by Thinus Ferreira
The iconic and beloved American actress Betty White had died. She was 99.
The last of the Golden Girls, Betty White would have celebrated her 100th birthday on 17 January 2022 and died on Friday morning in her Brentwood home in California, according to American news reports.
TMZ first reported the news about Betty White's death on Saturday night, South African time.
"Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever," Betty White's agent and friend Jeff Witjas says in a statement.
"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."
Betty White's had a career of over 8 decades in America and appeared in numerous shows since television started in the United States, with Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and the daft St Olaf-born Rose Nyland in The Golden Girls as her two most famous roles and for which she won Emmys.
In total, the legendary Betty White who appeared in TV commercials, films and various TV series ranging from game shows to dramas, talk shows to comedies and variety programming, including her own radio show, won 8 Emmy Awards and was awarded an Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.
In 2010 Bety White told Larry King "I think the reason for the longevity is that several generations have gotten to know me over the years, so I've become sort of part of the family".
In 2014 Betty White was included in the Guinness World Records as the record-holder for Longest TV Career for an Entertainer (Female) and in 2010 she received a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement award.
In 2015 she told USA Today in an interview "That's one of the things I appreciate the most, that I'm still invited to work. Usually, you get to a given age - and that's a couple of decades ago for me - and work dries up, but, oh, I've been so lucky".
"Work is just a joy. I know it can't go on forever, but I'm making the most of whatever comes along."
In 2018, America's PBS channel did a TV documentary special, Betty White: First Lady of Television about her life and career.
In 1986 Betty White told The Toronto Star newspaper: "Actors like to throw rocks at television, but I love the medium because of its immediacy and ability to reach a vast audience in one fell swoop."
"On stage, you can't communicate one-on-one with the audience. On film, you're larger than life and completely removed from the audience. Television, however, is an entity with a vitality of its own. And the beauty of this medium is that you can grow old in it. I intend to be around until I'm 102."
