Betty White
| Betty White | |||||||||||
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 White at the 1989 Emmy Awards |
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| Born | Betty Marion White January 17, 1922 Oak Park, Illinois, USA |
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| Years active | 1945-present | ||||||||||
| Spouse(s) | Allen Ludden (1963-1981) Lane Allen (1947-1949) Dick Barker (1945-1945) |
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Betty Marion White (born January 17, 1922) is a film and television actress with a career spanning 60 years. White is perhaps best known for her close association with the show Golden Girls and the game show Password, her affiliation with animal charities (Actors and Others for Animals), and her roles in the television sitcoms The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mama's Family, as well as being a regular panelist on the popular 1970s game show Match Game.
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Biography
Early life
White was born in Oak Park, Illinois, the daughter of Tess (née Cachikis), a homemaker, and Horace L. White, a traveling salesman and electrical engineer.[1][2] She was raised in Los Angeles, California. White attended Horace Mann Middle School in Beverly Hills, California, and then went to Beverly Hills High School in Beverly Hills, California, where she graduated in 1939.
1980s - 2000s
From 1983 through 1985, she played Ellen Harper Jackson on the series Mama's Family, along with future Golden Girls co-star Rue McClanahan. When Mama's Family was picked up in syndication after being canceled by NBC in 1985, White left the show (with the exception of one final appearance in the show's syndicated version in 1986) and scored a memorable role as the ditzy St. Olaf, Minnesota, native Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls. The series chronicled the lives of four widowed/divorced women in their "golden age" who shared a home in Miami. The Golden Girls, which also starred Beatrice Arthur, Estelle Getty, and Rue McClanahan, was immensely successful and ran from 1985 through 1992. White won an Emmy Award, for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series, for the first season of The Golden Girls and was nominated every year of the show's run. When Beatrice Arthur left in 1992, White, McClanahan and Getty reprised their roles Rose, Blanche and Sophia in the spin-off The Golden Palace. The series was short-lived, lasting one season.
White was originally offered the role of Blanche in The Golden Girls and Rue McClanahan was offered the role of Rose (the two characters being similar to roles they had played in Mary Tyler Moore and Maude respectively) but decided to switch in fear of being typecast. White was originally scared to play the role of Rose, feeling that she would not be able to play the role, until the show's creator took her aside and told her not to play Rose as stupid, but to play her as someone "terminally naive, a person who always believed the first explanation of something."
After The Golden Palace was canceled, White guest-starred on a number of television programs including Ally McBeal, The Ellen Show, My Wife and Kids, That 70s Show, Everwood, Joey, and Malcolm in the Middle. She received Emmy Award nominations for her appearances on Suddenly Susan, Yes, Dear and The Practice. She won an Emmy in 1996 for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, appearing as herself on a memorable episode of The John Larroquette Show. In that episode, titled "Here We Go Again", a spoof on Sunset Boulevard, a diva-like White convinces Larroquette to help write her memoirs. In one bit, Golden Girls co-stars McClanahan and Getty appear as themselves. Larroquette is forced to dress in drag as Beatrice Arthur, when all four appear in public as the "original" cast members. White comically envisions her Rose as the central character with the other cast members as mere supporting players.
The actress has lent her voice to several cartoons including The Simpsons, King of the Hill, The Wild Thornberrys, and Family Guy.
In December 2006, White joined the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful in the role of Ann Douglas, the long-lost mother of the show's matriarch Stephanie Forrester, who is played by Susan Flannery. In February 2007, White returned as Ann, who had an intent to move to L.A. to be near her daughters.[3] The characters of Ann and Pamela Douglas (Alley Mills) disappeared after their March 27, 2007 appearance and were not mentioned again until October 19, 2007 when Ann appeared briefly. White would go on to appear in three more episodes following that, one on December 10, 2007, August 28, 2008 and October 28, 2008. To date she has made 18 appearances as Ann Douglas.
In the broadcast of the 2007 TV Land Awards, White starred in a parody of Ugly Betty, aptly titled Ugly Betty White, in which she played America Ferrera's title character, with Charo playing Betty's sister Hilda and Erik Estrada playing her father Ignacio.[4] Because of her performance as Ugly Betty White, the producers of Ugly Betty signed White to play herself as the victim of Wilhelmina Slater's temper as they both vie for a cab in the episode "Bananas for Betty", which aired December 6, 2007.
White had a recurring role in ABC's Boston Legal as the calculating, blackmailing gossip-monger Catherine Piper, a role she originally portrayed as a guest star on The Practice. She returns for the show's fifth and final season in 2008/2009. White appeared as a roaster on the Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner. On May 19, 2008, White appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, taking part in the host's Mary Tyler Moore Show reunion special alongside every single surviving cast member of the series. White was honored at the Sixth Annual TV Land Awards with the Pop Culture Award on June 8, 2008. She accepted it along with co-stars Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan.
White returned to Password in its latest incarnation, Million Dollar Password, on June 12, 2008, participating in the Million Dollar challenge at the end of the show. Her quick correct responses helped the contestant win $100,000. White has made a number of appearances in skits on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, playing the part of an Exxon representative, an accountant with a briefcase full of cocaine, and a nurse who just got her medical license from El Salvador. She also appeared as herself with a shoe box full of receipts, explaining that she was doing her taxes. On July 18, 2008 she also appeared on the Tonight Show With Jay Leno in a skit entitled "Can You Make Betty White Flinch".
In the summer of 2008, Betty White began filming the upcoming motion picture The Proposal with Sandra Bullock in Boston. White will provide a voice for the upcoming film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, projected for an April 2009 release, although the specific role is as yet unknown.[5]
Charity
White is a pet enthusiast and animal welfare activist and works with a number of animal organizations, including the Los Angeles Zoo Commission, the Morris Animal Foundation, and Actors & Others for Animals. According to the Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Garden's "ZooScape" Member Newsletter, White donated nearly $100,000 to the Zoo in the month of April, 2008 alone.
In January 2007, she became the official spokesperson for 1800PetMeds and was featured in their new-for-2007 advertising campaign.
Personal life
On June 14, 1963, White married television host and personality Allen Ludden, whom she had met on Password. He proposed to twice-divorced White at least twice before she accepted. They remained married until Ludden's death from stomach cancer in Los Angeles on June 9, 1981. Several months earlier, he had suffered a stroke, which forced him to retire. The couple appeared together in an episode of The Odd Couple featuring Felix's and Oscar's appearance on Password. Ludden also appeared as a guest panelist on Match Game, with White sitting in the audience (she was prompted to rip apart one of Ludden's wrong answers on camera during an episode of Match Game '74; the two appeared together on the panel in 1975). White never remarried after Ludden
Awards, honors and nominations
White won five Emmys, three American Comedy Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990), and two Viewers For Quality Television Awards. She was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1995 and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6747 Hollywood Boulevard alongside the star of late husband Allen Ludden.
- Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series
1975 The Mary Tyler Moore Show
1976 The Mary Tyler Moore Show - Outstanding Host/Hostess in a Game or Audience Participation Show
1983 Just Men! - Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series
1986 The Golden Girls - Outstanding Guest Actress - Comedy Series
1996 The John Larroquette Show
- Nominations
- 1951 - Best Actress
- 1977 - Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series - "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"
- 1984 - Outstanding Game Show Host - "Just Men!"
- 1987 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - "The Golden Girls"
- 1988 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - "The Golden Girls"
- 1989 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - "The Golden Girls"
- 1990 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - "The Golden Girls"
- 1991 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - "The Golden Girls"
- 1992 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - "The Golden Girls"
- 1997 - Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series - "Suddenly Susan"
- 2003 - Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series - "Yes, Dear"
- 2004 - Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series - "The Practice"
Filmography
Television
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Film
- Time to Kill (1945)
- Advise and Consent (1962)
- A Different Approach (1978) (short subject)
- Hard Rain (1998)
- Dennis the Menace Strikes Again (1998)
- Holy Man (1998) (Cameo)
- Gaia Symphony II (1999)
- Lake Placid (1999)
- The Story of Us (1999)
- Whispers: An Elephant's Tale (2000)
- Bringing Down the House (2003)
- The Third Wish (2005)
- The Retrievers
- The Proposal (2009)
- Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2009)
References
- ↑ "Betty White Biography (1922-)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved on 2008-11-01.
- ↑ "The Paley Center for Media: Betty White". Shemadeit.org. Retrieved on 2008-11-01.
- ↑ "Returning", Soap Opera Weekly (2007-02-13), p. 5.
- ↑ "Guadalajara Girl: Yes, it's Ugly Betty White." TowleRoad.com. 2007-04-07
- ↑ "Exclusive News on Ponyo’s English Voice Talent Cast". Ghibli World (2008-11-26). Retrieved on 2008-11-30.
Further reading
- Tucker, David C. The Women Who Made Television Funny: Ten Stars of 1950s Sitcoms. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2007.
External links
- Betty White at the Internet Movie Database
- Betty White at TV.com
- Archive of American Television Interview with Betty White June 4, 1997 on Google Video
- Betty White on The Museum of Broadcast Communications
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Cloris Leachman for The Mary Tyler Moore Show |
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series for The Mary Tyler Moore Show 1975 |
Succeeded by Betty White for The Mary Tyler Moore Show |
| Preceded by Betty White for The Mary Tyler Moore Show |
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series for The Mary Tyler Moore Show 1976 |
Succeeded by Mary Kay Place for Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman |
| Preceded by Bob Barker for The Price is Right |
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host for Just Men! 1983 |
Succeeded by Bob Barker for The Price is Right |
| Preceded by Jane Curtin for Kate & Allie |
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series for The Golden Girls 1986 |
Succeeded by Rue McClanahan for The Golden Girls |
| Preceded by Cyndi Lauper for Mad About You |
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress - Comedy Series for The John Larroquette Show 1996 |
Succeeded by Carol Burnett for Mad About You |
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| Persondata | |
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| NAME | White, Betty |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | White, Betty Marion |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Actress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 17 January, 1924 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Oak Park, Illinois |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |