BRENTWOOD—Actress and comedian Betty White, known for her roles on the TV sitcoms, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “The Golden Girls” died at the age of 99, on Friday, December 31, before 9:30 a.m. TMZ first reported. White’s cause of death is believed to be the result of natural causes. White would have celebrated a milestone 100th birthday on January 17, 2022.
White was born in Oak Park, Illinois and was the only child of Christine Tess and Horace Logan White. The family moved to California in 1923, where she graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1939. She got her first TV gigs in the early 1940s singing for “The Merry Widow” with a classmate she graduated from high school.
She was nominated for her first Emmy Award in 1951 and the following year started hosting “Hollywood on Television.” She later created the TV comedy “Life With Elizabeth that ran from 1952 to 1955. She parlayed that success into her own daily talk show “The Betty White Show” on NBC in 1954. She made her film debut in the 1962 drama “Advise & Consent.”
She won a total of 5 Primetime Emmy Awards and 2 Daytime Emmy Awards during her career. She is known to fans for her role as Sue Ann Nivens on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” in the 1970s and Rose Nylund on “The Golden Girls” which ran for a total of 7 seasons on NBC. Her most recent TV role was on the TV Land comedy “Hot in Cleveland” alongside Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick.
She was honored with the Screen Actors Guild Awards Lifetime Achievement in 2009 by her “The Proposal” co-star Sandra Bullock. She also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She appeared in a bevy of films including “Lake Placid,” “Bringing Down the House,” “You Again” and “Toy Story 4” to name a few. She recently appeared on the series “Young & Hungry.”
White was married a total of 3 times during her lifetime first to Dick Barker, then to Lane Allen and Allen Ludden. Ludden and White were married for 18 years until his passing in 1981 from stomach cancer. She was an animal advocate working with organizations like The Los Angeles Zoo Commission, The Morris Animal Foundation, African Wildlife Foundation and Actors & Others for Animals.
