“Although Betty would soon be 100, I thought she would live forever”
Actress Betty White, who with a career of over 80 years managed to become the “old sweet sweetheart” of America, winning numerous awards for her television roles, died on Friday night (31/12), three weeks before completing her 100 years.
Her agent and close friend Jeff Whitzas told People magazine: “Although Betty would soon be 100, I thought she would live forever.”
In an entertainment industry that glorifies youth and an actress over the age of 40 sees her career flicker, White was a paradox: a star in her 60s and an idol of pop culture in her 80s and 90s. At 92, she still starred in a TV series, Hot in Cleveland, until its screening was canceled at the end of 2014. She had won Emmy Awards for her participation in the series “The Golden Girls” and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
She said that her longevity was due to a combination of good health, good luck and love for her job.
“It's unbelievable that I'm still in this job and you still tolerate me,” she said in 2018, when she was honored with an Emmy Award for her entire career. “It's incredible that you can stay in a career for so long and still have people accept you. “I wish it could be done in this house as well”, he added with humor.
White did not hesitate to make fun of herself and joke about her sex life, making comments one would not expect from a sweet, smiling, white-haired old woman. She was often asked if, after a career of so many years, there was still something she wanted to do and she replied, “Robert Redford.”
Betty Marion White was born on January 17, 1922 in Oak Park, Illinois. Her family moved to Los Angeles during the Great Depression, and she attended Beverly Hills High School. She began her radio career in the late 1930s. In 1939 she made her small-screen debut singing on an experimental Los Angeles television channel. After serving in the American Women's Volunteer Service during World War II, she became a regular member of Hollywood on Television, a daily, five-hour variety show.
A few years later, she founded a production company – something innovative for women. at the time – and co-produced, produced and starred in the television series Life With Elizabeth in the 1950s.
He appeared on television regularly throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In 1963, she married for the third and last time the presenter of the video game Password, Allen Laden. that “a woman who does a good job in the kitchen will surely reap the benefits in other parts of the house.” She won two Emmys for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in 1975 and 1976.
White added another Emmy to her 1986 collection for “The Golden Girls,” starring four elderly women who live in Miami. She was nominated six more times for her role in the series, where she played the sweet, naive widow Rose Nyland. present, with frequent appearances on television and a role in the movie “The Proposal” with Sandra Bullock.
A young fan of hers started a Facebook campaign asking White to present Saturday Night Live – she ended up appearing in all the show sketches and winning another Emmy.
The Associated Press called her ” artist of the year “twice while in a Reuters/Ipsos poll in 2011, when White was 89 years old, she emerged as the most popular celebrity in America, with a percentage of 86%.
Her intelligence and etiquette were the her trump card when she presented Betty White's Off Their Rockers, a show with hidden cameras, where older actors made jokes to young people. “Who would have ever imagined that not only would I be healthy but I would still be invited to work. “This is a privilege; to still have a job is a great privilege,” she said in an interview with Winfrey Oprah in 2015.
White did not have children. He loved animals and fought for them. He once turned down a role in the movie “Better Can't Do It” because in one scene a dog was thrown into a garbage can.
