personality, requested her to be his “girl Friday” for a 5-1/2-hour live TV show called “Hollywood on Television,” which was supposed to mimic his radio show on television but quickly devolved into a loose variety-talk show.
She remembered, “It was like going to television college.” White became the only host after a little more than two years.
She moved on to other shows, including “Life with Elizabeth,” a syndicated show; “Date with the Angels,” an NBC sitcom; “The Betty White Show,” the first of four shows; hosting parades — “it got to the point where if a signal went red and six cars lined up, I’d announce them,” she said; and a variety of commercials and appearances. White even had her own production firm, which was unusual at the time for a woman.
She also appeared on game programs, which led to her third husband, Ludden.
In the third week of the show’s run in 1961, Ludden was the host and White was a panelist. Later, the two worked in summer stock together and became good friends. Ludden, a widower, became an enthusiastic pursuer and even purchased a wedding ring for White, a two-time divorcee who was hesitant to marry again, wooing her in Los Angeles via transcontinental flights from his home in New York.
After a year, she eventually agreed when he purchased her earrings and a stuffed bunny for Easter, the latter appealing to her love of animals.
She remarked of her love affair with Ludden, “I came to the point of regretting that year that I wasted saying ‘no.’ I would have given anything to have it back.”
Ludden died of cancer in 1981, after they had been married for 18 years. White never married again. White worked steadily but discreetly throughout the 1960s and 1970s, with numerous appearances on talk shows and game shows, as well as the occasional guest spot. (She was even requested to join the “Today Show” team at one point.) She hosted the syndicated “The Pet Set” in the early 1970s, which showcased celebrities and their pets.
Mary Tyler Moore and her producer husband, Grant Tinker, were among White and Ludden’s numerous acquaintances. White was cast as Sue Ann Nivens, the “Happy Homemaker,” sweetness and light on-camera but a man-hungry harridan off-camera, at the request of “MTM” casting director Ethel Winant.
Originally intended to be a one-off — Nivens was having an affair with the spouse of another character — the chemistry between White and Nivens was so great by the end of the episode that she became a regular.
She was nominated for two Emmys for the role.
White enjoyed working with the ensemble, but said that “the show’s beauty was the writing…. It was a great combination.”
White found new success a decade later when she was cast as Rose in “The Golden Girls,” a 1985-92 sitcom about four senior women who share a Miami home.
White described the script as “dynamite.” She was supposed to play Blanche, Rue McClanahan’s lustful widow, but director Jay Sandrich, who had previously worked with White on “MTM,” didn’t want her to repeat herself and offered Rose instead.
White reminisced about how well the cast got along.
She said, “It’s like four points on a compass.” “That’s why we work so well together.”
Over the course of its seven-season run, the sitcom received a number of Emmys, including one for White.
White was never truly hidden from view. She continued to work after “The Golden Girls” ended, whether as an animal welfare advocate (she was a trustee of the Morris Animal Foundation for more than 40 years) or as a guest star on numerous TV shows.
Even she wasn’t expecting the increase in popularity that came to her role as Ryan Reynolds’ grandmother in the 2009 film “The Proposal.”
She was honored with a Life Achievement Award at the 2010 Screen Actors Guild Awards when she was introduced as “a seriously irritating lady” by “Proposal” co-star Sandra Bullock.
She gave as good as she got after obtaining a standing ovation.
“Isn’t it inspiring to see how far a plain girl like her can go?” she asked of Bullock.
She later remarked, “I’m still awestruck by celebrities. When I glance out into the audience, I see a lot of well-known people. But what really gets to me is that I know a lot of you and have worked with a lot of you. “Perhaps had a couple,” she added. And you’re well aware of who you are.”
Then she became serious.
“This is the pinnacle of my professional career,” she stated. “From the bottom of my heart, thank you.”
Years later, she was still perplexed as to why she’d re-attracted attention.
In 2015, she told Oprah Winfrey, “I don’t know where the ‘comeback’ story originated from.” “For the past 70 years, I’ve been working nonstop!” Betty White, on the other hand, never stopped. Then there came the Snickers ad. The appearance on “SNL.” Other appearances include “Hot in Cleveland,” “Community,” “Save Me” (as God), and even “WWF Raw.” She was well-known on Twitter, having over a million followers.
She never took anything for granted, maintaining the same down-to-earth, slightly mischievous, and entertaining woman who originally captivated the public so many decades ago.
In 2017, she told CNN, “I am the luckiest old broad on two feet.” “At this age, I’m still able to get work. ‘Can I come in and read for that tomorrow?’ I’ll say to my grave.”