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01
Betty was originally considered for the role of the sexpot Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls 1985. However, Betty had already played the aggressive Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show 1970 and Rue McClanahan had played the introverted Vivian Cavender on Maude 1972. It was thought best not to have these two actresses reprise similar characters. Therefore, Betty got the role of naive Rose Nylund and Rue played the oversexed Blanche Devereaux.
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02
In 1954, she was criticized for having black tap dancer Arthur Duncan on her show The Betty White Show 1952. The producers wanted to remove him, but she said He stays. Live with it, and gave Duncan more airtime. Soon afterward, her show was canceled.
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03
Before she was a successful comedienne, actress, and animal activist, she was a member of the American Women’s Voluntary Services during World War II, where she drove a PX truck, and she worked as a disc jockey at KLAC.
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04
She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television at 6747 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 18, 1988. Her star is located next to that of her late husband Allen Ludden.
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05
Of the four principal actresses on The Golden Girls 1985, Betty White was the oldest and the last to pass away. Betty White was born on January 17, 1922; Bea Arthur on May 13, 1922; Estelle Getty on July 25, 1923; and Rue McClanahan on February 21, 1934.
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06
She was strongly critical of reality television.
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07
In 1955, Betty White was the honorary mayor of Hollywood, California.
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08
She began her entertainment career on radio in 1930 at age 8, playing an adopted orphan on the soap opera Empire Builders.
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09
James L. Brooks offered her the role of Helen Hunt’s mother in As Good as It Gets 1997. She turned it down because she objected to the treatment of the dog in the film.
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10
She played the same character, Rose Nylund, on four different series: The Golden Girls 1985, Empty Nest 1988, Nurses 1991, and The Golden Palace 1992.
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11
Per her autobiography, White was named Betty at birth, not Elizabeth, because her parents did not want her to be saddled with any of the nicknames and derivatives of Elizabeth, such as Beth, Liza, or Ellie.
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12
In 2010, at age 88 and a half, she was the oldest person to ever host Saturday Night Live 1975.
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13
She started writing plays while in grammar school.
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14
She portrayed the conniving, gold-digging Ellen Harper, niece of Rue McClanahan’s character Aunt Fran, on Mama’s Family 1983 at the same time they were working together on The Golden Girls 1985 in almost opposite roles.
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15
She was a frequent guest celebrity and panelist on numerous game shows, including every version of Password 1961, The Hollywood Squares Daytime 1965, Match Game 1973, The $10,000 Pyramid 1973, and countless others.
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16
She attended and graduated from Beverly Hills High School in Beverly Hills, California at age 17 Winter Class of 1939. Her name is listed as Betty Marion White. Her picture is on page 31 of the Watchtower, the school’s yearbook.
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17
She skipped college to study classical vocal training under opera singer Felix Hughes, uncle of Howard Hughes.
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18
Her death marked the fifth major figure from The Mary Tyler Moore Show 1970 to pass away in 2021, after Cloris Leachman, Gavin MacLeod, Edward Asner, and director Jay Sandrich.
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19
For 11.5 years after Rue McClanahan’s death, she was the last surviving cast member of The Golden Girls 1985.
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20
She appeared on many game shows with good friend Vicki Lawrence, who was also a frequent game show player.
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21
Her paternal grandfather, Christopher Hans Christian White, was Danish, and her maternal grandfather, Nicholas Cachikis, was Greek. Her grandmothers, Etta K. Lundy and Margaret Hobbs, both Canadian-born, had English and Welsh ancestry.
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22
She admitted to having had cosmetic surgery before The Golden Girls 1985, even though the program was about growing old and accepting it.
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23
In radio, she performed in episodes of The Great Gildersleeve, Blondie, and This Is Your FBI.
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24
Upon her death, she was cremated, and her ashes were given into custody of her longtime press agent, Jeff Witjas. She died on December 31, 2021, only 17 days before what would have been her 100th birthday on January 17, 2022. Her final word before passing was Allen, the first name of her late husband.
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25
She received her union card to work in radio by saying the line Parkay in a commercial during an episode of The Great Gildersleeve. She earned $37.50 but had to pay $69 to join the union.
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26
She was an avid animal welfare activist and worked with organizations including the Los Angeles Zoo Commission, the Morris Animal Foundation, Actors & Others for Animals, the Farm Animal Reform Movement, and Friends of Animals.
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27
In her book If You Ask Me And of Course You Won’t 2011, Betty stated that she had her eyes done in 1976 and had allowed nature to take its course ever since.
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28
She received the Women’s International Center Living Legacy Award in 1988.
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29
She was very dear friends with renowned animal trainer and Hollywood animal behaviorist Ralph Helfer, who provided many of his exotic animals for her television show The Pet Set 1971.
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30
Of the first two plays she auditioned for, she landed both leads. The plays were Philip Barry’s Spring Dance, which ran for eight performances, and the wartime romantic comedy Dear Ruth.
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31
She began her career as the Phone Girl on Al Jarvis’s afternoon television show in Los Angeles, California.
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32
In February 1939, at the request of Los Angeles Packard dealer Earle C. Anthony, she and Harry Bennett, Beverly Hills High School student body president, performed songs from the operetta The Merry Widow in the Packard Motor Car Company building for an experimental television broadcast.
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33
She met Mark Goodson, Bill Todman, Frank Wayne, and Chester Feldman while in New York doing game shows.
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34
Best known for her starring role as Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls 1985.
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35
When they were a couple, she and Lane Allan’s special song was Carl Ravazza’s I Love You for Sentimental Reasons.
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36
In 1949, she appeared on a local Los Angeles television special Haynes at the Reins that featured KLAC radio disc jockey Dick Haynes. She performed Somebody Loves Me and I’d Lie to Get You on a Slow Boat to China with bandleader Roc Hillman and his band.
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37
In 1949, she was recommended by band leader Roc Hillman for a KLAC fifteen-minute comedy show called Tom, Dick, and Harry that starred three vaudevillians managing a hotel. Betty played a maid, and the show lasted a few weeks.
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38
She attended and graduated from Horace Mann Grammar School in Beverly Hills, California.
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39
In 1949, she appeared on KLAC’s Grab Your Phone, in which she was one of four phone girls tasked with taking calls from the audience who endeavored to answer questions asked by host Wes Battersea. She was paid $20 per week.
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40
She was a member of the Unity Church.
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41
She was a Democrat and over the years endorsed Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adlai Stevenson, John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.
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42
She made several appearances on Santa Barbara 1984 as part of a contest.
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43
She studied acting at the Bliss-Hayden Theatre run by husband-wife film actor team Harry Hayden and Lela Bliss.
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44
After World War II began, she participated in the American Women’s Voluntary Services.
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45
She was born at 6:38 PM CST.
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46
Pictured on a USA nondenominated forever commemorative postage stamp issued March 27, 2025. Price on day of issue was 73¢. Issued in sheets of 20 stamps.
