Betty White Passes Away at 99: A Look At Her Iconic Career

A pioneer of early television, Betty White sadly passed away on the 31^st of December 2021 aged 99. She was an American actress and comedian noted for her vast work in the entertainment industry in which she was the first woman to produce a sitcom, called ‘Life with Elizabeth’, which is what contributed to her being named ‘Honorary Mayor of Hollywood’. She is often referred to as the ‘First Lady of Television’, and even had this as the title of a 2018 documentary where her life and career was shown in detail. With so many achievements in life, Betty White is and will continue to be remembered for many works, so read on and have a look at her iconic career that spans over eight decades.

Betty Marion White Ludden was born on the 17^th of January 1922, so she was soon to turn 100 this month in January. Her agent and close friend, Jeff Witjas, told PEOPLE in a statement, “Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever. I will miss her terribly and so will the animal world that she loved so much. I don’t think Betty ever feared passing because she always wanted to be with her most beloved husband Allen Ludden. She believed she would be with him again. Betty died peacefully in her sleep at her home early this morning.”

The career in entertainment began in the 1940s, where Betty White began working in radio, later getting her own show called ‘The Betty White Show’. In 1949, she became co-host with Al Jarvis on his daily variety show ‘Hollywood on Television’ in Los Angeles; After Jarvis left the show in 1952, White began hosting by herself. She was nominated for her first Emmy Award in 1951 as best actress on television. It was the first award and category in the new award show designated specifically for women in television.

Betty White has done notable work since the very beginning of her career, where in 1949, she paved their way into creating her first sitcom called ‘Life with Elizabeth’. It became nationally syndicated, making White one of the few women in TV with full creative control in front of and behind the camera. Despite the low budget and minimal sets, the show earned the actress her first Emmy award.

By 1961, Betty White appeared as a celebrity player on the daytime game show Password, hosted by Allen Ludden. He proposed to her in 1963 and she accepted, this being her third and last time getting married, telling PEOPLE that he sent her “this adorable fluffy white stuffed bunny and in its ears were gold leaves with ruby, diamond and sapphire earrings”. The couple had been married for 18 years before Allen Ludden passed away at the age of 63 from stomach cancer in 1981. According to several reports, Betty White called her late husband’s name as her last words before she peacefully passed away in her sleep.

She earned her second and third Emmy nominations while appearing on ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ in the 1970s and became the first woman to win a Daytime Emmy Award in the category of outstanding game show host for the NBC show ‘Just Men!’ in 1983. She also played TV station WJM’s ‘Happy Homemaker’ Sue Ann Nivens which earned her two back-to-back Emmy awards.

Betty White’s work pace only accelerated with ‘The Golden Girls’, on which she played Rose Nylund during the show’s run from 1985 to 1992. After 1992, Betty White starred in a series of TV shows, including ‘The Golden Palace’ (a spin-off of ‘The Golden Girls’), ‘Bob’, and ‘Maybe This Time’; she made cameos in ‘Ally McBeal’ and ‘That ’70s Show’ as well, in which she played Bea Sigurdson, Kitty’s mother. In the early 2000s, she starred as Catherine Piper in ‘Boston Legal’ from 2005 to 2008 and later as Ann Douglas in ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ from 2006 to 2009. In 2010, she took on the role of Elka Ostrovsky in ‘Hot in Cleveland’.

White was nominated three times for the Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performance by a female actor in a comedy series in 2011, 2012, and 2013; she won the first two. Throughout her career, she was nominated for 21 Primetime Emmys, with five total wins. The long-standing career will forever be remembered by everyone, especially the vast number of people who worked with her and the entertainment industry.