In A Blow To All That Is Good In The World, Betty White Dead at 99
Betty White in 1989 at the Emmy Awards. Photo by photo by Alan Light, CC BY 2.0
You go to hell, 2021. You go to hell and you die. Betty White is dead 17 days shy of her 100th birthday.
Beloved actress, comedian and American icon Betty White has died, just weeks before a milestone birthday … TMZ has learned.
Law enforcement sources tell TMZ … Betty passed away at her home Friday morning.
A trailblazer and pioneer in media, Betty had the longest running career for any woman in TV prior to her death — starring in multiple shows over the past 8 decades, starting way back in 1939.
Betty is perhaps most famous for her lead role as Rose Nylund in “The Golden Girls,” which ran from 1985 to 1992. She’d been in TONS of other big hits throughout her life though.
Betty got her start in radio in the ’40s, making appearances on “Blondie,” “The Great Gildersleeve,” and “This is Your FBI.” She eventually got her own radio program. In 1949, Betty began working on a televised variety show with Al Jarvis called “Hollywood on Television” — which she later co-hosted — before breaking out into more TV roles in the ’50s and beyond.
With 115 acting credits to her name, Betty has shown in up in productions like “Life with Elizabeth,” “Date with the Angels,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Betty White Show,” “The Love Boat,” “Mama’s Family,” “The Golden Palace,” “Ladies Man,” “That ’70s Show,” “Higglytown Heroes,” “Boston Legal,” “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “Pound Puppies,” “Hot in Cleveland,” and many, many, many other shows and films.
She has received numerous accolades over the course of her career, including multiple Emmys, Screen Actors Guild Awards, American Comedy Awards and even a Grammy. She’s been nominated for several Golden Globes and has also been honored with lots of Lifetime Achievement Awards and celebrations through several organizations.
An absolute cultural icon, and for all the right reason, Betty White was universally beloved in an age where very few folks in the public light are. On top of her entertainment gifts, she was well known for her animal advocacy and love of pets, especially her dogs. One of the foundational pillars of Twitter is the once-a-week or so abject panic when Betty White starts to trend, and folks freak out worrying she had passed away. It happened just this morning, over the long-running joke about her and one-time co-star Ryan Reynolds.
Little did we know then.
Life is short, even when you live 99 years and 348 days, have fame and fortune, and the respect and love of just about everyone.
God bless you Betty White. And thank you.
Damn, first Harry Reid and now this. 2021 isn’t as bad as 2020 but it’s trying hard.Report
I’m convinced Madden and White are having an absolute blast somewhere.Report
Dammit to heck. She was such a bright light.
RIP Ms. White. You will be missed.Report
Ugh. Dammit. Condolences to…well…all of us.Report
I wonder if people who die at 99-plus, with some notice that it’s going to happen, find it frustrating to realize that they’re not going to make it to 100? Do people who die shortly before a Presidential election, or the Super Bowl, and know that they won’t live to see the result, feel a special pang of regret that they would not feel if they died a week or so later?Report
My brother-in-law expressed many regrets just before he passed last year from aggressive lung cancer. He verbalized regret he would never celebrate another birthday or Christmas or his grandchild grow to an adult.Report
One of the saddest things about the pandemic to me has been how many folks had to die either alone or in facilities where no outside visitors were allowed, including far too many friends and family members.Report
Well, shit…Report
2021 also took Ed Asner, Cloris Leachman, and Gavin MacLeod. That’s the whole cast gone, except for John Amos (Gordy the weather guy.)Report
Joyce Bulifant and Lisa Gerritsen are still alive. They were in 11 and 10 episodes, compared to Amos’s 13.
The lesson here is to play a recurring character, never a star.Report
When I heard that Betty White had kicked the bucket, my first thought was, “How’s the bucket?”Report
I saw one thing on the Twitters this morning that lessened my sadness — we (the public) made it abundantly clear to Betty White just how much we loved her while she was alive.Report
Betty White playing against type. This is so funny I almost hurt myself laughing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaoJbMOUkcEReport
I was not a fan of her work. Maybe it was just her era, but she always seemed to be pushing the boundaries of bad taste. I never watched The Golden Girls, where I guess she was the one main character who didn’t get the cheap laughs by being obnoxious or trampy, but that was her kind of character in most everything else she did.Report
It ain’t fair!!!!!!!Report