Betty White, the TV’s golden girl who went from indelible performances on The Golden Girls and The Mary Tyler Moore Show to being a pop phenomenon in her 80s and 90s, died only three weeks before her 100th birthday.
Officers responded to a radio report at 9:30 a.m. Friday concerning “a natural death inquiry” at the 99-year-old’s residence in Brentwood, California, according to Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Mike Lopez.
Hollywood mourns on her death
Former co-stars and longstanding lovers of the adored actress, whose career and popularity spanned nearly eight decades, expressed their condolences and memories of her on social media.
White died at her home in Brentwood at the age of 99, best known for her iconic comedy roles, most notably as flirting with TV personality Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and ditzy widow Rose on Golden Girls, as well as her animal activism.
“It’s hard to absorb you’re not here anymore,” Henry Winkler, who co-starred with White in the 1973 episode The Dinner Party of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, said on Twitter.
Betty White : I is very hard to absorb you are not here anymore.. But the memories of your deLIGHT
are ..Thank you for yur humor , your warmth and your activism ..
Rest now and say Hi to Bill— Henry Winkler (@hwinkler4real) December 31, 2021
White and her tremendous career
In 1949, she co-hosted Al Jarvis’ live variety show, Hollywood on Television, which gave her her big debut on television. She was honoured for her first Primetime Emmy Award two years later and co-founded her own production business, Life With Elizabeth, a syndicated sitcom starring one of her Hollywood on Television characters, a year later.
Though White made her feature film debut in 1962 and went on to star in films such as Lake Placid (1999) and The Proposal (2009), she achieved her greatest success on television, often just by being herself.
She became a regular on late-night talk programmes and daytime game shows during her almost two-decade career as the hostess of the Tournament of Roses Parade, particularly Password, whose host, Ludden, she married in 1963.
Sheer love for animals made white an animal activist as well
White, who is recognised for her humour and acting as well as her advocacy, has always been an animal lover. In a feature on the star’s death in The Daily Beast, they talked about her childhood and how even when the family didn’t have enough money for a dinner, their pets were always fed.
Not only that, but her father was a dog lover as well, frequently bartering a “radio for a puppy.”
Betty White’s passion for animals led to a unique display where her famous pals could show off their own animals to admirers at one time in her career. Even though the programme only lasted one season, it was a thrill for the actress. “I felt like a child in a candy store,” she stated of the series, The Pet Set. I’d invite one of my celebrity pals to come on and bring her pet, and then I’d construct the rest of the programme around that celebrity’s animal-loving interests.”