Betty White is one of the most recognizable and beloved figures in the history of Hollywood.
The actress is practically an institution, boasting a career that spans longer than eight decades.
She’s a treasure to behold, so in order to help celebrate the wonder that is Betty White, here are 10 + facts that fans didn’t know about everyone’s favorite Golden Girl .
Her birth name is actually ‘Betty’.
Many people make the mistake of thinking that Betty is short for Elizabeth but such is not the case.
Betty’s parents loved the name and despised all other nicknames that could potentially come from Elizabeth.
Betty is a Guinness World Record holder
Back in 2014, Betty was awarded the honor of “Longest TV Career for a Female Entertainer.”
At the time, Betty had logged more than 70 years in front of the camera and she’s still going!
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Like everyone else in the world, she loves a good parade!
Betty hosted the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for nearly a decade.
Because of her success on The Mary Tyler Moore Show , NBC decided to pull White as their host.
Betty has been married three different times over the years.
Her first two marriages didn’t last long: a combined 3 years. But hey, who cares!
Betty married Allen Ludden in 1963 and the couple was wed until Ludden’s death on June 9th, 1981.
Betty worked for the American Women’s Voluntary Services during the Second World War.
According to an interview Betty gave, she was responsible for driving trucks of supplies up to the Hollywood hills.
She recalls, “It was a strange time and out of balance with everything.”
She’s the oldest person to ever host *Saturday Night Live* (and quite honestly, we would like to see more of her).
Not to chip away at such a prestigious accolade, but to be fair there aren’t many who could legitimately give Betty a run for her money on this one.
Betty was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1988.
In what was a very touching turn of events, Betty’s star was placed right next to her late husband’s, Allen Ludden .
Their legacies will forever be joined for generations to come.
She can’t remember the name of the first show she appeared on, but she does recall what it entailed.
“I danced on an experimental TV show , the first on the west coast, in downtown Los Angeles. I wore my high school graduation dress and our Beverly Hills High student body president, Harry Bennett, and I danced the ‘Merry Widow Waltz.'”
White Produced her own TV show called *Life With Elizabeth* in the 1950s.
The show was a huge success and it led to Betty receiving her very first (but far from last) Emmy Award nomination.
Betty has been nominated an incredible 21 times.
Betty initially auditioned to play Blanche in *The Golden Girls*.
The show creators were afraid of drawing comparisons to Betty’s character on The Mary Tyler Moore Show .
White was asked to read the part of Rose and practically blew everyone away.
Betty turned down a role in *As Good As It Gets* because of one scene she felt was cruel to animals.
The scene in question is when Jack Nicholson’s character dumps a dog down a garbage chute:
“Of course it lands on some cushions and it’s fine, but I didn’t want to set that example, because you never know what nuts or kids will see it and think I can do that. The director said, ‘The dog’s fine, the dog’s fine!’. But I said, ‘I just can’t do that’.”
Betty was once the Mayor of Hollywood!
The Mayor of Hollywood is an honorary position that has been held by a number of different entertainers over the years.
Betty received the honor back in 1955. How amazing is that? Good for her!
Her celebrity crush is Robert Redford.
When asked by Entertainment Tonight if there was anything else that she still wanted to do, Betty replied cheekily and without any hesitation:
“Robert Redford.” Don’t stop believing Betty, he’d be lucky to have you!
In lieu of acting, Betty says that she would’ve liked to have been a zookeeper.
It’s not exactly surprising when you consider Betty’s long and documented history with animals .
I personally think Betty would have made the sweetest zookeeper you could ever imagine!
Her sweet tooth has become well-known to her co-stars.
Jane Leeves ( Hot in Cleveland ) revealed in an interview that:
“She eats Red Vines, hot dogs , French fries and Diet Coke. If that’s key, maybe she’s preserved because of all the preservatives.”
