Bea Arthur

File:Maudegreeting.jpg Arthur as Maude Findlay on Maude

File:Gg beaarthur.jpg Arthur as Dorothy on The Golden Girls

Bernice Frankel (born May 13, 1923), known professionally as Beatrice Arthur, is an Emmy Award-winning American actress, singer, and comedian. She is known for her distinctive deep voice, acid wit and prominent stature, standing almost 5 ft 10 in (1.77 m).

Biography

Early life

Arthur was born in New York City to parents Philip and Rebecca Frankel and was raised in Maryland. She became a medical technologist before World War II, when she volunteered for the U.S. Marine Corps, becoming one of its first female recruits.

Career

Her notable television roles included the title role on the popular sitcom Maude in the 1970s, and a starring role on The Golden Girls in the 1980s and 1990s. In the former she played Maude Findlay, an outspoken "limousine liberal" and "New Deal fanatic", living in the community of Tuckahoe, Westchester County, New York, with her husband, Walter (Bill Macy).

The show was a spinoff from All in the Family, on which Arthur had appeared in the same role, playing Edith Bunker (Jean Stapleton)'s cousin, a feminist Democrat, and alter-ego to the prejudiced, conservative Republican Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor).

In The Golden Girls, she played Dorothy Zbornak, a past-middle-aged substitute teacher who lived in a Miami, Florida, house owned by man-hungry Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan). Her other roommates included dim-but-sweet Rose Nylund (Betty White) and Dorothy's short-tempered, yet "hip" Sicilian mother, Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty). Getty was actually two months younger than Arthur in real life, and was heavily made up to look significantly older. Dorothy had an acidic sense of humor and was prone to making witty, often biting wisecracks.

On stage, her roles included "Lucy Brown" in the 1954 Off-Broadway premiere 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 recreated the role on film opposite Lucille Ball in 1974). In 1981, she appeared in Woody Allen's The Floating Lightbulb.

Two decades later, she toured the U.S. with a one-woman show in which she made a triumphant return to Broadway. 2002's Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends, a collection of stories and songs (with musician Billy Goldenberg) and based on her life and long career, was nominated for a Tony award for Best Special Theatrical Event, but lost to Elaine Stritch At Liberty.

Private life

Bea was married for many years to her second husband, director Gene Saks, with whom she had two sons, but the marriage ended in divorce.

Arthur has also been a committed animal rights activist, taking part in numerous campaigns for PETA.[2] In the late 1990's, a Bea Arthur fan attracted considerable attention for his bumper sticker campaign, "Bea Arthur - Be Naked", as well as for a CK1 ad spoof, "Just Bea".

Arthur is a gay icon, and has long maintained a loyal gay fanbase. She has frequently been mistaken as a lesbian. Arthur has come out in strong support of gay rights, while proclaiming her own heterosexuality, and has granted cover interviews to a variety of gay magazines.

TV work

• Caesar's Hour (regular performer from 1954–1956)
• Maude (1972–1978)
• The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) [3]
• Amanda's (1983) (canceled after 4 months)
• The Golden Girls (1985–1992)
• My First Love (1988)
• Dave's World (cast member from 1996–1997)
• Malcolm in the Middle Dewey's babysitter in the season one finale (2000)
• Futurama as "Fem-puter" in "Amazon Women in the Mood" (2001)
• Curb Your Enthusiasm as Larry David's mother on the season five finale (2005)

Emmy Awards

• 1977 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - Maude
• 1988 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - The Golden Girls

Stage appearances

• Threepenny Opera (1954)
• Plain and Fancy (1955)
• Seventh Heaven (1955)
• Threepenny Opera (1955) (revival)
• Nature's Way (1957)
• Fiddler on the Roof (1964)
• Mame (1966)
• The Floating Light Bulb (1981)
• Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends (2002)

Filmography

• That Kind of Woman (1959)
• Lovers and Other Strangers (1970)
• Mame (1974)
• History of the World: Part I (1981) (cameo)
• For Better or For Worse (1996)
• Enemies of Laughter (2000)
• Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There (2003) (documentary)

Trivia

• The Marvel Comics character Deadpool harbors a bizarre obsession with Bea Arthur and seems to consider her particularly sexy.
• Beatrice Arthur was seen throughout the 1980s in Canada as a regular character in “Shoppers Drug Mart", television commercials for a popular Canadian chain of pharmacies. www.shoppersdrugmart.ca/
• In the movie Airheads (1994)—with Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi and Adam Sandler—the main characters ask for naked pictures of Bea Arthur as part of an elaborate ploy to build an insanity defense.
• Arthur is referenced in the song "California" by singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright on his 2001 album Poses. The lyric, "I don't know this sea of neon / Thousand surfers, whiffs of freon / And my new grandma Bea Arthur", references in part a chance meeting with Arthur. A homesick Wainwright, away from his native Canada, told her seeing her on reruns of The Golden Girls made him feel like he was with his own grandmother, to which Arthur is reported to have curtly replied, "I am not your fucking grandmother!"
• Was herself roasted during the Pamela Anderson roast when comedian Jeff Ross stated, "I wouldn't fuck Bea Arthur's dick with Andy Dick's pussy," one of several variations on Jeff Ross' original allusion to Bea at an earlier Friar's Club roast: "I wouldn't fuck Sandra Bernhard with Bea Arthur's penis."
• In the Family Guy episode Ready, Willing and Disabled, Bea Arthur played Peter Griffin in a movie based on Joe's life. Her voice, however, was provided by Alex Rocco.

External links

• Beatrice Arthur at IMDb

• [4] Playbill biography
• [5] Bea Arthur In The Lime Light - fan web site by Kevin Buckstiegel
• [6] Bea Arthur at Uncyclopedia.org
• Bea Arthur takes on KFC - video
• Bea Arthur video on Premarin