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Bea Arthur

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Beatrice Arthur
at the 1987 Emmy Awards
Born
Bernice Frankel
DiedApril 25, 2009(2009-04-25) (aged 86)[1]
Occupation(s)Film, musical theatre, stage and television actress
Years active1947–2009
Spouse(s)Robert Alan Aurthur (divorced)
Gene Saks (1950–1978, divorced; 2 adopted sons)

Beatrice "Bea" Arthur (May 13, 1922 – April 25, 2009) was an American comedienne, actress, and singer. In a career spanning seven decades, Arthur achieved success as the title character, Maude Findlay, on the 1970s sitcom Maude, and as Dorothy Zbornak on the 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls; she won Emmys for both roles.

Life and career

Early life

Arthur was born Bernice Frankel to Philip and Rebecca Frankel in New York City on May 13, 1922.[2] Her family soon moved to Cambridge, Maryland where her parents operated a women's clothing shop. She attended Linden Hall High School, an all girls school in Lititz, Pennsylvania, before enrolling in the now-defunct Blackstone College in Blackstone, Virginia where she was active in drama productions.

Theater

From 1947 Beatrice Arthur studied at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with the influential German director Erwin Piscator. Arthur began her acting career as a member of an off Broadway theater group at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City in the late 1940s. On stage, her roles included "Lucy Brown" in the 1954 Off-Broadway premiere of Marc Blitzstein's English-language adaptation of Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera, "Yente the Matchmaker" in the 1964 premiere of Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway, and a 1966 Tony Award-winning portrayal of "Vera Charles" to Angela Lansbury's Mame. She reprised the role in the 1974 film version opposite Lucille Ball. In 1981, she appeared in Woody Allen's The Floating Lightbulb.[3]

Television

In 1972, Arthur was cast as the title character in the television series Maude. She played Maude Findlay, an outspoken liberal living in the affluent community of Tuckahoe, Westchester County, New York, with her husband, Walter (Bill Macy) and divorced daughter Carol (Adrienne Barbeau). The show was a spin-off from All in the Family, on which Arthur had appeared a couple of times in the same role, playing Edith Bunker's cousin, a feminist, and antithesis to the bigoted, conservative Archie Bunker, who described Maude as a "New Deal fanatic". Her role garnered several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, including her Emmy win in 1977 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

In 1978, she costarred in the poorly-received The Star Wars Holiday Special, in which she had a song and dance routine in the Mos Eisley Cantina. She hosted The Beatrice Arthur Special on CBS on January 19, 1980, which paired the star in a musical comedy revue with Rock Hudson, Melba Moore and Wayland Flowers.[4]

After appearing in the short-lived 1983 sitcom Amanda's (an unsuccessful U.S. version of the British hit series Fawlty Towers), Arthur was cast in the hit sitcom The Golden Girls in 1985, in which she played Dorothy Zbornak, a divorced substitute teacher living in a Miami house owned by Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan). Her other roommates included widow Rose Nylund (Betty White) and Dorothy's Sicilian mother, Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty). Getty was actually a year younger than Arthur in real life, and was heavily made up to look significantly older. Arthur's character, Dorothy, had a caustic sense of humor and was prone to making witty and sarcastic wisecracks. The series was a huge hit, remaining a top ten ratings fixture for six seasons. Her performance led to several Emmy nominations over the course of the series and an Emmy win in 1988. Arthur decided to leave the show after seven years and in 1992, the show was moved from NBC to CBS and retooled as The Golden Palace in which the other three actresses reprised their roles. Arthur made a guest appearance in a two-part episode, but the show only lasted for one season before it was cancelled.

Later life

After Arthur left The Golden Girls, she made several guest appearances on television shows and even organized and toured with her one-woman show. She made a guest appearance on the American cartoon Futurama, in the Emmy-nominated episode, "Amazon Women in the Mood", as the voice of the Femputer who ruled the giant Amazonian women. She also appeared in an episode of Malcolm in the Middle as Dewey's babysitter. She was nominated for a guest-star Emmy for her performance. She also showed up as Larry David's mother on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

In 2002, she returned to Broadway starring in Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends, a collection of stories and songs (with musician Billy Goldenberg) based on her life and career. The show was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event, but lost to Elaine Stritch: At Liberty.

In 2005, she participated in the Comedy Central roast of Pamela Anderson, delivering a deadpan reading of excerpts from Pamela's book Star: The Novel, most notably the part that describes receiving sodomy-related advice.

Influences

In 1999, Arthur told an interviewer of the three influences in her career: "Sid Caesar taught me the outrageous; [method acting guru] Lee Strasberg taught me what I call reality; and [the original Threepenny Opera star], Lotte Lenya, whom I adored, taught me economy."[5]

Awards

Arthur won the American Theatre Wing's Tony Award in 1966 as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance that year as Vera Charles in the original Broadway production of Jerry Herman's musical Mame.

She later received the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series twice, once in 1977 for Maude and again in 1988 for The Golden Girls.[6] She was inducted into the Academy's Hall of Fame in 2008.[7]

On June 8, 2008, The Golden Girls was awarded the Pop Culture award at the Sixth Annual TV Land Awards. Arthur accepted the award with co-stars Rue McClanahan and Betty White.[8]

Personal life

Arthur was married twice, first to Robert Alan Aurthur, a screenwriter, television, and film producer and director, whose surname she took and kept (though with a modified spelling), and second to director Gene Saks from 1950 to 1978 with whom she adopted two sons, Matthew (born July 14, 1961), an actor, and Daniel (born May 8, 1964), a set designer.

She primarily lived in the Greater Los Angeles Area and had sublet her apartment on Central Park West in New York City and her country home in Bedford, New York.

Death

Arthur died peacefully at her home in the Greater Los Angeles Area in the early morning hours of April 25, 2009, aged 86. She had been suffering from cancer.[9][5][10]

In addition to her sons, she is survived by a sister who lives in Montreal, Quebec, and two granddaughters.

Television credits

Theatre performances

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Beatrice Arthur.
Wikinews has related news:
  1. ^ "Bea Arthur, stage, film star of 'Mame' and TV's 'Maude' and 'The Golden Girls,' dies at 86 -- baltimoresun.com". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
  2. ^ Bureau of Vital Records (13 May 1922). "Certificate and Record of Birth #21106" (.JPG). City of New York, Department of Health. Retrieved 2008-07-12. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ^ "Celebrity Buzz: Who's Who - Bea Arthur". Playbill. 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-12.
  4. ^ Phil Hall (March 26, 2004). "The Bootleg Files: The Beatrice Arthur Special". Film Threat. Retrieved 2009-04-26.
  5. ^ a b "Bea Arthur, Star of 'Maude,' Dies" by the Associated Press, nytimes.com, April 25, 2009.
  6. ^ Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Emmy Awards Database | url=http://www.emmys.tv/awards/awardsearch.php
  7. ^ "Television Academy Hall of Fame Reveals Six Honorees for 2008" (Press release). The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. 17 April 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-12.
  8. ^ Julie Keller (8 June 2008). "TV Land Awards Party Like It's 1979". E! Online. Retrieved 2008-07-12.
  9. ^ Lynn Elber (25 April 2009). "'Golden Girls' star Bea Arthur dies at 86". The Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
  10. ^ http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/25/bea.arthur.obit/index.html

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