(Los Angeles) Actress Betty White, an American television icon who has made audiences laugh for more than seven decades on shows like The Golden Girls, died a few days before her 100e anniversary, US media reported on Friday citing his agent.
“Even though Betty was going to be 100, I believed she would live forever,” told the magazine People his agent Jeff Witjas.
“I don’t think she was afraid of dying, because she always wanted to be with her beloved husband Allen Ludden. She thought she would be by his side again, ”he said.
Betty White, one of America’s most beloved actresses, has enjoyed multiple accolades during her exceptionally long career. Multiple Emmy Award-winning, she first appeared on television in 1949 and still lent her voice to a character from Toy story 4 in 2019.
“It’s amazing that I’m still in this job, and that you still support me!” “, Said the actress at the Emmy Awards in 2018.
In The Golden Girls, she played the clumsy and often naive Rose Nylund, the counterpart to the more sophisticated characters played by Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty.
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Betty White with Rue McClanahan and Bea Arthur, who played with her the main characters of the series The Golden Girls.
She had also appeared in The Mary Tyler Moore Show or in the famous series Top Models and in 2010, at 88, became the oldest person to host the famous entertainment show Saturday Night Live.
“True legend”
Born in 1922 in the suburbs of Chicago, Betty White began her career in modeling, before working in radio, playing in commercials and obtaining small leading roles.
Her life was then inseparable from the small screen, and it was also in a game show that she met her third husband, Allen Ludden, who then introduced him. The couple remained married from 1963 until the latter’s death in 1981. She never remarried, and had no children.
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Flowers and soft toys were placed on the actress’ star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Along with her acting career, the star was one of the first female producers of the series. Life with Elizabeth, in which she also played, in the 1950s.
Betty White, with the recognizable blonde cut and light blue eyes, was known for her irreverent lines.
Asked by presenter David Letterman about her favorite hobbies, this great defender of the animal cause had declared to like “playing with animals, mainly. And vodka is kind of a hobby ”.
“Betty White has put a smile on the lips of generations of Americans. He is a cultural icon that will be sorely missed, ”tweeted US President Joe Biden.
“Who didn’t like Betty White?” We are so sad, ”his wife Jill Biden told reporters.
Hollywood was quick to honor his memory, with actor Ryan Reynolds saying, for example, that “the world now looks different”.
“She was very good at defying expectations,” he tweeted.
The US military also paid tribute to this “true legend on and off the screen” who had also “served during World War II in the American Women’s Volunteer Services”.
The healthy actress would have turned 100 on January 17. “My 100e birthday… I can’t believe it’s coming, ”she tweeted on Tuesday, sharing an interview made for the occasion.