Betty White has died suddenly at age 99 just weeks before making headlines that she was celebrating her 100th birthday on January 17, 2022.
The actress known for her breakout comedic role as Sue Ann Nivens on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” which ran from 1973 to 1977, the “The Betty White Show” and Rose Nylund in “The Golden Girls” appears to have died of natural causes, TMZ reports.
“Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever,” her agent and close friend Jeff Witjas tells PEOPLE in a statement on Friday. “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.”
TMZ reports that she didn’t have any sudden illness, nor was she battling any particular ailment. Emergency responders, including police, showed up at her home Friday morning as a standard procedure. Law enforcement sources tell TMZ … Betty passed away at her home just before 9:30 AM Friday.
Betty White has 115 acting credits to her name. Roles include “Life with Elizabeth,” “Date with the Angels,” “The Love Boat,” “Mama’s Family,” “The Golden Palace,” “Ladies Man,” “That ’70s Show,” “Higglytown Heroes,” “Boston Legal,” “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “Pound Puppies,” “Hot in Cleveland,” and many, many, many other shows and films.
People reports that Betty won 5 Primetime Emmy Awards — including 2 for ‘Mary Tyler Moore,’ 1 for “Golden Girls” and 1 for her 1975 ‘SNL’ appearance — along with Screen Actors Guild Awards, American Comedy Awards and even a 2012 Grammy.
The actress has a movie special premiering in theaters for one day only on what would’ve been her 100th birthday on January 17.
The movie, Betty White: 100 Years Young, will feature White as well as a star-studded cast of her friends, including Ryan Reynolds, Tina Fey, Robert Redford, Lin Manuel- Miranda, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Jay Leno, Carol Burnett, Craig Ferguson, Jimmy Kimmel, Valerie Bertinelli, James Corden, Wendy Malick and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
She lived through dozens of leap years so, if you add those, she IS OVER 100 by several days!