Nearing 100, Betty White’s life is a page-turner in new book
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A photo of Betty White, with dimpled smile and guileless gaze, fills the cover of a coffee table book arriving the month before her 100th birthday.
The image evokes the genuine White, according to the book’s author, Ray Richmond. After digging into her life and career, he concluded that she’s as warm and appealing as appearances would have it.
But her willingness to play against type, whether as scheming Sue Ann on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” or naïve Rose of “The Golden Girls,” proves how game and talented White is, said Richmond.
That, coupled with an impressive work ethic, carried her from a cameo on television in its 1930s infancy to the darling of “Saturday Night Live” in the 21st century, with a myriad of show business gigs along the way.
“You could make a convincing case that Betty White is the most versatile and beloved entertainer in American history,” said Richmond, whose “Betty White: 100 Remarkable Moments in an Extraordinary Life” (becker&mayer! Books) is out Tuesday.
Besides starring in sitcoms and making guest appearances in dozens of others, she was a reliably witty game show host and guest; parade emcee (California’s Rose Parade and New York’s Thanksgiving Day parade) and soap opera actor (“The Bold and the Beautiful”). She dabbled in drama on the big screen (including as a U.S. senator in 1962’s “Advise & Consent”) and on TV (“Bones,” “Boston Legal”).
Hosting “Saturday Night Live” in 2010 — at age 88 — earned her a fifth Emmy Award and a new generation of admirers.
White, who will reach centenarian status on Jan. 17, 2022, didn’t participate in the book. Richmond, a veteran entertainment reporter and critic, instead relied on research and interviews with her friends and colleagues, including Carol Burnett, Candice Bergen and Gavin MacLeod ( Murray on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”).
MacLeod, who died last May at age 90, wrote the book’s forward. Saluting White as a great performer and “national treasure,” he deemed her “one of the most caring and loving human beings I’ve ever known.”