| Betty White  AKA Betty Marion White
Born: 17-Jan-1922
Birthplace: Oak Park, IL
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Party Affiliation: Democratic Nationality: United States
Executive summary: TV sitcom and game show mainstay Betty White's family moved to Los Angeles when she was about 18 months old, and she grew up there. She began her career in show biz as 'girl Friday' for the almost legendary Al Jarvis on Los Angeles' KLAC in 1949. When Jarvis quit the station in 1952, she took over as host. That same year, she formed a production company; and created the sitcom Life With Elizabeth, starring White and Del Moore, and making White one of the first female TV producers. She had several more sitcoms, and was one of the first Hollywood starlets to earn the unofficial title "America's Sweetheart", but through the '50s and '60s she was more commonly seen on game shows.
It was on the game show Password that White met the gentlemanly Allen Ludden. They married in 1963, making her the stepmother to his four children. The Luddens were friends of Mary Tyler Moore and her then-husband Grant Tinker, so during the fourth season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, White came aboard as the sickly sweet nymphomaniac Sue Ann Nivens. After that, she starred in her own Betty White Show, and in 1985 she was cast as sweet, ditzy Rose Nylund in The Golden Girls.
She continues to appear on TV, but White is perhaps better known now as an animals' advocate. She has served on the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association Board since 1974. Husband: Dick Barker (m. 1945, div. 1945)
Husband: Lane Allen (m. 1947, div. 1949)
Husband: Allen Ludden (game show host, m. 14-Jun-1963, until his death)
High School: Beverly Hills High School, Beverly Hills, CA
Sierra Club
Endorsement of Arby's 1999
Hollywood Walk of Fame 6747 Hollywood Blvd (television)
Kentucky Colonel
German Ancestry
Greek Ancestry
Risk Factors: Vegetarian
TELEVISION
Password Panelist (1961-75)
Match Game Frequent panelist
The Mary Tyler Moore Show Sue Ann Nivens (1973-77)
Mama's Family Ellen Jackson (1983-86)
The Golden Girls Rose Nylund (1985-92)
Another World Brenda Barlowe (1988)
The Golden Palace Rose Nylund (1992-93)
Bob Sylvia Schmidt (1993)
Ladies Man Mitzi Stiles (1999-2001)
Boston Legal Catherine Piper (2005-)
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Stealing Christmas (30-Nov-2003)
Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt (09-Mar-2003)
Bringing Down the House (7-Mar-2003)
The Story of Us (13-Oct-1999)
Lake Placid (15-Jul-1999)
Holy Man (9-Oct-1998) Herself
Dennis the Menace Strikes Again (14-Jul-1998)
Hard Rain (16-Jan-1998)
Advise and Consent (6-Jun-1962)
Author of books:
Here We Go Again: My Life in Television (1995, memoir)
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