It is my very sad duty to inform you (on New Year’s Day no less) that legendary actor and human angel Betty White has passed away, aged 99.
According to ABC News, White’s agent Jeff Witjas confirmed the news, adding what we all believed: “Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever.” TMZ reports that Betty White died at her home in Los Angeles of natural causes.
2022, you are mere hours in and I already hate you so much.
White, who was born on Jan 17 1922, had been a working actress since the 1930s and was a mainstay on US television for decades. In the 1970s she starred on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and won two Emmys for her role as hornbag Sue Ann Nivens.
But it was White’s role in groundbreaking 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls that she’s perhaps best known for. As ditzy Rose Nylund, White managed to make being the butt of everyone else’s jokes into an art form. If you’ve never watched The Golden Girls, do yourself a favour and make your hungover New Year’s Day to day you start. (It’s on Disney+’s Star).
Betty White even scored a sitcom role in her 90s, in the show Hot in Cleveland which ran from 2010-2014 and introduced another generation to the comedy legend.
Off-screen, White was a lover and protector of animals and considered her pets to be her children, never having human kids of her own. For her dedication to animal charities, she was even made an honorary Forest Ranger in 2010.
Winning a lifetime acheievement award at the 2018 Emmys, White said: “It’s incredible that I’m still in this business and that you are still putting up with me.”
Betty, we would have put up with you for another 99 years. Farewell to an icon and a legend.
