Even though she will be best remembered for her role as the naive Rose Nylund in the hit comedy The Golden Girls , White, who died at the age of 99, was one of the best-loved performers on US television for seven decades, a consummate professional who won eight Emmy awards, the first and last more than 60 years apart.
She was also a trailblazer, becoming one of the first women to produce television in the 1950s and, 30 years later, the first female game show host, termed a “femcee.”
All four principal performers on The Golden Girls earned Emmys for outstanding actress, but White’s was the first, in 1986.
This might be because she played against type; Rose’s part on the Mary Tyler Moore Show was the polar opposite of her role on the Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Outside of the entertainment world, she was involved with animal charities and the Los Angeles Zoo, and her memoir, Betty and Friends: My Life at the Zoo, was released in 2011.
She told the Chicago Sun-Times, “I also want to be known as a person who saved the animals,” in addition to her acting.
Betty Marion White, actress and producer, was born on January 17, 1922, and died on December 31, 2021.
Betty White death scene in pictures
