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Betty White

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Betty White
White at the premiere for The Proposal in June 2009
Born
Betty Marion White
OccupationActress
Years active1945 – present
Spouse(s)Allen Ludden (1963 – 1981)
Lane Allen (1947 – 1949)
Dick Barker (1945)

Betty Marion White (born January 17, 1922) is an American actress, comedienne and former television host with a career spanning over sixty-five years. Her television roles include Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls.

White has won six Emmy Awards and received twelve Emmy nominations over the course of her career, and was the first woman to ever receive an Emmy for game show hosting. She has also made regular appearances on the game shows Password and Match Game and played recurring roles on Mama's Family and Boston Legal. She is also recognized for her affiliation with animal charities such as "Actors and Others for Animals" and the Morris Animal Foundation.

Life and career

Early life

White was born in Oak Park, Illinois, the daughter of Horace L. White, a traveling salesman and electrical engineer, and his wife Tess (née Cachikis).[1][2] She was raised in Los Angeles, California. White attended Horace Mann Middle School in Beverly Hills, California, and then went to Beverly Hills High School, where she graduated in 1939.

Career

Before embarking on her television career, White found work modeling. She launched her television career with her portrayal of the title character on the sitcom Life with Elizabeth from 1952 to 1955. The show, which she also co-produced, garnered White her first Emmy Award[3][4]. Following Life with Elizabeth, she appeared as Vicki Angel on the sitcom Date with the Angels from 1957 to 1958. In 1954, she briefly hosted her own talk show entitled The Betty White Show (not to be confused with her 1970s sitcom of the same name). She also performed in commercials seen on live television in Los Angeles, including a spirited rendition of the "Dr. Ross Dog Food" advertisement at KTLA. Betty White was also on the Al Jarvis show in the early days of television in Los Angeles, California.

She made her film debut as Kansas Senator Elizabeth Ames Adams in the 1962 drama Advise and Consent.

White made many appearances on the hit game show Password as a guest celebrity from 1961 through 1975. She married the show's host, Allen Ludden in 1963. She subsequently appeared on the show's three updated versions Password Plus , Super Password, and Million Dollar Password, having been on versions of the game with five different hosts (Ludden, Cullen, Kennedy, Convy, and Philbin). White made frequent game show appearances on What's My Line? (starting in 1955), To Tell the Truth (in 1961 and in 1990), I've Got a Secret (in 1972-73), Match Game (1973-1982) and Pyramid (starting in 1982). Both Password and Pyramid were created by White's friend, Bob Stewart. In 1983, she became the first woman to win a Daytime Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Game Show Host, for the NBC entry Just Men!. Due to the amount of work she has done on them, she has been deemed the "First Lady of Game Shows".

In 1973, White landed her signature role as the sardonic, man-hungry Sue Ann Nivens, The Happy Homemaker, on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The running gag was that Sue Ann's hard-edged private personality was the complete opposite of how she presented herself on her show. "We need somebody sickeningly sweet, like Betty White," Moore herself suggested at a production meeting, with the result of casting White. White won two Emmy Awards for her role in the hugely popular series.

Following that show's end in 1977, she was given her own sitcom on CBS, The Betty White Show, during the 1977-78 season, in which she co-starred with John Hillerman and (former Mary Tyler Moore co-star) Georgia Engel. It was canceled after one season.

1980s – 2000s

White at the 1988 Emmy Awards

From 1983 through 1985, she played Ellen Harper Jackson on the series Mama's Family, along with future Golden Girls co-star Rue McClanahan. When Mama's Family was picked up in syndication after being canceled by NBC in 1985, White left the show (with the exception of one final appearance in the show's syndicated version in 1986) and scored a memorable role as the ditzy St. Olaf, Minnesota, native Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls. The series chronicled the lives of four widowed/divorced women in their "golden age" who shared a home in Miami. The Golden Girls, which also starred Beatrice Arthur, Estelle Getty, and Rue McClanahan, was immensely successful and ran from 1985 through 1992. White won an Emmy Award, for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series, for the first season of The Golden Girls and was nominated every year of the show's run. When Beatrice Arthur left in 1992, White, McClanahan and Getty reprised their roles Rose, Blanche and Sophia in the spin-off The Golden Palace. The series was short-lived, lasting one season.

White at the 1989 Emmy Awards, apparently very, very white

White was originally offered the role of Blanche in The Golden Girls and Rue McClanahan was offered the role of Rose (the two characters being similar to roles they had played in Mary Tyler Moore and Maude respectively). Jay Sandrich, who was director of the pilot, suggested since they had played similar roles in the past, they should switch roles, Rue McClanahan later said in a documentary on the series. White was originally scared to play the role of Rose, feeling that she would not be able to play the role, until the show's creator took her aside and told her not to play Rose as stupid, but to play her as someone "terminally naive, a person who always believed the first explanation of something". As of June 2009, White is, alongside McClanahan, one of the two surviving cast members following the deaths of Estelle Getty in July 2008 and Bea Arthur in April 2009.

After The Golden Palace was canceled, White guest-starred on a number of television programs including Ally McBeal, The Ellen Show, My Wife and Kids, That 70s Show, Everwood, Joey, and Malcolm in the Middle. She received Emmy Award nominations for her appearances on Suddenly Susan, Yes, Dear and The Practice. She won an Emmy in 1996 for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, appearing as herself on a memorable episode of The John Larroquette Show. In that episode, titled "Here We Go Again", a spoof on Sunset Boulevard, a diva-like White convinces Larroquette to help write her memoirs. In one bit, Golden Girls co-stars McClanahan and Getty appear as themselves. Larroquette is forced to dress in drag as Beatrice Arthur, when all four appear in public as the "original" cast members. White comically envisions her Rose as the central character with the other cast members as mere supporting players.

The actress has lent her voice to several cartoons including The Simpsons, King of the Hill, The Wild Thornberrys, and Family Guy. In 1999, she had a supporting role in the comedic horror film Lake Placid, as a seemingly sweet widow with a shockingly foul mouth later revealed to have raised the giant crocodile (which accidentally ate her husband).

In December 2006, White joined the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful in the role of Ann Douglas, the long-lost mother of the show's matriarch Stephanie Forrester, who is played by Susan Flannery. In February 2007, White returned as Ann, who had an intent to move to Los Angeles to be near her daughters.[5] The characters of Ann and Pamela Douglas (Alley Mills) disappeared after their March 27, 2007, appearance and were not mentioned again until October 19, 2007, when Ann appeared briefly. White would go on to appear in three more episodes following that, one on December 10, 2007; August 28, 2008; and October 28, 2008. To date she has made 18 appearances as Ann Douglas.

In the broadcast of the 2007 TV Land Awards, White starred in a parody of Ugly Betty, aptly titled Ugly Betty White, in which she played America Ferrera's title character, with Charo playing Betty's sister Hilda and Erik Estrada playing her father Ignacio.[6] Because of her performance as Ugly Betty White, the producers of Ugly Betty signed White to play herself as the victim of Wilhelmina Slater's temper as they both vie for a cab in the episode "Bananas for Betty", which aired December 6, 2007.

White had a recurring role in ABC's Boston Legal from 2005 to 2008 as the calculating, blackmailing gossip-monger Catherine Piper, a role she originally portrayed as a guest star on The Practice in 2004. White appeared as a roaster on the Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner in 2006. On May 19, 2008, White appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, taking part in the host's Mary Tyler Moore Show reunion special alongside every single surviving cast member of the series. White was honored at the Sixth Annual TV Land Awards with the Pop Culture Award on June 8, 2008. She accepted it along with co-stars Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan.

White returned to Password in its latest incarnation, Million Dollar Password, on June 12, 2008 (episode #3), participating in the Million Dollar challenge at the end of the show. Her quick correct responses helped the contestant win $100,000. Betty returned to the show again on December 28, 2008 (episode #9), helping the contestants win $25,000 each. White has made a number of appearances in skits on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, playing the part of an Exxon representative, a girl scout, an accountant with a briefcase full of cocaine, a nurse who just got her medical license from El Salvador, and a newspaper delivery girl. She also appeared as herself with a shoe box full of receipts, explaining that she was doing her taxes. She also appeared as herself to promote Together: A Story of Shared Vision by her and Tom Sullivan. On July 18, 2008, she also appeared on the Tonight Show With Jay Leno in a skit entitled "Can You Make Betty White Flinch".

White recently guest starred as the "Witch lady" on an episode of My Name is Earl, and starred on Chelsea Handler's late night show Chelsea Lately.

White appeared in the 2009 motion picture The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. White provided the voice of Yoshie in the anime film Ponyo, released in Japan in 2008 and scheduled for release in the United States and Canada on August 14, 2009.

Charity

White is a pet enthusiast and animal health advocate and works with a number of animal organizations, including the Los Angeles Zoo Commission, the Morris Animal Foundation, and Actors & Others for Animals. According to the Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Garden's "ZooScape" Member Newsletter, Betty White also hosted "History on Film" from 2000-2002. White donated nearly $100,000 to the Zoo in the month of April 2008 alone. Due to her well-known involvement with animal charities, she is also a spokesperson for 1-800-PetMeds.

Personal life

On June 14, 1963, White married television host and personality Allen Ludden, whom she had met on Password. He proposed to twice-divorced White at least twice before she accepted. Already diagnosed with cancer in early 1980, Ludden suffered a debilitating stroke by fall of that year, which forced him to retire. However, Betty and Allen remained married until Ludden's death from stomach cancer on June 9, 1981, in Los Angeles. The couple appeared together in an episode of The Odd Couple featuring Felix's and Oscar's appearance on Password. Ludden also appeared as a guest panelist on Match Game, with White sitting in the audience (she was prompted to rip apart one of Ludden's wrong answers on camera during an episode of Match Game '74; the two appeared together on the panel in 1975). White has not remarried since Ludden's death.

Awards, honors and nominations

White won six Emmy Awards, three American Comedy Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990), and two Viewers For Quality Television Awards. She was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1995 and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6747 Hollywood Boulevard alongside the star of late husband Allen Ludden.

Emmy Awards


Emmy Award Nominations
  • 1951 - Best Actress
  • 1977 - Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series - The Mary Tyler Moore Show
  • 1984 - Outstanding Game Show Host - Just Men!
  • 1987 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - The Golden Girls
  • 1988 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - The Golden Girls
  • 1989 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - The Golden Girls
  • 1990 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - The Golden Girls
  • 1991 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - The Golden Girls
  • 1992 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - The Golden Girls
  • 1997 - Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series - Suddenly Susan
  • 2003 - Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series - Yes, Dear
  • 2004 - Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series - The Practice
  • 2009 - Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series - "My Name Is Earl" (TBA)

Filmography

Television

Film

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Betty White.
  1. ^ "Betty White Biography (1922-)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 2008-11-01.
  2. ^ "The Paley Center for Media: Betty White". Shemadeit.org. Retrieved 2008-11-01.
  3. ^ http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/W/htmlW/whitebetty/whitebetty.htm
  4. ^ http://www.shemadeit.org/meet/biography.aspx?m=117
  5. ^ "Returning". Soap Opera Weekly. 2007-02-13. p. 5. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ "Guadalajara Girl: Yes, it's Ugly Betty White." TowleRoad.com. 2007-04-07
  7. ^ http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/W/htmlW/whitebetty/whitebetty.htm
  8. ^ http://www.shemadeit.org/meet/biography.aspx?m=117

Further reading

  • Tucker, David C. The Women Who Made Television Funny: Ten Stars of 1950s Sitcoms. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2007.

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