Betty White To Receive SAG Lifetime Achievement Award

'Golden Girl' Betty White, who has boasted one of the longest and most successful careers in the history of TV, will receive the Screen Actors Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award Jan. 23 at the SAG Awards ceremony, which will be carried live on TNT and TBS.

"Whether creating some of television’s most indelible characters, plunging into film roles with joyous gusto or perfecting the art of the quip as a television panelist and host, Betty White has entertained audiences with her impeccable comic timing and remarkable wit for more than sixty years," said SAG President Alan Rosenberg in an announcement of the award.

White's broadcast career actually started in radio, with stints on Blondie and The Great Gildersleeve, as well as her own show.

The multiple Emmy-winning actress began in TV in 1949 and has been there ever since, from guest hosting for Jack Parr and Johnny Carson to inumerable game show appearances (she was married to the late Password host Allen Ludden), guest shots on primetime series and soaps, parade-hosting duties, iconic characters on TheMary Tyler Moore Show and Golden Girls, to recurring roles on ThePractice and daytime soap The Bold and the Beautiful.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.