Betty White was so beloved that even younger audiences who had never seen an episode of “The Golden Girls” or “The Mary Tyler Moore” show still adored her sweet charms and warm smile before surprising with a dirty joke or a clever jab. On New Year’s Eve, we lost this American treasure at 99. Here’s a look at some of her best moments.
White was a pioneer in television in real-life, and played one on-screen. Sue Ann Nivens, her character on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” was a lifestyle show host. Here, Sue Ann isn’t too keen about the feedback that she’s getting from a male colleague.
This clip from the first season of “The Golden Girls” is a flashback to when the girls first started living together and whether they could make it work. White’s straight delivery about The Great Herring War and a herring circus put her co-stars Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan in stitches. Her rambling, ridiculous St. Olaf stories would become her character Rose’s signature.
This “Golden Girls” rehearsal clip shows what a naturally gifted comic White was, thinking on her feet even during a rehearsal when the cameras weren’t supposed to be on.
White was the queen of game shows, appearing on “Match Game,” “Password” and as the host of the game show “Just Men!” starting in 1983. Here she is receiving clues — including one about marijuana — on “25,000 Pyramid.”
If Johnny Carson was going to take his shirt off for a sketch, better call Betty White. She once played Jane to his Tarzan after years of a disgruntled marriage, and in this sketch, she uses her often smutty sense of humor to bat around some balls with a nude Carson in a baseball locker room.
White has been a talk show staple for so many decades that it isn’t crazy to think she reminds us of a mother or grandmother. But later in her life, she found enough attitude that she could make even David Letterman blush.
White got her lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild in 2009 — and still had a lot ahead of her. She’s always given off that earnest, humble warmth even when playing a bit naughty. “I actually know many of you and worked with quite a few…maybe had a couple.”
No matter how old long you live, there aren’t many actors who can boast three hit TV shows. In “Hot in Cleveland,” White got to feel sexy and wanted and do whatever she wanted, even if that meant squeezing a football player’s pecs.
And just because it would be impossible not to, here’s White making out with Bradley Cooper on “SNL,” probably one of his finest moments ever captured on film.
