Betty Marion White (born January 17, 1922) is a film and television actress with a career spanning 60 years. White is perhaps best known for her close association with the show
Golden Girls,and the game show
Password, her affiliation with animal charities (Actors and Others for Animals), and her roles in the television
sitcoms The Mary Tyler Moore Show,
Mama's Family, as well as being a regular panelist on the popular 1970s game show
Match Game.
Biography
Personal life
White was born in
Oak Park, Illinois, the daughter of Tess (née Cachikis), a homemaker, and Horace L. White, a traveling salesman and electrical engineer.
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 in
Beverly Hills, California, where she graduated in 1939.
1980s - 2000s
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 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) but decided to switch in fear of being typecast. 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."
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 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
L.A. to be near her daughters.
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.
["Guadalajara Girl: Yes, it's Ugly Betty White." TowleRoad.com. 2007-04-07] 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 as the calculating, blackmailing gossip-monger Catherine Piper, a role she originally portrayed as a guest star on
The Practice. She returns for the show's fifth and final season in 2008/2009.
Betty White appeared as a roaster on the Comedy Central Roast of
William Shatner.
On May 19, 2008, Betty 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 returned to
Password in its latest incarnation,
Million Dollar Password, on June 12, 2008, participating in the Million Dollar challenge at the end of the show. Her quick correct responses helped the contestant win $100,000.
White has made a number of appearances in skits on
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, playing the part of an Exxon representative, an accountant with a briefcase full of cocaine, and a nurse who just got her medical license from El Salvador. She also appeared as herself with a shoe box full of receipts, explaining that she was doing her taxes. On July 18, 2008 she also appeared on the
Tonight Show With Jay Leno in a skit entitled "Can You Make Betty White Flinch".
In the summer of 2008, Betty White began filming the upcoming motion picture "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock in Boston.
Charity
White is a pet enthusiast and animal welfare activist 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, White donated nearly $100,000 to the Zoo in the month of April, 2008 alone.
In January 2007, she became the official spokesperson for
1800PetMeds and was featured in their new-for-2007 advertising campaign.
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. They remained married until Ludden's death from stomach cancer in Los Angeles on June 9, 1981. Several months earlier, he had suffered a stroke, which forced him to retire. 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 never remarried after Ludden
Awards, honors and nominations
White won five Emmys, 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.
- 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"
Filmography
Television
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Film
