Betty Marion White Ludden (née White; born January 17, 1922)[2] is an American actress and comedian,[3][4] with the longest television career of any entertainer, spanning 80 years.[5][6][7] Regarded as a pioneer of television, she is one of the first women to have control both in front of and behind the camera[8] and is recognized as the first woman to produce a sitcom (Life with Elizabeth),[9] which contributed to her receiving the honorary title Mayor of Hollywood in 1955.[10]
White is known for her award-winning roles as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1973–77) and Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls (1985–92) – the Writers Guild of America has included both sitcoms in its list of the 101 Best Written TV Series of All Time[11] – and Elka Ostrovsky on Hot in Cleveland (2010–15).
A staple guest of many American game shows such as Password, Match Game, Hollywood Squares and The $25,000 Pyramid, White has been dubbed the 'First Lady of Game Shows' and became the first woman to receive an Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host in 1983 for the show Just Men![12] She is also known for her appearances on Boston Legal, Mama's Family, and Saturday Night Live.
White has received eight Emmy Awards in various categories, three American Comedy Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Grammy Award.[13] She also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, is a Television Hall of Fame inductee (class of 1995), and a Disney Legend (class of 2009).
Early life
Betty Marion White was born in Oak Park, Illinois, on January 17, 1922.[2] She has stated that Betty is her legal name and not a shortened version of Elizabeth.[14][15][16] She is the only child of Christine Tess (née Cachikis; 1899–1985), a homemaker, and Horace Logan White (1899–1963),[17] a lighting company executive.[18][19] Her paternal grandfather was Danish and her maternal grandfather was Greek, with her other roots being English and Welsh (both of her grandmothers were Canadian).[20][21][22]
White's family moved to Alhambra, California, and later to Los Angeles, during the Great Depression.[23][24] To make extra money, her father would build radios and sell them wherever he could. Since it was the height of the Depression, and hardly anyone had a sizable income, he would trade the radios in exchange for other goods, including dogs on some occasions.[25]
She attended Horace Mann School Beverly Hills and Beverly Hills High School, famously used as a filming location for popular titles such as Clueless and It's a Wonderful Life,[26] where she was a member of the 1939 graduating class. Her interest in wildlife was sparked by family vacations to the High Sierras. She aspired to become a forest ranger, but was unable to accomplish this dream because women were not allowed to serve as rangers.[25][27] Instead, White pursued an interest in writing. She wrote and played the lead in a graduation play at Horace Mann School and discovered her interest in performing.[1] Inspired by her idols, Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy,[28] she decided to pursue a career as an actress.[18]
Entertainment career
1939–1949
White began her television career in 1939, three months after high school graduation, when she and a classmate sang songs from The Merry Widow on an experimental Los Angeles channel.[29][1][30] White found work modeling, and her first professional acting job was at the Bliss Hayden Little Theatre. When World War II broke out, she put her career on hold and volunteered for the American Women's Voluntary Services. Her assignment included the transportation of military supplies through California. She also participated in events for troops before they were deployed overseas.[31]
After the war, White made rounds to movie studios looking for work, but was always turned down because she was "unphotogenic". So then she started to look for radio jobs where being photogenic did not matter. Her first radio jobs included reading commercials and playing bit parts, and sometimes even doing crowd noises. She made about five dollars a show. She would do just about anything, like singing on a show for no money, or making an appearance on the local game show.[18] She appeared on shows such as Blondie, The Great Gildersleeve, and This is Your FBI. She then got her own radio show, called The Betty White Show.[32] In 1949, she began appearing as co-host with Al Jarvis on his daily live television variety show Hollywood on Television, originally called Al Jarvis' Make-Believe Ballroom on KFWB radio and on KLAC-TV in Los Angeles.[8][30]
1950s
White began hosting the show by herself in 1952 after Jarvis' departure,[8] spanning five and a half hours of live ad-lib television six days per week over a contiguous four-year span altogether. In all of her various variety series over the years, White would sing at least a couple of songs during each broadcast. In 1951, she was nominated for her first Emmy Award as "Best Actress" on television, competing with such legendary stars as Judith Anderson, Helen Hayes, and Imogene Coca (the award went to Gertrude Berg). This was the very first award and category in the new Emmy history designated for women on television.
In 1952, the same year that she began hosting Hollywood on Television, White co-founded Bandy Productions with writer George Tibbles and Don Fedderson, a producer.[8] The trio worked to create new shows using existing characters from sketches shown on Hollywood on Television. White, Fedderson, and Tibbles created the television comedy Life with Elizabeth, with White portraying the title role.[8] The show was originally a live production on KLAC-TV in 1951, and won White a Regional Los Angeles Emmy in 1952.[8][15][30][33]
Life with Elizabeth was nationally syndicated from 1952 to 1955, allowing White to become one of the few women in television with full creative control in front of and behind the camera.[8] The show was unusual for a sitcom in the 1950s because it was co-produced and owned by a twenty-eight-year-old woman who still lived with her parents. White said they didn't worry about relevance in those days, and that usually the incidents were based on real life situations that happened to her, the actor who played Alvin, and the writer.[18]
White also performed in commercials seen on live television in Los Angeles, including a rendition of the "Dr. Ross Dog Food" advertisement at KTLA during the 1950s. And guest starred on "The Millionaire" in the episode "The Virginia Lennart Story", as the owner of a small town diner that received an anonymous gift of $1,000,000, in 1956.[8]
In 1954, she hosted and produced her own daily talk/variety show, The Betty White Show, on NBC (her second show to feature that title).[8] Like her sitcom, she had creative control over the series, and was able to hire a female director.[34] The show faced criticism for the inclusion of Arthur Duncan, an African-American performer, as a regular cast member. The criticism followed when NBC expanded the show nationally. Local southern stations threatened to boycott unless Duncan was removed from the series. In response, White said "I'm sorry. Live with it" and gave Duncan more airtime.[34][35] Initially a ratings success, the show repeatedly changed time slots and suffered lower viewership. By the end of the year, NBC quietly cancelled the series.[36]
Following the end of Life with Elizabeth, she appeared as Vicki Angel on the ABC sitcom Date with the Angels from 1957 to 1958. The show, loosely based on the Elmer Rice play Dream Girl, likewise intended to focus around Vicki's daydreaming tendencies. The sponsor was not pleased with the fantasy elements, and pressured to have them eliminated. "I can honestly say that was the only time I have ever wanted to get out of a show," White later said".[36] The sitcom was a critical and ratings disaster, but ABC wouldn't allow White out of her contractual agreement and required her to fill the remaining thirteen weeks in their deal. Instead of a retooled version of the sitcom, White rebooted her old talk/variety show, The Betty White Show, which aired until her contract was fulfilled. "[36]
In July 1959, White made her professional stage debut in a week-long production of the play, "Third Best Sport", at the Ephrata Legion Star Playhouse in Ephrata, Pennsylvania.[37]
1960s
Out of work, White turned her attention to network game shows. She made many appearances on the hit Password show as a celebrity guest from 1961 through 1975. She married the show's host, Allen Ludden, in 1963.[8] 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 (Allen Ludden, Bill Cullen, Tom Kennedy, Bert Convy, and Regis Philbin). White made frequent game show appearances on What's My Line? (starting in 1955), To Tell the Truth (in 1961, 1990, and 2015), 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.
She made her feature film debut as Kansas Senator Elizabeth Ames Adams in the 1962 drama, Advise & Consent. Although her performance was well received, it would be her only big-screen appearance for decades.
NBC offered her an anchor job on their flagship morning show Today. She turned the offer down because she didn't want to move to New York (where Today is produced) permanently. The job eventually went to Barbara Walters.[38] Through the 1950s and 1960s, White began a nineteen-year run as hostess and commentator on the annual Tournament of Roses Parade broadcast on NBC (often co-hosting with Lorne Greene), and appeared on a number of late night talk shows, including Jack Paar's Tonight Show, and other daytime game shows.[8]
1970s
In 1973, White made several appearances in the fourth season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, as the "man-hungry" Sue Ann Nivens.[8] The role garnered White her second and third Emmy Awards. Although considering the role a highlight of her career, she has described the character's image as "icky sweet," feeling she was the very definition of feminine passivity, owing to the fact she always satirized her own persona onscreen in just such a way.[18]
A 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 who can play sickeningly sweet, like Betty White," Moore herself suggested at a production meeting, which resulted in casting White herself. White won two Emmy Awards back-to-back for her role in the hugely popular series.
In 1975, NBC replaced her as hostess and commentator on the Tournament of Roses Parade broadcast, feeling she was too identified with rival network CBS due to her newfound success on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. White admitted to People magazine it was difficult "watching someone else do my parade",[39] although she soon would start a ten-year run as hostess of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for CBS.
Following the end of The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1977, White got her own sitcom on CBS, her fourth show entitled The Betty White Show[8] (the first having been broadcast a quarter century earlier), 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.
2000s
In December 2006, White joined the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful in the role of Ann Douglas (where she would make 22 appearances), the long-lost mother of the show's matriarch, Stephanie Forrester, played by Susan Flannery.[44] She also began a recurring role in ABC's Boston Legal from 2005 to 2008 as the calculating, blackmailing gossip-monger Catherine Piper, a role she originally played as a guest star on The Practice in 2004.[8]
White appeared several times on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson appearing in many sketches and 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. On May 19, 2008, she appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, taking part in the host's Mary Tyler Moore Show reunion special alongside every surviving cast member of the series. Beginning in 2007, White was featured in television commercials for PetMeds, highlighting her interest in animal rights and welfare.[45]
2010s
In 2009, the candy company Mars, Incorporated launched a global campaign for their Snickers bar; the campaign's slogan was: "You're not you when you're hungry". White appeared, alongside Abe Vigoda, in the company's advertisement for the candy during the 2010 Super Bowl XLIV. The advertisement became very popular, and won the top spot on the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter.[46][47]
Following the success of the Snickers advertisement, a grassroots campaign on Facebook called "Betty White to Host SNL (Please)" began in January 2010. The group was approaching 500,000 members when NBC confirmed on March 11, 2010 that White would in fact host Saturday Night Live on May 8. The appearance made her, at age 88, the oldest person to host the show, beating Miskel Spillman, the winner of SNL's "Anybody Can Host" contest, who was 80 when she hosted in 1977.[48][49] In her opening monologue, White thanked Facebook and joked that she "didn't know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say, it sounds like a huge waste of time."[24] The appearance earned her a 2010 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, her seventh Emmy win overall.
In June 2010, White took on the role of Elka Ostrovsky the house caretaker on TV Land's original sitcom Hot in Cleveland along with Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick. Hot in Cleveland was TV Land's first attempt at a first-run scripted comedy (the channel has rerun other sitcoms since its debut). White was only meant to appear in the pilot of the show but was asked to stay on for the entire series.[50] In 2011, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Elka, but lost to Julie Bowen for Modern Family.[51] The series ran for six seasons, a total of 128 episodes, with the hour-long final episode airing on June 3, 2015.[52]
White also starred in the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of The Lost Valentine on January 30, 2011 (this presentation garnered the highest rating for a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation in the previous four years and according to the Nielsen Media Research TV rating service won first place in the prime time slot for that date.)[53] and from 2012 to 2014, White hosted and executive produced Betty White's Off Their Rockers, in which senior citizens play practical jokes on the younger generation.[54] For this show, she received three Emmy nominations.
A Betty White calendar for 2011 was published in late 2010. The calendar features photos from White's career and with various animals.[55] She also launched her own clothing line on July 22, 2010, which features shirts with her face on them. All proceeds go to various animal charities she supports.[56]
White's success continued in 2012 with her first Grammy Award for a spoken word recording for her bestseller If You Ask Me. She also won the UCLA Jack Benny Award for Comedy, recognizing her significant contribution to comedy in television, and was roasted at the New York Friars' Club.[57]
A television special, Betty White's 90th Birthday Party, aired on NBC a day before her birthday on January 16, 2012. The show featured appearances of many stars with whom White has worked over the years, as well as a message from sitting president Barack Obama.[58] In January 2013, NBC once again celebrated Betty White's birthday with a TV special featuring celebrity friends, including former president Bill Clinton; the special aired on February 5.[59]
On August 18, 2018, White's career was celebrated in a PBS documentary called Betty White: First Lady of Television.[60] The documentary was filmed over a period of ten years, and featured archived footage and interviews from colleagues and friends.[34]
In 2019, White joined the voice cast of Pixar's Toy Story 4. She provided the voice of Bitey White, a toy tiger that was named after her.[61] The other toys she shared a scene with were named and played by Carol Burnett, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks. White commented that "It was wonderful the way they incorporated our names into the characters ... And I’m a sucker for animals, so the tiger was just perfect!"
Personal life
Family
In 1945, White married Dick Barker, a U.S. Army Air Corps pilot.[62] The marriage was short-lived. In 1947, she married Lane Allen, a Hollywood agent.[62] This marriage ended in divorce in 1949.
On June 14, 1963, White married television host and personality Allen Ludden, whom she had met on his game show Password as a celebrity guest in 1961,[63] and her legal name was changed to Betty White Ludden.[2] He proposed to White at least twice before she accepted. The couple appeared together in an episode of The Odd Couple featuring Felix's and Oscar's appearance on Password. Ludden appeared as a guest panelist on Match Game, with White sitting in the audience. (She was prompted to criticize one of Ludden's wrong answers on camera during an episode of Match Game '74.) The two appeared together on the Match Game panel in 1974, 1975 and 1980.
Allen Ludden died from stomach cancer on June 9, 1981, in Los Angeles.[16][64][65] While they had no children together, she is stepmother to his three children from his first marriage to Margaret McGloin Ludden, who died of cancer in 1961. White has not remarried since Ludden's death. In an interview with Larry King, when asked whether she would remarry, she replied by saying "Once you've had the best, who needs the rest?"[66]
Friendships
Bea Arthur
White had a strained relationship with her Golden Girls co-star Bea Arthur on and off the set of their television show, commenting that Arthur "was not that fond of me" and that "she found me a pain in the neck sometimes. It was my positive attitude – and that made Bea mad sometimes. Sometimes if I was happy, she'd be furious."[67][68] After Arthur's death in 2009, White said, "I knew it would hurt, I just didn't know it would hurt this much." Despite their differences, The Golden Girls was a positive experience for both actresses. Bea Arthur would often insist on waiting to leave for lunch until all four (White, Rue McClanahan, Estelle Getty, and herself) had finished their work, and could leave together.[69][70]
Lucille Ball
White first met Lucille Ball while working on the short-lived sitcom Date With the Angels, which was filmed on the Desilu Studios lot where I Love Lucy was also filmed. The two quickly struck up a friendship over their accomplishments in taking on the male dominated television business of the '50s. They relied on one another through divorce, illness, personal loss, and even competed against one another on various game shows.[71][72]
Liberace
In a 2011 interview, White said that she always knew her close friend Liberace was gay and that she sometimes accompanied him to premieres.[67] A supporter of gay rights, White said that "If a couple has been together all that time – and there are gay relationships that are more solid than some heterosexual ones – I think it's fine if they want to get married. I don't know how people can get so anti-something. Mind your own business, take care of your affairs, and don't worry about other people so much".[73]
Mary Tyler Moore
Mary Tyler Moore and her husband Grant Tinker were close friends with White and Ludden. When Valerie Harper left The Mary Tyler Moore Show, producers felt the show needed another female character and created Sue Ann Nivens in the process. Nivens was described as an "icky sweet Betty White type", but they went against asking White to audition. In a 2010 Archive of American Television interview, Moore explained that producers, aware of Moore and White's friendship, were initially hesitant to audition White for the role, the fear being that if she hadn't been right, that it would create awkwardness between the two.[74]
John Steinbeck
In her 2011 book If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won't), White writes about her friendship with famed author John Steinbeck. White's husband Allen Ludden attended the same school as Steinbeck's wife Elaine. The couples became close friends, and Steinbeck gave an early draft of his Nobel Prize acceptance speech to Ludden for his birthday.[75][38]
Humanitarian work
White is a pet enthusiast and an animal health advocate who works with animal organizations, including the Los Angeles Zoo Commission, the Morris Animal Foundation, African Wildlife Foundation, and Actors & Others for Animals. Her interest in animal rights and welfare began in the early 1970s while she was both producing and hosting the syndicated series, The Pet Set, which spotlighted celebrities and their pets.[8][76]
As of 2009, White is the president emerita of the Morris Animal Foundation, where she has served as a trustee of the organization since 1971.[8] She has been a member of the board of directors of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association since 1974.[8] Additionally, White served the association as a Zoo Commissioner for eight years.[8]
According to the Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Garden's ZooScape Member Newsletter, White hosted "History on Film" from 2000 to 2002. White donated nearly $100,000 to the zoo in the month of April 2008 alone.[77]
Betty White served as a presenter at the 2011 American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards ceremony at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on October 1, 2011, in Los Angeles.[78]
In September 2011, she teamed up with English singer Luciana to produce a remix of her song "I'm Still Hot". The song was released digitally on September 22 and the video later premiered on October 6.[79] It was made for a campaign for a life settlement program, The Lifeline. White served as a judge alongside Whoopi Goldberg and Wendy Diamond for the American Humane Association's Hero Dog Awards airing on The Hallmark Channel on November 8, 2011
