This is devastating news that is coming from TMZ.
RIP to the legend.
Beloved actress, comedian and American icon Betty White has died, just weeks before a milestone birthday … TMZ has learned.
Law enforcement sources tell TMZ … Betty passed away at her home Friday morning.
A trailblazer and pioneer in media, Betty had the longest running career in TV as a female prior to her death — having starred in multiple shows over the past 8 decades, starting in 1939. Betty is perhaps most famous for her lead role as Rose Nylund in “The Golden Girls,” which ran from 1985 to 1992. She’d been in TONS of other stuff throughout her life though.
Betty Marion White Ludden (January 17, 1922 – December 31, 2021) is an American actress and comedian. A pioneer of early television and with a career spanning over nine decades, White is noted for her vast work in the entertainment industry, having been one of the first women to exert control in front of and behind the camera, as well as for being the first woman to produce a sitcom (Life with Elizabeth), which contributed to her being named honorary Mayor of Hollywood in 1955. She is also widely known for her roles as Sue Ann Nivens on the CBS sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1973–1977), Rose Nylund on the NBC sitcom The Golden Girls (1985–1992), and Elka Ostrovsky on the TV Land sitcom Hot in Cleveland (2010–2015).
White was eight years old when she made her radio programming debut in 1930. Several years later in young adulthood she began working as a radio personality in Los Angeles under the guidance of disc jockey Al Jarvis. After making the transition to television, White became a staple panelist of American game shows, including Password, Match Game, Tattletales, To Tell the Truth, The Hollywood Squares and The $25,000 Pyramid; dubbed “the first lady of game shows”, White became the first woman to receive the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host for the show Just Men! in 1983.[6] She is also known for her appearances on The Bold and the Beautiful, Boston Legal, The Carol Burnett Show, and Saturday Night Live.
With a television career spanning over nine decades, White has worked longer in that medium than anyone else in the television industry, earning her a Guinness World Record in 2018. White has received eight Emmy Awards in various categories, three American Comedy Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Grammy Award. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and is a 1985 Television Hall of Fame inductee.
Flip the pages for all the tributes coming in.
