Betty White spent decades entertaining audiences, but the surprise success of her Super Bowl Snickers commercial reignited her career in a big way. White's career began in the late '40s, starting with radio jobs before fronting her own sitcoms with Life With Elizabeth and The Betty White Show. She later became a staple of classic game shows such as Password or The Hollywood Squares, before joining The Mary Tyler Moore Show during its fourth season. Her character Sue Ann Nivens became an audience favorite, so she was upgraded to a regular cast member from the fifth season onwards.
Easily one of White's most famous projects arrived in the late '80s in the form of The Golden Girls - which also spawned The Golden Palace spinoff. This followed the friendship between four older women living in Miami, and in addition to being somewhat groundbreaking for being a female-centered sitcom from this era, it was often hilariously funny too. The show lasted for seven seasons, and in the years that followed White guest-starred on shows like The Practice and The Bold And The Beautiful, in addition to scene-stealing turns in movies such as Lake Placid.
So basically, Betty White was an iconic figure long before appearing in a Snickers commercial during Super Bowl XLIV. This famous advert saw White playing a particularly rough game of football, with the commercial being part of Snickers' "You're not you when you're hungry" campaign. This ad reminded everyone just how great White could be, and fans kicked off a successful campaign to get her to host Saturday Night Live - whose skits spawned many movies - which also made her the oldest person to front the comedy series at age 88.
Betty White's Snickers commercial soon led to more work, where she joined the cast of the sitcom Hot In Cleveland alongside Frasier's Jane Leeves; the show lasted six seasons. She also guest-starred on shows like Bones and loaded her voice to The Lorax and Toy Story 4 - where she voiced the aptly named Bitey White. Alongside her acting roles and appearances on SNL or even WWE, White had no shortage of celebrity fans singing her praises, including Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds and Barack Obama.
Betty White's Snickers Super Bowl commercial was obviously just done as a lark on the actor's part, but it was a good reminder of what audiences loved about her. Even after Betty White's passing in 2021, the advert was acknowledged for kicking off a new wave of recognition for the comedy icon and regular scene-stealer.