Betty White’s Best Quotes About Aging in Hollywood Prior to Her Death

Credit: Rob Latour/Shutterstock

Betty White’s Best Quotes About Aging in Hollywood Prior to Her Death

A one-of-a-kind legend. Betty White earned her status as an icon during her decades-long career and often shared her wisdom on aging prior to her death. The actress was 99 when she died on December 31, 2021, and had been preparing to celebrate her 100th birthday on January 17, 2022. “[I’m] amazed,” White told Entertainment Tonight in an interview published two days before her death. “No, seriously, I’m the luckiest broad on two feet to be as healthy as I am and to feel as good as I do!” The Golden Girls alum’s agent, Jeff Witjas, confirmed her death just weeks shy of her milestone birthday. “Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever,” he said in a statement to People on December 31. “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.” In January 2021, White turned 99, with her rep exclusively telling Us Weekly at the time that she wanted “to interact with her friends” but did not due to social distancing guidelines amid the coronavirus pandemic. [sendtonews type="float" key="POsnSu0ZOj-2836428-14453"] “Crossword puzzles are no match for Betty,” her rep added. “She reads a number of newspapers, watches select television and gets a lot of exercise in her home walking up and down bedroom stairs.” White found success on television shows such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls, but she continued to work as she grew older. She notably starred on Hot in Cleveland from 2010 to 2015 and played a scene-stealing grandmother in the 2009 romantic comedy The Proposal alongside Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock. The Grammy winner’s final onscreen role was in a 2018 episode of Fireside Chat With Esther. She continued to do voiceover work — including a part as “Bitey White” in Toy Story 4 — until 2019. White made her last public appearance in September 2018 at the Primetime Emmy Awards. “It’s incredible that I’m still in this business and you are still putting up with me,” she joked at the time. “All I can say is it’s such a blessed business to be in and how lucky can I be and how much I say thank you to each and every one [of you].” Scroll through the gallery below to revisit White’s best quotes on aging: [podcast_block]

Credit: Rob Latour/Shutterstock

Betty White’s Best Quotes About Aging in Hollywood Prior to Her Death

A one-of-a-kind legend. Betty White earned her status as an icon during her decades-long career and often shared her wisdom on aging prior to her death. The actress was 99 when she died on December 31, 2021, and had been preparing to celebrate her 100th birthday on January 17, 2022. “[I’m] amazed,” White told Entertainment Tonight in an interview published two days before her death. “No, seriously, I’m the luckiest broad on two feet to be as healthy as I am and to feel as good as I do!” The Golden Girls alum’s agent, Jeff Witjas, confirmed her death just weeks shy of her milestone birthday. “Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever,” he said in a statement to People on December 31. “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.” In January 2021, White turned 99, with her rep exclusively telling Us Weekly at the time that she wanted “to interact with her friends” but did not due to social distancing guidelines amid the coronavirus pandemic. [sendtonews type="float" key="POsnSu0ZOj-2836428-14453"] “Crossword puzzles are no match for Betty,” her rep added. “She reads a number of newspapers, watches select television and gets a lot of exercise in her home walking up and down bedroom stairs.” White found success on television shows such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls, but she continued to work as she grew older. She notably starred on Hot in Cleveland from 2010 to 2015 and played a scene-stealing grandmother in the 2009 romantic comedy The Proposal alongside Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock. The Grammy winner’s final onscreen role was in a 2018 episode of Fireside Chat With Esther. She continued to do voiceover work — including a part as “Bitey White” in Toy Story 4 — until 2019. White made her last public appearance in September 2018 at the Primetime Emmy Awards. “It’s incredible that I’m still in this business and you are still putting up with me,” she joked at the time. “All I can say is it’s such a blessed business to be in and how lucky can I be and how much I say thank you to each and every one [of you].” Scroll through the gallery below to revisit White’s best quotes on aging: [podcast_block]

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Embracing Change

“Gravity has taken over. So there’s not much I can do about it,” the sitcom veteran joked to CNN in 2010. “My problem with [plastic surgery] is you’ll go to a women’s press conference or something like that, and old friends will come up and I kind of don’t recognize them. I recognize the voice, but I don’t — all of a sudden, there’s this whole new face that I don’t know who that is.” 

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Thankful

White wrote about aging in her 2011 book, If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won’t). “It’s not a surprise, we knew it was coming — make the most of it,” she suggested. “So you may not be as fast on your feet, and the image in your mirror may be a little disappointing, but if you are still functioning and not in pain, gratitude should be the name of the game.”  

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Her Mother’s Influence

“My mother always used to say, ‘The older you get, the better you get. Unless you’re a banana,’” she quipped in her 2011 book. 

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Her Idea of Healthy Living

White made light of her routine in a 2012 interview with The New York Times. “I’m a health nut,” she said. “My favorite food is hot dogs with French fries. And my exercise: I have a two-story house and a very bad memory, so I’m up and down those stairs.” 

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Still Sexy

The Emmy winner opened up in 2013 about the perks of her advanced age. “Best thing about being in your 90s is you’re spoiled rotten,” she told People. “Everybody spoils you like mad and they treat you with such respect because you’re old. Little do they know, you haven’t changed. You haven’t changed in [the brain]. You’re just 90 every place else. Now that I’m 91, as opposed to being 90, I’m much wiser. I’m much more aware and I’m much sexier.”  

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Her Trick to a Long Life

White shared her wisdom for a healthy and happy life in 2018. “Enjoy life,” she told Parade. “Accentuate the positive, not the negative. It sounds so trite, but a lot of people will pick out something to complain about, rather than say, ‘Hey, that was great!’ It’s not hard to find great stuff if you look.” 

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Nearly 100

The Illinois native celebrated her 100th birthday early with a People cover story, published in December 2021. “I’m so lucky to be in such good health and feel so good at this age,” she said. “It’s amazing.”  

White added that she was “born a cockeyed optimist” and tried “to avoid anything green,” which she thought was “working.”