Make no mistake about it, Betty White is the reigning queen of comedy.
Long before folks like Tina Fey and Ellen Degeneres were making us laugh, she was doing
her thing – and doing it masterfully, we might add.
At 99 and still active in show business - although reasonably not quite as busy as she used to
be - it sure looks like White is going to continue to bring joy to the world right up
until she's on her deathbed.
She got her start on the radio back in 1930 when she was only eight years old, and ever
since, she has been a driving force within the entertainment industry.
In 1953, White made history when she became the first woman to produce a sitcom, and in
1973 she landed the iconic role as Sue Anne Nivens on the CBS sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore
Show.
White is also celebrated for her roles of Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls and, more
recently, that of Elka Ostrovsky on TV Land's Hot In Cleveland.
Even though Betty White is such a powerhouse of an entertainer, it might surprise you to
learn that at one point, she considered going down a completely different career path.
Join us as we take a look at what she once dreamed of doing instead of acting.
And make sure you stick around to see what kinds of projects she's been working on in
recent years – because like we already mentioned.
Betty White never stops.
Betty White's Prestigious Career In The Spotlight
Betty White got her start as an actress back in 1939.
She was born in 1922 in Oak Park, Illinois, and realized that she had a passion for acting
and theater when she was still a teenager.
In the 1950s, she produced and starred in Life With Elizabeth.
The sitcom resonated with audiences and ran for two seasons consisting of 65 episodes.
She then went on to land numerous roles in television shows, movies, and variety shows.
White's big breakout role, however, was that turn as Sue Ann Nivens in The Mary Tyler Moore
Show, which hit the airwaves in 1973.
Nivens was this kind of hyper-sexual cooking show host character that is often compared
to the similar character on The Golden Girls of Blanche Devereaux.
While White was initially considered for the role of Blanche, she was instead cast as the
naive yet endearing character Rose Nylund so that she wouldn't be typecast.
Since The Golden Girls wrapped up in 1992, White has gone on to take on numerous roles
in other television programs and films.
One of her most celebrated roles in the last decade was that of her Hot In Cleveland character,
Elka Ostrosky.
Throughout her prolific career, White has been honored with many award nominations and
even a few wins.
Betty Whites Childhood Dream
It's undeniable that Betty White's career has been successful.
A quick glance at her IMDB page reveals that she has amassed more than 120 acting credits.
Few actors can even come close to that.
Even so, it wasn't exactly the job that she dreamed of doing when she was a child.
Rather, Betty White had her heart set on becoming a forest ranger when she was a little girl.
White kept that dream alive for the majority of her upbringing.
The only reason why she never fulfilled this dream was because back in the day, women weren't
allowed to join the forest service.
That rule wouldn't change until White was an adult and already deep into her acting
career.
The Forest Service didn't hire their first female forester until 1957.
And in 1979, the forest service finally appointed their first female district ranger.
As of today, 38% of the forest service's employees are women.
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Keep watching to see how Betty White's childhood dream was finally fulfilled in 2010.
Betty Whites Commitment To Animals And The Environment
Even though Betty White never got to fully fulfill her dream of becoming a full-fledged
forest ranger, she has spent her life defending the environment and the animals that call
it their home.
White is a pet enthusiast and a staunch animal health advocate.
She works with various animal organizations, including the LA Zoo Commission, The African
Wildlife Foundation, The Morris Animal Foundation, and Actors & Others for Animals.
While White has always been especially dedicated to preserving the natural world, her interest
in animal rights and welfare began back in the early 70s when she was hosting and producing
the syndicated television program, The Pet Set, which centered around celebrities and
their beloved pets.
From 2000 to 2002, White hosted the show 'History on Film'.
She took $100,000 worth of the proceeds from that show and donated it to the Los Angeles
Zoo & Botanical Garden.
The Forest Service Made Betty White An Honorary Ranger
Even though Betty White was forced to give up on her dreams of becoming a forest ranger
back in the 30s just because she was a woman, The USDA did something very special for her
in 2010 that helped make things right.
The Forest Service made White an honorary forest ranger for her years of contributions
to wilderness conservation.
At a special ceremony that they put on just for her, White was given a forest ranger hat
and badge as well as a commemorative plaque.
White was extremely proud to be given that honor, and according to the forest service,
she even joked that she was going to wear the hat at a formal event that she had committed
to attending later that evening.
At the ceremony, White mentioned that her parents would have been overjoyed to see her
receive such a prestigious honor.
White's father, Horace Logan White, was a lighting company executive who passed away
in 1963.
Her mother, Christine Tess, likewise died in 1985.
White specifically credits her father for instilling a love of nature and the wilderness
into her from an early age.
In several interviews, White has stated that she first became interested in nature while
her family was vacationing in the Sierra Nevada mountain range when she was still a child.
Interestingly, after White gave up on her dream of entering into the forest service,
she instead decided to pursue her interest in writing.
It wasn't until she was in High School that she discovered that she was interested in
theater.
She was further inspired to become an actress by the fact that her idols as a teenager were
Jeannette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy.
Little did she know at the time that she would one day become a bigger star than either of
those two performers ever were.
Betty White Is A Guinness World Record Holder
In the 2014 edition of the famed record-keeping book, White was honored with the title of
'Longest TV Career for a Female Entertainer'.
At the time, she had been active in the industry for more than 70 years, and as of today, that's
getting closer to 80 years.
The year before she was awarded this honor, Guinness honored long-time British Television
Host Bruce Forsyth with the title of Longest TV Career for a Male Entertainer.
Both Forsyth and White began their acting careers in 1939, so they'd be tied for the
title if it weren't for their genders.
Her First Television Performance Has Been Lost To History
While Betty White got her start as an actress in 1939, she can't actually remember the name
of the program where she made her on-screen debut.
She told Guinness, however, that the experience of being on television back then was life-changing.
Her first role was in an experimental Television show that has since been lost to history,
but in it, she and one of her fellow High School classmates sang and danced to songs
from The Merry Widow.
Reportedly the show was the first of its kind on the west coast.
White then found work modeling, and her first professional acting job was at The Bliss Hayden
Little Theatre, which used to be where the Beverly Hills Playhouse stands today.
When World War II broke out in 1939, White temporarily put her acting career on hold
so that she could volunteer with the American Women's Voluntary Services.
Some of her assignments included transporting military supplies throughout California and
performing at events to boost morale for the troops before they were shipped off overseas.
After the war was over, White started making the rounds at various movie studios in hopes
of finding work, but shockingly she was repeatedly turned down for not being photogenic enough.
That's when she started looking for radio work instead.
Some of her first radio jobs included reading advertisements and playing bit parts in radio
plays.
She made approximately five dollars a show – which at the time was decent money – but
she still felt like she was destined for something greater.
Eventually, she got her chance to appear in shows like Blondie, This Is Your FBI, and
The Great Gildersleeve and was even given her own program called The Betty White Show.
In 1940, White began appearing as co-host alongside Al Jarvis on the live television
variety show Hollywood On Television.
In 1952, after Jarvis left the show, White took over as its primary host.
That same year, White co-created Life with Elizabeth with two of her Hollywood on Television
colleagues.
Life with Elizabeth was nationally syndicated from 1952 to 1955, and it's well established
that that is how her career in show business really got its start.
Flash forward to 2021, and Betty White is still active in the entertainment industry.
In 2019, she appeared in an episode of the Disney channel program Forky Asks a Question.
That same year, she appeared in Toy Story 4 as the character Bitey White, and she also
had a minor role in the animated film Trouble.
While she doesn't have any roles currently announced for the future, we can rest assured
that the world hasn't seen the last of Ms. White.
Did you know that Betty White wanted to be a forest ranger when she was a child?
How do you imagine her life would have turned out differently if she had been able to pursue
that dream?
Let us know in the comment section below.
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