History Creator / BettyWhite

* CoolOldLady: They don't come much cooler than Betty!

* OlderThanTheyLook: 97 years old, but could still pass for her late 60s.

James Corden once joked that she is "older than sliced-bread ''and'' Mickey Mouse". For those of you interested, ''both'' of those facts are ''true.''

* NiceLady: Betty is just sweet as pie.

The grand dame of American TV comedy[[note]]The only reason we haven't referred to her as "Queen" is because she's American. If she was British, we'd use that title, rest assured![[/note]], Betty Marion White (born January 17, 1922) is currently 98 years old and has been at work in the entertainment industry since 1939, when she began her career on the radio. She then got in on the ground floor of the newfangled medium of television, with her first Website/IMDb credit for TV dating to 1949. By 1953, she had her first starring role (the sitcom ''Series/LifeWithElizabeth''). First nominated for an Emmy in 1951, she was nominated a further 20 times and so far has won seven times.

* SerialSpouse: She was married three times throughout her life. While her first two marriages to Dick Barker and Lane Allen ended in divorce, her third marriage to Allen Ludden lasted until his death in 1981.

The grand dame of American TV comedy[[note]]The only reason we haven't referred to her as "Queen" is because she's American. If she was British, we'd use that title, rest assured![[/note]], Betty Marion White (born January 17, 1922) is currently 97 years old and has been at work in the entertainment industry since 1939, when she began her career on the radio. She then got in on the ground floor of the newfangled medium of television, with her first Website/IMDb credit for TV dating to 1949. By 1953, she had her first starring role (the sitcom ''Series/LifeWithElizabeth''). First nominated for an Emmy in 1951, she was nominated a further 20 times and so far has won seven times.

Despite being ''incredibly old'', she's still going, folks. The great actor culling of 2016 didn't get her either![[note]]She's still not the oldest living actor: Norman Lloyd is going strong at 105 as of 2020![[/note]]

Despite being ''incredibly old'', she's still going, folks. The great actor culling of 2016 didn't get her either![[note]]She's still not the oldest living actor: Norman Lloyd is going strong at 106 as of 2019![[/note]]

Despite being ''incredibly old'', she's still going, folks. The great actor culling of 2016 didn't get her either!

The grand dame of American TV comedy[[note]]The only reason we haven't referred to her as "Queen" is because she's American. If she was British, we'd use that title, rest assured![[/note]], Betty Marion White (born January 17, 1922) is currently 96 years old and has been at work in the entertainment industry since 1939, when she began her career on the radio. She then got in on the ground floor of the newfangled medium of television, with her first Website/IMDb credit for TV dating to 1949. By 1953, she had her first starring role (the sitcom ''Series/LifeWithElizabeth''). First nominated for an Emmy in 1951, she was nominated a further 20 times and so far has won seven times.

* OlderThanTheyLook: 96 years old, but could still pass for her late 60s.

The grand dame of American TV comedy, Betty Marion White (born January 17, 1922) is currently 96 years old and has been at work in the entertainment industry since 1939, when she began her career on the radio. She then got in on the ground floor of the newfangled medium of television, with her first Website/IMDb credit for TV dating to 1949. By 1953, she had her first starring role (the sitcom ''Series/LifeWithElizabeth''). First nominated for an Emmy in 1951, she was nominated a further 20 times and so far has won seven times.

* SerialSpouse: She was married three times throughout her life.

* BitingTheHandHumor: When she hosted on ''[[Series/SaturdayNightLive SNL]]'' (which, really, is a [[SelfDeprecation trademark gag on SNL nowadays]]), she mentioned that her first TV show was broadcast live, because they didn't know how to record TV yet. She's not sure what their excuse at ''SNL'' is[[note]]''[[DontExplainTheJoke SNL]]''[[DontExplainTheJoke 's excuse for doing their show live is because they want the comedy and memorable moments to be unexpected.]][[/note]] The petition to have her host was on Facebook. So of course Betty decided to call Facebook "a huge waste of time."

The grand dame of American TV comedy, Betty Marion White (born January 17, 1922) is currently 95 years old and has been at work in the entertainment industry since 1939, when she began her career on the radio. She then got in on the ground floor of the newfangled medium of television, with her first Website/IMDb credit for TV dating to 1949. By 1953, she had her first starring role (the sitcom ''Series/LifeWithElizabeth''). First nominated for an Emmy in 1951, she was nominated a further 20 times and so far has won seven times.

* OlderThanTheyLook: 95 years old, but could still pass for her late 60s.

* ConspiracyTheory: At Betty's 90th birthday celebration, UsefulNotes/BarackObama delivered her a recorded message saying he couldn't believe how old she was... so he would have to see her long-form birth certificate.

The grand dame of American TV comedy, Betty Marion White is currently 95 years young and has been at work in the entertainment industry since 1939, when she began her career on the radio. She then got in on the ground floor of the newfangled medium of television, with her first Website/IMDb credit for TV dating to 1949. By 1953, she had her first starring role (the sitcom ''Series/LifeWithElizabeth''). First nominated for an Emmy in 1951, she was nominated a further 20 times and so far has won seven times.

* TheDanza: A number of times.

* PlayingAgainstType: As discussed, she has done this several times.

* GameShowHost: Of ''Just Men!'', for which she won her only daytime Emmy despite Creator/{{NBC}} canning it after 13 weeks. Due to the way the Emmy nomination period worked at the time, she was actually nominated for it a second time. Also, she was married to ''Series/{{Password}}'' host Allen Ludden until his death. She's also made appearances on [[Series/TheTonightShowWithJimmyFallon Jimmy Fallon's mini-revival]] of ''Password'', her ''90th Birthday Celebration'' special featured an edition hosted by [[Series/TheSoup Joel [=McHale=]]], and her Lifetime Achievment Award at the 2015 Daytime Emmys was preceded by an edition of ''Password Plus'' hosted by [[Series/TheHollywoodSquares Tom]] [[Series/AmericasFunniestHomeVideos Bergeron]].

* GameShowHost: Of ''Just Men!'', for which she won her only daytime Emmy despite Creator/{{NBC}} canning it after 13 weeks. Due to the way the Emmy nomination period worked at the time, she was actually nominated for it a second time. Also, she was married to ''Series/{{Password}}'' host Allen Ludden until his death.

She has her own clothing line, and t-shirts with her face on them are [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff huge in Tokyo]]. She's also known for being a huge animal rights activist, and regularly works with various charities, such as the American Humane Association.

-->--'''Creator/SandraBullock'''

The grand dame of American TV comedy, Betty Marion White is currently 95 years young and has been at work in the entertainment industry since 1939, when she began her career on the radio. She then got in on the ground floor of the newfangled medium of television, with her first Website/IMDb credit for TV dating to 1949. By 1953, she had her first starring role (the sitcom ''LifeWithElizabeth''). First nominated for an Emmy in 1951, she was nominated a further 20 times and so far has won seven times.

White has undergone something of a late-career renaissance since 2009. In 2009, she had a supporting role in the successful romantic comedy ''Film/TheProposal'' starring Creator/SandraBullock. She appeared in a famous Snickers ad for the 2010 Super Bowl (which also happened to include Abe Vigoda), which inspired an originally semi-ironic Website/{{Facebook}} campaign to get her to host the long-running sketch show ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' during Season 35. The campaign was a big hit, and Lorne Michaels brought her on the show, making White the oldest host in the show's history at age 88 and a half (and beat out the only non-celebrity host — Miskel Spillman, who was 80 at the time, helmed the 1977 Christmas show after winning the "Anyone Can Host" contest in Season 3). She also had numerous high-profile guest appearances, like a recurring professor on ''Series/{{Community}}'', and received the Screen Actors Guild's Life Achievement Award in 2010. She contributed to TVLand's NetworkDecay by starring in ''HotInCleveland'', although that's hardly a bad thing. In 2012, she began hosting a new prank show on NBC, ''Betty White's Off Their Rockers'', featuring old people pranking youngsters. In August of 2015 [[http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/28/entertainment/betty-white-bones-feat/index.html she announced]] that she would guest-star in an episode of ''Series/{{Bones}}''.