“I may be a senior, but so what? I’m still hot” Betty White.

Betty White is famously known for her role as Sue Ann Nivens in The Mary Tyler Moore Show. That isn’t the only role she is known for. As the pioneer of television, she has gifted the world with many such amazing roles.

She isn’t just an awesome personality on-screen but also when the cameras are off. Betty is exactly as she appears on television—fun, loving, and excellent. A person like Betty is always worth knowing about. Here are 20 amazing facts about the television pioneer.

1. She never aspired to be an actor.

Betty is one of the most beloved personalities of the television industry, but she never really aspired to be a part of it. She has a legacy like no other, but her dream growing up wasn’t to be a television performer.

Betty wanted to be an opera singer when she was young. She also said that she took some lessons in opera signing and was very serious about it.

“When I was a youngster, I wanted to be an opera singer, so I took very serious singing lessons.” Betty White.

It is hard to imagine how good Betty would do as an opera singer, but destiny had something else planned for her.

2. Betty never took a single lesson in acting.

Betty never saw acting lessons as something made for her. Everything Betty does on television comes naturally and she never had a single lesson in acting. She wants her art to be as true as possible, so she doesn’t believe in taking lessons for it.

“I just want to bring as much natural as I can. I’m not saying that people who take acting lessons are false. They’re much better than I am, but it doesn’t work for me” Betty White

She never took an acting lesson, never wanted to be an actor, but somehow she is a television icon. It is like she was made for television.

3. Betty loves animals and prefers them over humans.

We all love animals, but Betty’s love for animals is more than an average animal lover. She is an animal rights activist and she also despises animal cruelty. Betty claims that animals are more honest than humans and hence she prefers to bond with them more than humans.

To celebrate her lifelong love for animals, the television star has her own show by the name Betty White’s Pet Set. The show is filled with cute animals!

4. She also wanted to be a zookeeper!

Betty’s attachment to animals was so strong that she wanted to be a zookeeper. If she wasn’t an actor or an opera singer, she’d be a zookeeper. The love and care she shows for animals are pure and that’s why she is a perfect person to take care of them.

Betty also received the title of the honorary park ranger, which she thinks is her proudest achievement. She received the title when she was 88 years old. It shows that it is never too late to pursue your dreams!

5. She started her career with a parkay margarine commercial.

In the 1940s, Betty went for an audition hoping that she would secure a role. Producer Fran Van Hartesveldt provided Betty with her first-ever breakthrough when he decided to give her a chance. They were inside an elevator when Fran Van Hartesveldt offered her the role.

Fran Van Hartesveldt said to Betty:

“I’ll take a chance and give you one word to say in the commercial on this week’s Gildersleeve…Think you can say ‘Parkay’ without lousing it up?”

6. She once did 58 advertisements in a single day!

To get your career on a roll, you sometimes have to do multiple advertisements in a single day. It demands you to be restless, and this is how it was for Betty during her days.

She and Al Jarvis were both once required to record as many as 58 ads for their sponsors. They both had to record all of them in a single day!

7. Betty’s first Emmy was for a role she created.

Betty received her first-ever Emmy honor in 1952, which was for a role in a comedy she created. Her first Emmy was for her role in the show, “Life with Elizabeth”. You can view a short snippet of her performance in this video, The Chemistry Set.

8. Betty is the oldest guest host on Saturday Night Live.

Age is just a number for this sassy. Despite being way past her prime, she is killing it in any show she goes to, whether as a guest or a host. She hosted SNL in May of 2010 and became the oldest guest host in the history of SNL. Her performance also received a Primetime Emmy Award.

9. Betty was originally supposed to reprise the role of Blanche in The Golden Girls.

Betty wasn’t offered the role of Rose Nylund. She was originally offered the role of Blanche while Rose Nylund’s role was to be portrayed by Rue McClanahan. The director decided to switch the roles because both the actors played similar roles in the past. In order to keep it fresh, they both switched their roles.

10. Betty is a foodie and loves fast foods and other snacks.

A successful performer like Betty is almost always on a diet. They are diet conscious and think twice about eating junk food, but Betty does not. She enjoys life with no compromise. Betty likes fast food and she still enjoys some vodka and hot dogs.

11. Betty has been married three times but she doesn’t have any children.

Betty met her first husband, Dick Barker, while she was volunteering for American Women’s Voluntary Services. The couple filed for divorce within the first year of their marriage.

She married her second husband, Lane Allen, in 1947. Lane Allen was a Hollywood talent agent. The marriage didn’t last long as the couple filed for divorce just two years later.

Betty married her third husband Allen Ludden on June 14, 1963. Allen passed away because of stomach cancer and Betty hasn’t been married ever since. Betty is the stepmother of Allen’s children and has no biological children.

12. Betty met Allen Ludden on his game show Password.

They say the third time is the charm and Betty found her true love in her third marriage. Betty met Allen in 1961 on his game show Password. They both quickly realised they were made for each other and married two years later.

She never considered remarriage after Luden’s death. Regarding her remarriage, she said:

“Once you’ve had the best, who needs the rest?”

13. Betty would have her career destroyed had she stayed with her second husband.

Allen Lane wanted Betty to quit her professional career and start living a more traditional family life. Betty wanted to continue her professional career and this disagreement resulted in their divorce.

“He didn’t want me to be in show business. When you have a calling you have to follow it, so I made the choice, blew the marriage and I’ve never regretted it.” Betty White.

The couple split up quickly after their marriage and for Betty, it was a perfect decision.

14. Betty White holds the Guinness World Record.

Betty has the longest TV career than any other performer. She has been in this industry for more than 75 years. In 2014, she established a world record for the longest television career for a female entertainer. And judging by the way she is going, she still has a lot left in her.

15. Her name is Betty, not Elizabeth.

Betty is usually a diminutive of the name Elizabeth. But in Betty’s case, it is different. Her actual name is Betty and not anything else. Betty revealed this in her autobiography If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t). She said her parents named her Betty because they didn’t like other nickname variants of Elizabeth.

16. Betty White wants Robert Redford.

In her illustrious career, she has achieved almost everything there is. But there still was something she wasn’t able to do—work with Robert Redford. In one interview, she expressed her desire to work with Robert Redford, which was never realised. She said:

“My answer to anything under the sun, like What have you not done in the business that you’ve always wanted to do? is Robert Redford.”

17. Betty’s first-ever television appearance is lost in the archives.

Betty remembers all the big moments of her television career but not her start. She has no idea where her career started or what was the first gig she ever got.

“I danced on an experimental TV show, the first on the west coast, in downtown Los Angeles. I wore my high school graduation dress and our Beverly Hills High student body president, Harry Bennett, and I danced the ‘Merry Widow Waltz.” Betty told Guinness World Records.

18. She is the oldest person to receive an Emmy nomination.

It is hard to restrict a winning talent. No matter the age, Betty keeps on winning awards. Betty won the award for her performance in Betty White’s Off Their Rockers. She received the honor when she was just 92 years young! She won the award for an outstanding host.

19. She refused a big-time role because of her love for animals.

Betty was once offered a role in an oscar-winning movie, As Good as It Gets. The movie had a scene that was cruel to animals, and as an avid animal lover, Betty found herself unable to perform. She decided to turn down the offer because of her love for animals.

20. She will be hundred years old next January!

Betty White was born in Oak Park, Illinois on January 17, 1922. That means next year January will be her 100th birthday and she marks a new milestone in her life. She looks like she could host another show and possibly win another award no matter how old she gets.

We will be celebrating Betty’s 100th birthday and hope she’ll have a grand time too.

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Source: Wikipedia – Betty White, Mental Floss, Insider.