by Conan Simmons – December 31, 2021 – 5:39 pm
The last day of the year and sad news to bear, beloved television comedienne Betty White has passed away today, December 31, 2021, just shy of her 100th birthday in Los Angeles, California.
Born January 17, 1922, in Oak Park, Illinois Betty White was educated at the Beverly Hills High School before marking her first appearance in front of a movie camera with the 1945 short film ‘Time to Kill’. A few years later, in 1949, Betty White began what would be one of the most iconic television careers in the history of the medium when she appeared in the series ‘Hollywood on Television’.
Betty White quickly became a regular fixture on the small screen appearing on numerous shows throughout the 1950’s even starring in ‘Life with Elizabeth’ from 1952 to 1955.
Preferring to stick with the quick output of television Betty White would only make a handful of appearances on the silver screen. The first major film she made was 1962’s political drama ‘Advise & Consent’ starring alongside Henry Fonda and Charles Laughton with Otto Preminger directing.
Continuing to work consistently on television making guest appearances on several shows in the 1960’s, it wasn’t until the mid-1970’s when Betty White would make her first big impact with a recurring role on the popular ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’. She would follow that up with her own ‘The Betty White Show’ which aired for one season from 1977 to 1978.
With appearances on too many T.V. series and made-for-television movies to name Betty White still found time to manage a recurring role on the hit series ‘The Love Boat’ from 1980 to 1985 when she would land perhaps her greatest role as a lead on ‘The Golden Girls’, a series so popular it ran from 1985 until 1992.
Never ceasing to work Betty White kept up her T.V. appearances in the 1990’s and once again graced the silver screen a few times in 1998 and 1999. Working with another stalwart actor, Morgan Freeman, she appeared in the action thriller ‘Hard Rain’ and alongside top comedian Eddie Murphy in ‘Holy Man’. Betty White had a memorable role as the kindly caretaker of the giant man-eating alligator in the horror flick ‘Lake Placid’ alongside Bridget Fonda, the granddaughter of Henry Fonda.
In the 2000’s, Betty White kept up an active pace with television guest roles and returned to the silver screen for 2009’s romantic comedy ‘The Proposal’ starring Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock.
From 2010 to 2015, Betty White starred in the comedy series ‘Hot in Cleveland’ and even made an appearance as herself on the popular televised wrestling program ‘WWE Raw’ in 2014.
Betty White’s last roles came in 2019 with voice work on the Oscar winning animated feature ‘Toy Story 4’ and a final credit for providing her voice to the television short ‘Forky Asks a Question’.
For such a long, 75 years, career it seems ironic that both the first and last credits for Betty White were short films. Television and film acting wasn’t the only thing she was busy at over the decades, Betty White was also married three times.