‘The world looks different now’ – Actors, comedians and US president react to Betty White’s death

Tributes from fellow actors and comedians poured in on social media on Friday in reaction to the death of Betty White. The Golden Girls star was 99. Her death was confirmed by her long-time agent Jeff Witjas in a phone call on Friday with publicist Pam Golum. White would have turned 100 on January 17, 2022.

United States President Joe Biden called White “a lovely lady”. “It’s a shame,” said Biden to reporters Friday. “Ninety-nine years old. As my mother would say, God love her.”

Henry Winkler thanked White for her humour, warmth and activism. “It is very hard to absorb you are not here anymore... But the memories of your deLIGHT are ...Thank you for your humour, your warmth and your activism ... Rest now and say Hi to Bill,” Henry Winkler tweeted.

Seth Meyers says White was the only Saturday Night Live host he ever saw get a standing ovation at the after-party, “a party at which she ordered a vodka and a hotdog and stayed till the bitter end,” he shared.

Kathy Griffin shared a few stories in a Twitter thread and wrote that White treated her like an equal in the comedy world.

“Betty, who was gracious enough to be a guest star on the episode of Kathy Griffin My Life on the D List, where we get my mom Maggie a play date with Betty White, was a bucket list memory, touching and hilarious at the same time. We surprised Maggie, so when Betty shows up… at Sizzler Senior Early Bird Special, my mom about fell OUT! And I got to spend the day on film and off camera, with my mom and Betty White,” she shared.

Griffin called the experience a “dream girl’s day”.” Betty legit treated my mom like a friend. She answered every question, acted very shocked at… every word out of my mouth, which was mandatory. She hung out with my mom, like a peer. She treated me like we were in the same club or something. She actually treated me like an equal in the comedy girl world. She was as sharp and funny as she was soft and wise… and no matter how long this world continues to spin, there will be only one Betty White,” she said.

Dan Rather also sang White’s praises. He said the world would be better if more people followed White’s example. White was a television mainstay for more than 60 years. He described her as “a spirit of goodness and hope”. Rather posted, “Betty White was much beloved because of who she was and how she embraced a life well lived. Her smile. Her sense of humour. Her basic decency. Our world would be better if more followed her example. It is diminished with her passing.”

SWEETNESS AND EDGINESS

White launched her TV career in daytime talk shows when the medium was still in its infancy and endured well into the age of cable and streaming. Her combination of sweetness and edginess gave life to a roster of quirky characters in shows from the sitcom Life With Elizabeth in the early 1950s to oddball Rose Nylund in The Golden Girls in the ‘80s to Boston Legal, which ran from 2004 to 2008.

But it was in 2010 that White’s stardom erupted as never before when she starred in a Snickers commercial that premièred during that year’s Super Bowl telecast. The instantly viral video helped spark a Facebook campaign called ‘Betty White to Host SNL (please?)!’ whose half-million fans led to her co-hosting Saturday Night Live in a much-watched, watch-hailed edition that Mother’s Day weekend. The appearance won her a seventh Emmy award.

A month later, White appeared in TV Land’s Hot In Cleveland, the network’s first original scripted series. She was only meant to appear in the pilot episode but stole the show, and the salty Elka Ostrovsky became a key part of the series.

Such was her popularity that even White’s birthday became a national event: In January 2012, NBC aired Betty White’s 90th Birthday Party as a star-studded prime-time special. She would later appear in such series as Bones and Fireside Chat With Esther; movies Lake Placid and the comedy The Proposal and in 2019 gave voice to one of the toys, Bitey White, in Toy Story 4.

Ryan Reynold, White’s co-star in The Proposal, paid tribute to the legendary actress on Twitter. “The world looks different now. She was great at defying expectation. She managed to grow very old and somehow, not old enough. We’ll miss you, Betty. Now you know the secret,” said Reynolds.