End of a Golden era BYE-BYE, BETTY
Thank you for being a friend... The late great comedy queen always had a funny take on life
She was talented, hilarious and addicted to hot dogs. On December 31, Hollywood icon Betty White – star of TV hits including The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls – died, aged 99. We pay tribute to the big-hearted actress, who kept us laughing right up to the end.
Hollywood wasn’t interested at first.
Born in 1922, Betty grew up in Los Angeles. Her school pals voted her “best looking female” but when she went knocking in Hollywood, she was told she was too
“unphotogenic” to be an actress. She proved them wrong by becoming one of Tinseltown’s most celebrated actresses, appearing in everything from The Love Boat to Boston Legal.
She made her music video debut at the age of 90.
In 2012, Betty teamed up with electro-pop artist Luciana and revelled in rap lyrics like “I will get you sweaty ’cause I’m the big Betty” and “I rock your world with my cheesecake”.
Her third marriage worked a charm.
Betty was 23 when she wed army pilot Dick Barker in 1945 and started out married life on his Ohio chicken farm, but four months later she called it quits and moved back to Los Angeles. In 1947, she married Hollywood agent Lane Allen, but that relationship also ended when Lane insisted Betty forget her career ambitions and become a homemaker. In 1961, aged 39, Betty met the love her life, game-show host Allen Ludden. After twice turning down his proposals of marriage, she said “I do” in 1963 and they lived happily ever after until Allen died of stomach cancer in 1981. Betty never remarried, saying,
“Once you’ve had the best, who needs the rest?”
She had just one regret. When she was occasionally asked, “What have you not done in show business that you’ve always wanted to do?”, she had one cheeky reply: “Robert Redford!”
Animals were her passion.
In 1997, animal lover Betty turned down a role in the hit movie As Good As It Gets because Jack Nicholson’s character was required to shove a puppy down a laundry chute. The actress worked with the Morris Animal Foundation for 40 years,
helping develop vaccines for various animal illnesses, and she also worked with zoos all over the US. “I have to stay in show business to pay for my animal work,” she once laughed.
She loved junk food.
“My favourite food is hot dogs and French fries,” the star confessed on numerous occasions and her co-stars confirmed she snacked endlessly on red liqourice, French fries, Diet Coke and hot dogs while on set. LA hot dog restaurant Pinks even named its condimentfree Betty White Naked Dog dish after her. Betty’s Hot in
Cleveland co-star Jane Leeves once quipped, “Maybe she’s preserved because of all the preservatives!” Betty also had a penchant for vodka on the rocks. “You can’t get much better,” she said, adding, “Past a certain age, you can get away with murder. You can do anything and people will say, ‘Well, the poor old soul, she’s… You know.’”
She wasn’t afraid of death.
“I know I’m weird,” said Betty, “but death is never something that I worry about. My mother taught me that. She used to say there’s one thing nobody on the planet knows and that’s what happens when somebody dies. She always said, when we’d lose somebody, ‘Well, now he knows the secret.’ It doesn’t keep it from hurting us who are left behind, but I’ll be very interested in knowing the secret.”
Liberace was a close friend. Flamboyant entertainer Liberace was introduced to Betty through a mutual friend and for a while, the world believed they were dating because they often attended premieres together. She praised him as one of the nicest people she ever met and said, “I don’t care avec [with] whom you sleep, if you’re a decent, nice human being – that’s the bottom line.”
She was always ready with a quip.
In 2010, Betty accepted a SAG award for Lifetime Achievement, enthusing, “Thank you from the bottom of my heart, and from the bottom of my bottom!”
She never gave up.
“I love to work, so I’ll keep working until they stop asking,” said the star, who died 17 days before her 100th birthday. “Friends say, ‘Betty, you’ve got to slow down, this isn’t good for you.’ But I love what I’m doing. Why not?”