White was a pioneering broadcaster -- Ken Levine argues she was literally the first woman on television -- but before the age of fifty (barring some very obscure shows), no one had any idea the woman could act. Putting aside her work as a producer which was entirely out of the public eye, Betty White's job was to be a guest and occasionally a host on game shows and talk shows and to be a pleasant foil for other celebrities like Lorne Green during the Macy's or Rose Bowl Parades.
This job is waaay harder than it sounds, and Betty White was very good at it for decades, but it's not the kind of work that makes you one of the most beloved stars in the country.
The career that everyone has been celebrating over the past week was one of the most impressive second acts in American entertainment, and she did it at an age when most women in the industry saw their opportunities dry up.
The breakthrough role was Sue Ann Niven, the Happy Homemaker and initially a big part of the joke was having a famous perennially cheerful TV personality play the always smiling but privately vicious Niven, but White's performance (combined with brilliant writing) almost immediately moved past stunt casting and established her as a major comic actor, winning two Emmys for the role. (About this time, in a much smaller but still telling accomplishment, she was the only guest star given a permanent spot in the Carol Burnett Show's Eunice sketches, playing the least likeable member of that very unlikeable family).
MTM made people take White seriously as an actor; Golden Girls established her as a star. It was a critically acclaimed hit show and White was playing a character 180 degrees from Sue Ann Niven (the result of a last-minute casting switch). She turned seventy the year the Golden Girls went off the air.
As Pauline Kael observed, some actors have everything it takes to be a major star, but they never get that one role that pushes them to the next level. Others just have to wait a little longer.
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