To say Betty White was the "First Lady of Game Shows" is not an exaggeration. She was a game show star before being a Golden Girl. In fact, back in the 1960s and the 1970s, she was dubbed a staple panelist of many game shows, including Password, The Hollywood Squares, Match Game, Tattletales, and more. Later on, she became the first woman to record a Daytime Emmy Award win for the Outstanding Game Show Host category in 1983 for Just Men!
In 2014, the Guinness World Record acknowledged Ms.
Betty White was the face of many iconic sitcom characters, but perhaps the most recognizable one is the nymphomaniacal Sue Ann Nivens on NBC's The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The show ran from 1973 until 1977 for seven seasons and 186 episodes, amassing 41 wins out of 121 awards nominations including a Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for the late icon.
Betty White was an outspoken figure for human rights throughout her decades-spanning career, including the LGBTQ community. She rose to fame as a gay icon from The Golden Girls, and she's been an avid spokesperson for gay rights off the screen.
In fact, she also has a Grammy Award in her collection of awards. She continued her success to a younger audience following her 2010 surprise role in Saturday Night Live, winning a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Recording for her book If You Ask Me.
The former pin-up girl infamously invited an African American tap dancer, Arthur Duncan, to The Betty White Show in 1954 during the time when racial injustice was at its peak. Executives at the station asked her to remove him, but her response was giving him more airtime and said, "I'm sorry. Live with it."
