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Betty White

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Betty Marion White (born January 17, 1922) is an Emmy Award winning television actress with a career spanning over 50 years. White was born in Oak Park, Illinois, but was raised in Los Angeles, California.

Before embarking on her television career, Betty White also found work modeling as a 'glamour' model. White's early television roles included her portrayal of Elizabeth on Life With Elizabeth from 1953 to 1955 and as Vicki Angel on Date With the Angels from 1957 to 1958. She also had her own talk show briefly in 1954 with the original The Betty White Show (not to be confused with her 1970s sitcom of the same name).

White made many appearances on the hit game show Password, which she was a regular guest celebrity on from 1961 through 1975; it was through her early appearances on Password that she met the show's host, Allen Ludden, whom she married in 1963 (Ludden died in 1981. White's two previous marriages ended in divorce). In the 1970s and 80s, White appeared on the updated versions of Password on NBC -- Password Plus and Super Password.

White also made frequent game show appearances on What's My Line? (starting in 1955), To Tell the Truth (in 1961 and in 1990), Match Game (1973-1982) and Pyramid (starting in 1982). Both Password and Pyramid were created by White's friend, Bob Stewart. In 1983, White became the first woman to win an Emmy as outstanding game show host, for the NBC entry Just Men!

Betty White a panelist on Match Game in 1981.
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Betty White a panelist on Match Game in 1981.

White played sardonic, sex-obsessed, gourmand "Sue Ann Nivens" on Mary Tyler Moore from 1973 to 1977. Following that show's end, she was given her own sitcom on CBS, The Betty White Show, during the 1977-78 season, where she co-starred with John Hillerman and (former Mary Tyler Moore co-star) Georgia Engel. From 1983 through 1985, she played "Ellen Harper Jackson" on the moderate hit show Mama's Family along with future Golden Girls co-star Rue McClanahan.

When Mama's Family was picked up in syndication after being canceled by NBC in 1985, White left the show and scored perhaps her most memorable role as the ditzy St. Olaf, Minnesota native "Rose Nylund" on The Golden Girls, a show about the lives of four widowed or divorced women in their 50s in Miami. The Golden Girls was immensely successful and ran from 1985 through 1992.

White as Sue Ann on Mary Tyler Moore
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White as Sue Ann on Mary Tyler Moore

White as Rose on The Golden Girls
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White as Rose on The Golden Girls

White has won five Emmy Awards, three American Comedy Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990), and two Viewers for Quality Television Awards. She was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1995 and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame alongside the star of her late husband Allen Ludden. White is well known as a pet enthusiast and animal welfare activist.

Currently, White has a recurring role in ABC's Boston Legal. She plays the vicious, calculating, blackmailing gossip Catherine Piper.

White made an appearance on the Match Game panel of CBS's Gameshow Marathon, on the episode that aired June 22, 2006. She sat in the bottom-right seat on the panel just as she did on the '70s version of the show. White is a member of the Television Academy Hall of Fame and works with a number of animal organizations including the Los Angeles Zoo Commission, the Morris Animal Foundation, and Actors & Others for Animals.

Contents

Emmy Awards

TV Work

Partial filmography

External links

 

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