Betty White ‘lucky’ to feel so good turning 100

Betty White has said she is “lucky” to be in good health and “feel so good” as she approaches her landmark 100th birthday.

The award-winning US actress, best known for starring as Rose in 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls, will celebrate her centennial birthday on January 17.

White told People magazine: “I’m so lucky to be in such good health and feel so good at this age. It’s amazing.

“I try to avoid anything green. I think it’s working.”

She said being “born a cockeyed optimist” is the key to her upbeat nature.

“I got it from my mom, and that never changed. I always find the positive,” the 99-year-old added.

White was born in Illinois in the US on January 17 1922, and has had a television career spanning more than 80 years.

Her decades in front of the camera means she was named the female entertainer with the longest television career by Guinness World Records, having started out in 1939.

Screen veteran White also appeared in hit US sitcoms including Hot In Cleveland, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Betty White Show and Life With Elizabeth.

White – who has also written several books over the years – has earned herself five Primetime Emmy Awards out of 21 nominations, and a handful of other top gongs.

She also played Ryan Reynolds’ grandmother in 2009 romantic comedy The Proposal, while Sandra Bullock played his love interest, earning herself a Golden Globe nomination.

Castmate Bullock, 57, said: “Timing isn’t easy in comedy, because you have to navigate other people’s timing. Betty pivots like I have never seen, making it look seamless.

“The rest of us just remain silent and pray we’re not cut out of the scene.”

Bullock added she hopes White embraces her birthday “the same way she has celebrated every day of her life with humour, kindness and a vodka on ice, toasting to the fact that she’s a badass who has left us all in the dust”.

Meanwhile, Reynolds, 45, who has been a fan of White’s “for as long as I can remember”, said: “I heard that scripts for Golden Girls were only 35 pages, which makes sense because so many of the laughs come from Betty simply looking at her castmates.”