Betty White Dead at 99

Betty White, beloved actress and comedian, has died at age 99. Best known for her iconic series,The Golden Girls, White held the record for the entertainer with the longest-running television career, spanning over 80 years.

"Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever," her agent Jeff Witjas said in a statement to Deadline. "I will miss her terribly and so will the animal world that she loved so much. I don't think Betty ever feared passing because she always wanted to be with her most beloved husband Allen Ludden. She believed she would be with him again."

White died peacefully in her home in Brentwood, California, on Thursday, Dec. 30, just a couple of weeks shy of her 100th birthday. A special movie event Betty White: 100 Years Young was planned for the centennial celebration. 

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She was a legend on screen and off. In 1954, viewers demanded that she remove Black dancer Arthur Duncan from her NBC variety show The Betty White Show. White famously said, "Sorry, live with it," and gave Duncan even more airtime. The show was canceled by the end of the year, but it cemented White as an ally of the Civil Rights movement. 

Though best known for her role as Rose on Golden Girls and playing Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, White had an incredibly impressive career outside of those iconic sitcoms. She lent her talents to documentaries, animated films, and game shows, and she has even appeared as herself in multiple projects. Over the course of her career, White received eight Emmy Awards in various categories, a Grammy Award, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three American Comedy Awards. Her last TV credit was voicing "Bitey White" in the Disney+ Toy Story spin-off animated short series, Forky Asks a Question.