Betty White is an Emmy-award winning television and film actress born on January 17, 1922 in Oak Park, Illinois. A graduate of Beverly Hills High School in California, she first worked as glamour model before continuing on to a career in television. Her acting career spans about 60 years, which was marked by her work on game shows and sitcoms.
Veering away from modeling, Betty White got her break on television when portrayed the title character in Life with Elizabeth from 1953 to 1955. She is also credited as co-producer of the show, and later on garnered her first Emmy nomination for her performance. Her next role was as Vicki Angel on the sitcom Date with the Angels. For a brief period, she hosted her own talk show titled The Betty White Show. In 1962, the actress made her film debut when she appeared as a senator in the drama Advise and Consent.
During the 1960s, she made numerous appearances as a celebrity guest on the game show Password, later marrying the show’s host, Allen Ludden. She was later featured in other game shows like What’s My Line?, To Tell the Truth, I’ve Got a Secret, Match Game and Pyramid. Her time spent on these productions wasn’t wasted one bit, as she became the host of the NBC entry, Just Men! White later became the first woman to win a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host.
Betty White’s other roles have been in The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Mama’s Family. In 1977, CBS gave the actress her own sitcom, The Betty White Show, but it was canceled after one season. She later scored a memorable role as the ditzy Rose Nylund on the NBC sitcom The Golden Girls. For the first season of the show, White won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series. She reprised her role in the show’s spin-off The Golden Palace. After its cancellation, White made appearances in That ‘70s Show, Malcolm in the Middle, Ally McBeal, Everwood, and was nominated for Emmys for her roles in Suddenly Susan, The Practice and Yes, Dear. She later joined the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, and was given a recurring role in Boston Legal. White’s film credentials include Advise and Consent, Hard Rain, Lake Placid, The Story of Us, and Bringing Down the House.
(Image courtesy of TV.Yahoo.com)
-Betty was orginally supposed to play Blanche on Golden Girls, but they thought that Rue would suit the role better.
-Betty has contributed millions of dollars to charities and is one of the country's foremost animal activists.
-Betty has been a strong critic of reality television.
-Betty is a vegetarian.
-Betty was one of the first actresses to earn the unofficial title "America's Sweetheart".
-Anger tears me up inside... My own... or anyone else's.
-I don’t find any shows hard. I just enjoy them. Doing drama is, in a sense, easier. In doing comedy, if you don’t get that laugh, there’s something wrong.
(on her love of animals)
-My husband used to say that television was my hobby and animals were my real life. I just enjoy them more than anything else.
