With the crushing news that Betty White died on New Year's Eve, less than three weeks shy of 100, my attention turns to those stars we have left who are in line to turn 100 in 2022 ... with luck ... as well as to many other people and things that are turning, or would've turned, 100 this year.
Very few truly A-list stars have made it to the century mark. In my opinion, these really only include — in the order in which they hit 100:
George Burns, 100 (January 20, 1896-March 9, 1996)
Bob Hope, 100 (May 29, 1903-July 27, 2003)
Olivia de Havilland, 104 (July 1, 1916-July 26, 2020)
Kirk Douglas, 103 (December 9, 1916-February 5, 2020)
These 15 other big names who made it to 100 are stars I would argue fall into a slightly less than "truly iconic" category, in spite of their obvious accomplishments (including Rainer winning back-to-back Oscars):
Estelle Winwood, 101 (January 24, 1883-June 20, 1984)
George Abbott, 107 (June 25, 1887-January 31, 1995)
Señor Wences, 103 (April 17, 1896-April 20, 1999)
Luise Rainer, 104 (January 12, 1910-December 30, 2014)
Lupita Tovar, 106 (July 27, 1910-November 12, 2016)
Ellen Albertini Dow, 101 (November 16, 1913-May 4, 2015)
Mary Carlisle, 104 (February 3, 1914-August 1, 2018)
Norman Lloyd, 106 (November 8, 1914-May 11, 2021)
Patricia Morison, 103 (March 19, 1915-May 20, 2018)
Danielle Darrieux, 100 (May 1, 1917-October 17, 2017)
Earl Cameron, 102 (August 8, 1917-July 3, 2020)
Marsha Hunt, 104 and with us (b. October 17, 1917)
Baby Peggy, 101 (October 29, 1918-February 24, 2020)
Nehemiah Persoff, 102 and with us (b. August 2, 1919)
Marge Champion, 101 (September 2, 1919-October 21, 2020)
There are, of course, quite a few other noteworthy individuals who made it to 100 and beyond, but I would argue these are the most prominent entertainers. It's not exactly a massive list.
In fact, in all of 2022, with the death of Betty White, the only pretty big stars about to turn 100 are:
Norman Lear (b. July 7, 1922): The iconic maker of some of our greatest TV shows of the '70s and beyond, including All in the Family, Maude, The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, Good Times, One Day at a Time, Silver Spoons, The Facts of Life, 227 — and the list goes on. He is such a gem with so, so many hits, I found it interesting that he told Entertainment Weekly in 2021 of one miss:
"I can only think of one thing. One of the funniest people I've ever worked with, skipping over generations of people who made me laugh, was Nancy Walker. Nancy Walker was a major performer and comedian. And one of the funniest people there ever was. I did this show that was called The Nancy Walker Show. And I didn't get it right. It didn't work as well as it should have worked for this great performer. It hurts for me to say this, but since you asked if I have a regret or would like to do something again, I would love to do that again."
Janis Paige (b. September 16, 1922): The glamorous Broadway star with with big hits like Remains to Be Seen (1951) and The Pajama Game (1954) is also known for movies like Romance on the High Seas (1948) and Silk Stockings (1957), not to mention countless TV guest spots. In 2016, she said of her career:
"They kept me for a year at Metro ... There was Judy Garland, there was Lucille Bremer, there was Gloria DeHaven, there was June Allyson, there was Cyd Charisse, and they just didn't know what to do with me ... Mr. Mayer said to me, 'I'm sorry, Janis, but we're not going to pick up your option ...' I remember being devastated and I thought, 'It's me! It's me! I'm no good! I'm no good!' And my agent was with me that day because they had warned him, I guess, and when we got outside I was in tears and he said, 'You better dry your eyes, because we've got an appointment ... at Warner Bros.'"
Celebrities who would have turned 100 (which, by the way, means they were the same age as Betty White — which is mind-boggling in some cases) include:
Bea Arthur (1922-2009)
Doris Day (1922-2019)
Redd Foxx (1922-1991)
Ava Gardner (1922-1990)
Judy Garland (1922-1969)
Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)
Jack Klugman (1922-2012)
Stan Lee (1922-2018)
Charles Mingus (1922-1979)
Carl Reiner (1922-2020)
Charles Schulz (1922-2000)
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1922-2007)
Betty White (1922-2021)
Not too many! But when you factor in businesses, institutions, inventions and trends, you also get these things turning 100 in 2022:
The BBC
blenders
Jaguar
Maidenform
Reader's Digest
The Rose Bowl
non-military skywriting
State Farm
Stouffer's
Technicolor
Thom McAn Shoes
Time, Inc.
water skiing
Yankee Stadium
Let's hope 2022 is a year to celebrate and not another, like 2020 and 2021, to endlessly mourn.
