Golden Girl Betty White dies just two weeks before turning 100 reports theguardian.com. The actress was best known for her role as Rose Nylund in the 1980s sitcom and cemented her image as an actress at par with the legends. Her acting career spanned more than eight decades, and she is best known for her roles in sitcoms. Her two most memorable roles included The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls.
White breathed her last on Friday 31, 2021, just two weeks before becoming a centurion.
Her agent Jeff Witjas told People magazine: “Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever.”
She received many accolades and awards in a career spanning eight decades, including eight Emmys, one Grammy, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. She was a pioneer in the television field and opened the door for other women to enter the broadcasting industry.
Iiiustrious career spanning eight decades
Born in Oakland, Illinois, in 1922, she began her career in 1939, singing an abridged version of Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow on an experimental television transmission. She served American Women’s Voluntary Service during the Second World War. She also worked on Radio Shows like ‘The Great Gildersleeve’ and provided voiceovers for radio commercials. She also co-hosted the live talk show ‘Hollywood on Television’ from 1949 to 1953.
She opened up about how she co-hosted the with no script to fall back on and compared the job to walking down the edge of the cliff in high wind in her memoir Here We Go Again: My Life in Television in 1995. When her co-host Al Jarvis resigned, White went on to host the show solo and became one of the first women to host a talk show.
After her co-host, Al Jarvis resigned, White hosted solo; she is believed to have been the first female television talk show host. She went on to host White’s talk show, The Betty White Show, which premiered on NBC in 1954. She also was crucial in helping to produce the television show Life With Elizabeth, when domestic sitcoms were relatively new. She thus became the first woman who had complete creative freedom both in front and behind the camera.
Her role as Sue Ann Nivens on the 1970s sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show turned White into a household name. Her role as Rose Nylund on the popular 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls cemented her status as a legendary TV actor.