These celebrities lost fortunes when they got divorced
White's career as an entertainer began in 1939 when she and a classmate danced and sang songs from 'The Merry Widow' live on TV, just a few months after graduating high school.
Betty Marion White was born in Oak Park, Illinois, on January 17, 1922. It turns out Betty isn't short for Elizabeth!
White co-founded Bandy Productions with writer George Tibbles and producer Don Fedderson. Together they created 'Life with Elizabeth,' of which White was the star and which was nationally syndicated from 1952-1955.
Instead, White took various radio jobs, playing bit parts or reading commercials, until she was offered her own radio show, 'The Betty White Show.'
When World War II broke out, White decided to volunteer for the American Women's Voluntary Services and put her career on hold.
Over the years, White made a name for herself appearing on the panels of game shows, including 'Password,' 'Match Game,' 'Tattletales,' 'The Hollywood Squares,' and 'The $25,000 Pyramid.'
The show won White her first Emmy, and it was her first success as both an actress and producer. At the time, she was one of the only female producers in Hollywood, then a woman in her late twenties who still lived with her parents!
White was dubbed so because she was one of the first women to exert power in front of and behind the camera, and she was also the first woman to produce a sitcom.
After the war, White sought work at movie studios but was rejected because she was “not photogenic,” according to Cary O'Dell's in his book 'Women pioneers in television.'
The Mayor of Hollywood was an honorary position in Hollywood appointed by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. White earned the honor in 1955.
In 1954, she hosted and produced her own daily talk/variety show, 'The Betty White Show,' on NBC, marking her second (and not her last) show to feature that title. She had creative control and hired a female director.
When Al Jarvis left the show in 1962, White began hosting solo, and did so for about five hours a day, six days a week, for four consecutive years.
In 1949, she began co-hosting with Al Jarvis on his daily live television variety show 'Hollywood on Television.'
Betty White's TV high point was during the '70s, when she joined 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' in its fourth season as Sue Ann Nivens.
Through the 1950s and 1960s, White had a 19-year streak as a host and commentator on the annual Rose Parade broadcast on NBC.
In the '80s, White became the first woman to win a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host, for her work on NBC's 'Just Men!'
Her role on 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' earned her two more Emmys.
In 1985, White scored her second iconic role and perhaps her best-known character ever: Rose Nylund on 'The Golden Girls.'
The Rose Parade took White off as host because 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' was on a rival network, but White later started a 10-year run as host of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for CBS.
White, Estelle Getty, and Rue McClanahan reprised their roles for the spin-off 'The Golden Palace,' which only ran one season, though White took Rose's character onto other shows like 'Empty Nest' and 'Nurses' as guest appearances.
The series, which chronicled the lives of four widowed or divorced women in their "golden years" in Miami, was immensely successful. White won one Emmy for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series for the first season, and she was nominated in that category every year of the show's run.
In 1977, the actress was offered her own sitcom: 'The Betty White Show.' Unfortunately, it only ran for 14 episodes before it was canceled.
After her popular appearance in a Snickers ad, a Facebook campaign called “Betty White to Host SNL (Please)" began in 2010, with nearly 500,000 members. Later that year she became, at age 88, the oldest person to host the show. Her appearance earned her a seventh Emmy.
Everyone wanted White on their show, and she guest-starred on a number of them like 'Suddenly Susan,' 'The Practice,' and 'Yes, Dear,' where she received Emmy nominations for her appearances. She also won an Emmy in 1996 for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, for appearing on 'The John Larroquette Show.'
In the 2000s, White joined the soap opera 'The Bold and the Beautiful' as the long-lost mother of the show's matriarch, and she would also begin a recurring role on ABC's 'Boston Legal' as a character she originally played as a guest star on 'The Practice.'
An often overlooked project of White's was a syndicated show in the '70s called 'The Pet Set,' which tapped into her lifelong love of animals. It spotlighted stars like Carol Burnett, Mary Tyler Moore, Doris Day, James Stewart, Burt Reynolds, and more, along with their pets and other animals. It was produced by White's late husband, Allen Ludden, and White recently had been working on getting it re-released on streaming platforms to commemorate the show's 50th anniversary.
See also: Celebs and their exotic pets
White still currently holds the Guinness World Record for Longest TV Career for a Female Entertainer, though her record beats the male category as well.
Also at age 88, White took on the role of Elka Ostrovsky, the feisty house caretaker on TV Land's sitcom 'Hot in Cleveland.'
With a career spanning over 80 years, Betty White worked longer in television than anyone else in the industry, and by a long shot! Sadly, we lost her on December 31, 2021, just a few weeks shy of her 100th birthday.
Both young and old generations knew her to be a spunky lady with a surprisingly darling appearance for the jokes she committed to, and, of course, she was best known for her roles as Rose Nylund on ‘The Golden Girls’ and Sue Ann Nivens on ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show.’ But her career and her influence on the industry, particularly for women, had a much farther reach than those roles, iconic as they are.
Click through this gallery to get a brief but dazzling recap of Betty White’s incredible career.
Celebrating Betty White: a look at the longest TV career in history
The late entertainment icon was born on January 17, 1922
CELEBRITY Retrospective
With a career spanning over 80 years, Betty White worked longer in television than anyone else in the industry, and by a long shot! Sadly, we lost her on December 31, 2021, just a few weeks shy of her 100th birthday.
Both young and old generations knew her to be a spunky lady with a surprisingly darling appearance for the jokes she committed to, and, of course, she was best known for her roles as Rose Nylund on ‘The Golden Girls’ and Sue Ann Nivens on ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show.’ But her career and her influence on the industry, particularly for women, had a much farther reach than those roles, iconic as they are.
Click through this gallery to get a brief but dazzling recap of Betty White’s incredible career.