Betty White
Thank you for being our friend.
"You don't fall off the planet once you pass a certain age. You don't lose your sense of humor. You don't lose any of your zest for life, or your lust for life." -Betty White, Today, 1991
A Lifetime of Betty
- Betty White's first professional acting job was at the Bliss Hayden Little Theatre.
- For Betty's first gigs in radio, she read commercials, played bit parts, and created audience noise for $5 a show.
- In 1949, White appeared daily as co-host with Al Jarvis on his variety show Hollywood on Television.
- Betty White earned her first Emmy Award nomination for "Best Actress" in 1951.
- She became the show's sole host in 1952, running another four years at six days a week, five and half hours a day.
- She won her first Los Angeles Emmy Award in 1952 for her leading role in her live comedy Life with Elizabeth.
- The show, running from 1952-1955, gave White complete creative control of the project she starred in, co-produced, and owned, something unheard of at the time for women.
- From 1952-1954 Betty performed, hosted, and produced her variety series The Betty White Show.
- Again, with complete creative control, Betty hired a female director and featured African-American tap-dancer, Arthur Duncan, as a regular cast member.
- When criticism followed those decisions, White responded, "I'm sorry, Live with it".
- Between 1957-1958, while working in the same studio as I Love Lucy, Betty met and became fast friends with Lucille Ball.
- Throughout the 60's Betty became the face of network game and talk shows, including the hit show Password from 1961-1975.
- Betty married the show's host, Allen Ludden, in 1963.
- 1973 Betty gained her second and third Emmy Awards for playing Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
- In 1983, after becoming the first woman to win a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host, Betty White was named the "First Lady of Game Shows".
- 1985 Betty White took on her legendary role as Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls.
- The show ran from 1985-1992, winning Betty an Emmy for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series the first season and was nominated each year after.
- Betty reprived her role with fellow castmates, Estelle Getty and Rue McClanahan in a one-season spin-off, The Golden Palace.
- White won an Emmy in 1996, Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in an episode of The John Larroquette Show, "Here We Go Again" where she played herself.
- Joining the cast of The Bold and the Beautiful in 2006 for 22 episodes, White played a long-lost mother, Ann Douglas.
- In 2009, White joined the hilarious cast of The Proposal starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds.
- That same year, Snickers launched its infamous "You're not you when you're hungry" SuperBowl commercial with Betty White, winning the top spot on the Super Bowl Ad Meter.
- January 2010, a Facebook campaign began to call for "Betty White to Host SNL (Please)" gaining nearly 500,000 members.
- May 8, 2010, Betty White becomes the oldest host on Saturday Night Live at age 88.
- That appearance won her a 2010 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.
- White went on to play Elka Ostrovsky, in TV Land's sitcom Hot in Cleveland, airing for six seasons ending June 3, 2015.
- In 2010, White published a 2011 calendar featuring pictures of animals to support her love for them.
- July 22, 2010, White launched her clothing line, all proceeds going to animal charities she supported.
- Betty won her first Grammy Award in 2012 for Best Spoken Word Recording for her bestseller, If You Ask Me.
- February 15, 2015, Betty made her final appearance on Saturday Night Live during their 40th Anniversary Special.
- August 18, 2018, Betty White: First Lady of Television documentary aired on PBS.
- January 17, 2022, the documentary Betty White: A Celebration is released.