Legendary Actress Betty White Has Passed Away

We are incredibly sad to report that beloved actress and comedian Betty White has passed away at the age of 99.

She passed away Thursday night at her home in California. The news was confirmed to Deadline by Betty White’s agent Jeff Witjas. The actress would have been 100 on January 17th. 

Witjas said in a statement, “Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever. I will miss her terribly and so will the animal world that she loved so much. I don’t think Betty ever feared passing because she always wanted to be with her most beloved husband Allen Ludden. She believed she would be with him again.”

Betty White was an award-winning actress known for her roles on The Golden Girls and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Her career spanned more than 75 years.

In 2013, the Guinness Book of World Records awarded White with having the longest television career for a female entertainer, according to ABC News.

She won 5 Primetime Emmy awards and 21 nominations. She also has 2 daytime Emmy awards, including the 2015 daytime Emmy for lifetime achievement. Betty White holds the record as the oldest Emmy nominee overall, with her most recent nomination being in 2012 at the age of 90, according to ABC news.

Betty White was named a Disney Legend in 2009 along with her Golden Girls co-stars. She voiced Hestia in Hercules, Bitey White in Toy Story 4, and Mrs. Claus in Prep and Landing: Operation: Stocking Stuffer.

She was also on Freeform’s Young and Hungry and played Grandma Annie in The Proposal.

Other work of hers includes movies like The Lorax and You Again, as well as starring in TV Land’s Hot in Cleveland.

Betty White was born on January 17th, 1922 in Oak Park, Illinois. She got her start in show business in 1939 on a television show, dancing in her high school graduation clothes, according to NBC News.

White was also the oldest person to host Saturday Night Live at the age of 88.

Betty White was an author, too, writing several books, including autobiographies Here We Go Again: My Life in Television and If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t). She won her first Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Recording for the recording of the latter.

White was a lifelong animal welfare advocate, publishing Betty and Friends: My Life at the Zoo in 2011. She worked with the Morris Animal Foundation and the Los Angeles Zoo for more than 40 years, according to NBC News. 

She told The Hollywood Reporter, “I have to keep acting so that I can afford to keep doing my charity work. I’m actually the luckiest old broad alive. Half my life is working in a profession I love and the other half is working with animals. I couldn’t ask for more.”

Our thoughts are with Betty White’s family and loved ones at this time. She will be deeply missed.

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