Betty White born Betty Marion White Ludden was an American actress and comedian. She was a well-known actress popular for her career performances in the entertainment industry and for the unversed, she was one of the first women who had the experience of working in front as well behind the camera.
What Is the Net Worth of Betty White?
White had a long career that spanned nearly seven decades and the actress had a net worth of $75 million. She tasted many successes in television as well as films, proving herself in versatile characters throughout her career.
Early Life
Betty White was born on January 17, 1922, in Oak Park, Illinois. She was the only child of Christine Tess and Horace Logan White. In 1923, when she was just one year old, her family relocated to Alhambra, California and then they moved to Los Angeles amidst the Great Depression.
She went to attend Horace Mann Elementary School located in Beverly Hills and Beverly Hills High School.
In 1939, she completed her graduation. Initially, she wanted to become a forest ranger but she could not achieve that since at that time, women weren’t entitled to work as rangers.
She had an interest in writing which she pursued and also penned and portrayed the lead in a graduation play at Horace Mann School, and that play made her realize her interest in acting. Her inspirations were Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy and she finally decided to become an actress.
After one month of completing her high school graduation, White along with her fellow classmates performed songs from The Merry Widow on an experimental television show as the mode of television was still under development. She later got modeling work and also did her very first professional acting work at the Bliss Hayden Little Theatre.
In 1941, she even volunteered for the American Women’s Voluntary Services after the U.S. was involved in World War II. While talking about her experience from Wartime, she said “It was a strange time and out of balance with everything.”
Personal Life
When White was volunteering with the American Women’s Voluntary Services, she met Dick Barker, a United States Army Air Forces P-38 pilot.
The duo got married after the war and relocated to Belle Center, Ohio where he had a chicken farm and he wanted to lead a simple life but White didn’t like this and both of them got back to Los Angeles and separated within one year of marriage.
Then in 1947, she got married to Lane Allen who was a Hollywood talent agent but then nearly after 2 years of marriage, in 1947, they divorced as he wanted to start a family and she chose her career as a priority.
White got married again on June 14, 1963, to Allen Ludden who was a television host. She met him on his game show Password as a celebrity guest in 1961. Ludden had proposed to her twice prior to when she accepted his proposal.
Writer John Steinbeck was amongst their high-profile friends and in her 2011 book titled If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t), she writes regarding her friendship with the writer. Steinbeck’s wife Elaine Anderson Steinbeck and Ludden went to the same school.
White and Ludden had no children together but Ludden had three kids from his first wife Margaret McGloin Ludden, who lost her life in 1961 due to cancer.
On June 9, 1981, Ludden died due to stomach cancer in Los Angeles and White chose to never get married after his demise. In an interview with Larry King, she was asked about the reason behind her decision of not remarrying, and her response was “Once you’ve had the best, who needs the rest?”
Career
In 1949, White got her major break when she had an opportunity to serve as a co-host for Al Jarvis in the television show Hollywood. In 1952, when Jarvis took an exit from the show, she became the lead host, putting together her way from a six-day a week schedule and singing once every broadcast at the least.
However, White was relatively very new for the television world; she received an Emmy for her performances.
White also established her own production company in 1952 with the assistance of a writer and a producer and named her company Bandy Productions.
She then rolled out a show titled Life With Elizabeth in 1953, in which White portrayed the lead character. White was among those few women who had entire control of the nationally syndicated show.
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White, at the peak of her success, started featuring in various commercials. She cracked a pact with NBC in 1954 to have her own television talk show, The Betty White Show.
And with this, she had complete creative control yet again and took liberal decisions like recruiting a female director and involving an African-American performer frequently in the show. But due to issues related to viewership the show was terminated quite soon.
Her next performance was in the television series titled Date with the Angels, which turned out to be one of the most devastating roles of her career. In 1958, following the show’s failure, the following year she featured in a theatrical play.
She started focusing on game shows in the 1960s and Password was one of her first game shows in which she appeared which was soon followed up with shows such as “What’s My Line?”, “Pyramid” and “I’ve Got a Secret”. White also featured for her first role with Advise & Consent.
In the 1970s, she had her very first appearance in the extremely famed show titled The Mary Tyler Moore Show and toward the end of her run on the show, she took home three Emmys throughout her career.
After the end of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, she was provided with her own show and this would be the fourth show that was hosted by her titled The Betty White Show. The show was terminated following its first season.
During the 1980s, she earned the title of “The First Lady of Game Shows” following which she hosted shows like Just Men! She was also featured as an actress on shows such as Mama’s Family in this decade.
Her career’s turning point was when she accepted the character of Rose Nylund in The Golden Girls. To this day, she was maybe the most popular for this one specific character, and that role also brought her another Emmy for her excellent performance.
In the early 1990s, after The Golden Girls‘ end, she continued to appear for several roles in shows such as Suddenly Susan and Yes, Dear.
She was seen on shows like Boston Legal and The Practice in the 2000s. She became the oldest person in 2010 who hosted Saturday Night Live following a Facebook campaign by fans that succeeded.
In the same year, White also had a role in the show Hot In Cleveland. According to reports, she was getting a pay of $75,000 for each episode of Hot In Cleveland.
During the period 2012 to 2014, she served as host and executive producer for a show titled Betty White’s Off Their Rockers, in which elderly individuals play pranks over the younger generations. She was honored with an NBC TV special entitled Betty White’s 90th Birthday in 2012.
White landed the cast of Toy Story 4 in 2019 and gave her voice to the character of a toy tiger named “Bitey White.”
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