LOS ANGELES: Beatrice Arthur, the tall deep-voiced star in the hit television comedies Maude and The Golden Girls, has died. She was 86.
Arthur died peacefully from cancer at her Los Angeles home with her family at her side, family spokesman Dan Watt told the media yesterday.
"She was a brilliant and witty woman," said Mr Watt, her personal assistant for six years.
Arthur first appeared in the landmark comedy series All in the Family as Edith Bunker's liberal cousin Maude Finley. She proved a perfect foil for blue-collar bigot Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor), and their exchanges were so entertaining that producer Norman Lear fashioned Arthur's own series.
Arthur said last year she was lucky to be discovered by TV after a long stage career.
"I was already 50 years old. I had done so much off Broadway, on Broadway, but they (CBS executives) said, 'Who is that girl? Let's give her her own series'," Arthur said.
Maude scored with television viewers in 1972, and Arthur won an Emmy Award in 1977.
The comedy flowed from Maude's efforts to cast off the traditional restraints for women in the US, and she became a standard-bearer for feminism.
The series often had a serious base. Her screen husband Walter (Bill Macy) became an alcoholic, and she underwent an abortion, which drew a torrent of viewer protests.
Golden Girls (1985-1992) was another groundbreaking comedy, finding surprising success in a television market skewed toward a younger product-buying audience.
The series concerned three retirees - Arthur, Betty White and Rue McClanahan - and the mother of Arthur's character, Estelle Getty, who lived in a Miami apartment.
As Dorothy Zbornak, Arthur seemed as caustic and domineering as Maude.
She was unconcerned about the similarity of the two roles.
"Look - I'm 5 feet 9 (1.75m), I have a deep voice and I have a way with a line," she said.
"What can I do about it? I can't stay home waiting for something different. I think it's a total waste of energy worrying about typecasting."
The interplay among the four women and their relations with men fuelled the comedy, and the show amassed a big audience and 10 Emmys, including two as best comedy series.
Arthur was born Bernice Frankel in New York City in 1922. After two years at a junior college in Virginia, she earned a degree as a medical laboratory technician.
However, acting held more appeal, and Arthur enrolled in a drama course at the New School of Social Research in New YorkCity.
During this time she had a brief marriage that provided her stage name of Beatrice Arthur.
In 1950, she married again, this time to Broadway actor and future Tony-winning director Gene Saks.
Arthur's biggest Broadway triumph came in 1966 as Vera Charles, Angela Lansbury's acerbic friend in the musical Mame, directed by Saks.
She won the Tony as best supporting actress and repeated the role in the unsuccessful film version that was also directed by Saks, starring Lucille Ball as Mame.
Arthur would play a variation of Vera Charles in Maude and The Golden Girls.
"There was no one else like Bea," said Mame composer Jerry Herman.
"She would make us laugh during Mame rehearsals with a look or with a word. She didn't need dialogue. I don't know if I can say that about any other person I ever worked with."
Arthur and Saks divorced in 1978 after 28 years. They had two sons, Matthew and Daniel.
Arthur is survived by her sons and two granddaughters. No funeral services are planned.
__________________
MM
That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable.
There goes the damn Golden Girls reunion....(yeah, I know Estelle getty is already passed - but she played the oldest one on the show, so it coulda happened)
While I'm sorry to see her go and even more sorry she had to battle cancer at the end, I never cared for the characters she played. For me, a TV show or movie featuring Bea Arthur meant a TV show or movie I'd probably go out of my way to avoid.
None the less, RIP Bea. You were a major force in television for many years.
There goes the damn Golden Girls reunion....(yeah, I know Estelle getty is already passed - but she played the oldest one on the show, so it coulda happened)
Hey don't write it off just yet SG!
For my money the BEST Golden Girls reunion would be the one that none of the four main characters returned for.
