Just weeks before her centennial birthday on January 17, TV legend Betty White has passed away at the age of 99. Rising to fame on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and becoming a household name as one-fourth of The Golden Girls quartet, White entertained millions of viewers over the past several decades, cementing herself as a true entertainment icon.
White first rose to fame as the titular Elizabeth on the sitcom Life with Elizabeth, running for two seasons from 1952 to 1955. The series followed a typical suburban couple through their everyday predicaments, with each episode consisting of three separate shorts, each focusing on a new “incident.”
Long before she became a TV legend, she starred alongside another in her role as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show from 1973 to 1977. Star of the fictional radio show The Happy Homemaker, Nivens brought the laughs with her hilarious cooking tips and home advice, in addition to her fierce competitiveness and sometimes cynical personality.
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Following Mary Tyler Moore, she starred in her own self-titled series as Joyce Whitman on The Betty White Show. The series followed middle-aged actress Whitman after landing the starring role on a new police show, only to discover the director is none other than her ex-husband, John (John Hillerman).
Almost ten years later, White took on her most iconic role as the kind-hearted Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls, which ran for seven seasons from 1985-1992. While often seen as the naïve, sweetheart of the friend group, Nylund was never afraid to show her competitive and crafty side when necessary, and always looked out for her friends’ best interests. She would later reprise her role on the show’s short-lived spin-off, The Golden Palace, as well as on Empty Nest.
Flash-forward to the 21st century, White stepped outside of the world of comedy for dramatic roles as secretary Catherine Piper on Boston Legal and Ann Douglas on the long-running soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful. Returning to comedy, she most recently starred as Elka Ostrovsky on Hot in Cleveland from 2010 to 2015. Having escaped Nazis and traveled across the pond to Cleveland, the outspoken caretaker befriends the women of her rented Los Angeles home while also finding a second chance at love.
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