Betty White

Have you noticed that actress Betty White is still going strong? T.L. Stanley has an article in the Los Angeles Times about Betty White and her ongoing popularity. Despite being a young straight dude, I loved The Golden Girls when it originally aired and I still enjoy catching syndicated episodes. In retrospect, the show was often quite gay, the layout of the house was ridiculous and inconsistent, and while some topics had permanence in the series, other aspects disappeared. Like Dorothy's Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

But the writing was mostly great and the timing and facial expressions of the actresses was excellent. Betty White was just as much a reason for that show's success as anyone else. I happened to have met her in person and I know people who have worked with her.

I think her ongoing success at an age when most surviving actresses are completely out of the public eye is due to many factors.

1. She's a talented actress; she's hilarious.
2. Rather than fighting age, she has embraced it in her characters.
3. She's professional in both attitude and ability.
4. She's smart, as evidenced by her performances on various editions of the Password game shows. Notice that there are actors that never appear on game shows or talk shows. That's because they are either bores without a script or aren't too bright and it comes across loud and clear without a carefully controlled script.
5. Her cause of caring for animals is no phony public relations add-on to her life or excuse to do commercials. She really does care about animals.
6. She's a nice woman.

So when you hear complaints that Hollywood dumps women past a certain age – keep Betty White in mind.

I hope she has many more years of full living.