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Born Today- American Comedienne Beatrice Arthur- wikipedia

Bea Arthur

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Beatrice Arthur
Beatrice Arthur - 1973.jpg
Bea Arthur as Maude (1973)
BornBernice Frankel
May 13, 1922
New York, New York
DiedApril 25, 2009 (aged 86)
Los AngelesCalifornia
Cause of death
Cancer
Resting place
Cremated
Alma materLinden Hall School for Girls
OccupationActress, comedian, singer
Years active1947–2008
Spouse(s)Robert Alan Aurthur
(1947; divorced)
Gene Saks
(m.1950–1980; divorced);
2 children
Beatrice "BeaArthur (May 13, 1922 – April 25, 2009) was an American actress, comedian, and singer whose career spanned seven decades.
Arthur achieved fame as the character Maude Findlay on the 1970s sitcoms All in the Family (1971–72) and Maude (1972–78), and as Dorothy Zbornak on the 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls (1985–92), winning Emmy Awards for both roles. A stage actress both before and after her television success, she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance as Vera Charles in the original cast of Mame (1966).

Early life[edit]

Beatrice Arthur was born Bernice Frankel on May 13, 1922, to Philip (1885-1973) and Rebecca (née Pressner; 1895-1985) Frankel [1] in New York City.[2][3] Arthur was Jewish. In 1933, she moved with her parents and sisters Gertrude (b. 1915- ?) and Marian Kay (b. 1926 - d. 2014) to Cambridge, Maryland, where her parents operated a women's clothing shop. She attended Linden Hall School for Girls, an all-girls' boarding school in Lititz, Pennsylvania, before enrolling in the now-defunct Blackstone College for Girls in Blackstone, Virginia, where she was active in drama productions. During World War II, she served in the United States Marine Corps.[4][5]

Career[edit]

Theater[edit]

1943 United States Marine Corps portrait
From 1947, Arthur studied at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with 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 The Threepenny Opera, Nadine Fesser in the 1957 premiere of Herman Wouk's Nature's Way at the Coronet Theatre, 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 unsuccessful 1974 film version opposite Lucille Ball. In 1981, she appeared in Woody Allen's The Floating Light Bulb.[6] She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1994 portraying the Duchess of Krakenthorp, a speaking role, in Gaetano Donizetti's La fille du régiment.[7]

Television[edit]

In 1971, Arthur was invited by Norman Lear to guest-star on his sitcom All in the Family, as Maude Findlay, the cousin of Edith Bunker. An outspoken liberal feminist, Maude was the antithesis to the bigoted, conservative Republican Archie Bunker, who described her as a "New Deal fanatic". Then nearly 50, Arthur's tart turn appealed to viewers and to executives at CBS, who, she would later recall, asked "'Who is that girl? Let's give her her own series.'"[8] That series, previewed in her second All in the Family appearance, would be simply titled Maude. The show, debuting in 1972, found her living in the affluent community of Tuckahoe, Westchester County, New York, with her fourth husband Walter (Bill Macy) and divorced daughter Carol (Adrienne Barbeau). Her performance in the role garnered Arthur several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, including her Emmy win in 1977 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.
Maude would also earn a place for Arthur in the history of the women's liberation movement.[9] The groundbreaking series addressed serious sociopolitical topics of the era that were considered taboo for a sitcom, including the Vietnam War, the Nixon Administration, Maude's bid for a Congressional seat, divorce, menopause, drug use, alcoholism, nervous breakdown, mental illness, abortion, to spousal abuse. A prime example is "Maude's Dilemma", a two-part episode airing near Thanksgiving of 1972 in which Maude's character grapples with a late-life pregnancy, ultimately deciding to have an abortion.
Even though abortion was legal in New York State, it was illegal in many other regions of the country, and as such sparked controversy. As a result, dozens of affiliates refused to broadcast the episode when it was originally scheduled, substituting either a repeat from earlier in the season or a Thanksgiving TV special in its place. However, by the time of the summer rerun season six months later all the flak had died down, and the stations that refused to air the episode upon its first run reinstated it for the reruns the following summer. As a result, a reported 65 million viewers watched the two episode arc either in their first run that November or during the following summer as a rerun.[10]
The episode aired two months before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized the procedure nationwide in the Roe v. Wade outcome in early 1973.[11] By 1978, however, Arthur decided to move on from the series. Later the same year (1978), she costarred in 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 HudsonMelba Moore and Wayland Flowers and Madame.[12]
After appearing in the short-lived 1983 sitcom Amanda's (an adaptation of the British series Fawlty Towers), Arthur was cast in 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. The series was a hit, and remained a top-ten ratings fixture for seven 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, with Cheech Marin as their new foil. Arthur made a guest appearance in a two-part episode, but the new series only lasted one season.[13][14]

Film[edit]

Bea Arthur as Maude, circa 1973
Arthur sporadically appeared in films, reprising her stage role as Vera Charles in the 1974 film adaption of Mame, opposite Lucille Ball. She portrayed overbearing mother Bea Vecchio in Lovers and Other Strangers (1970), and had a cameo as a Roman unemployment clerk in Mel BrooksHistory of the World, Part I (1981). She appeared in the 1995 American movie For Better or Worse as Beverly Makeshift.[citation needed]

Later career[edit]

After Arthur left The Golden Girls, she made several guest appearances on television shows and organized and toured in her one-woman show, alternately titled An Evening with Bea Arthur and And Then There's Bea. She made a guest appearance on the American cartoon Futurama, in the Emmy-nominated 2001 episode "Amazon Women in the Mood", as the voice of the Femputer who ruled the giant Amazonian women. She appeared in a first-season episode of Malcolm in the Middle as Mrs. White, one of Dewey's babysitters. She was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance. She also appeared 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.[15] The show was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event.[16] In addition to appearing in a number of programs looking back at her own work, Arthur performed in stage and television tributes for Jerry HermanBob HopePeggy Lee (in Richard Barone's "There’ll Be Another Spring: A Tribute to Miss Peggy Lee" at the Hollywood Bowl), and Ellen DeGeneres. In 2005, she participated in the Comedy Central roast of Pamela Anderson, where she recited sexually explicit passages from Anderson's book Star Struck in a deadpan fashion.[17]

Influences[edit]

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 [original Threepenny Opera star] Lotte Lenya, whom I adored, taught me economy."[18]

Personal life[edit]

Arthur in 2005
Arthur was married twice. Her first marriage took place during her time in the military, when she married fellow Marine Robert Alan Aurthur,[4] a screenwriter, television, and film producer and director, whose surname she took and kept (though with a modified spelling). Shortly after they divorced in 1950, she married director Gene Saks with whom she adopted two sons, Matthew (born in 1961), an actor, and Daniel (born in 1964), a set designer; they remained married until 1980.[19]
In 1972, she moved to Los Angeles and sublet her apartment on Central Park West in New York City and her country home in Bedford, New York.[20]
In a 2003 interview, while in London promoting her one woman show, she described the British capital as her "favourite city in the world".[21]
Arthur was a committed animal rights activist and frequently supported People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals campaigns. Arthur joined PETA in 1987 after a Golden Girls anti-fur episode.[22] Arthur wrote letters, made personal appearances and placed ads against the use of fursfoie gras, and farm animal cruelty by KFC suppliers. In Norfolk, Virginia, near the site of the PETA headquarters, there is a dog park named Bea Arthur Dog Park in her honor.
Arthur's longtime championing of civil rights for women, the elderly, and the Jewish communities — in her two major television roles and through her charity work and personal outspokenness.[23]
Regarding politics, Arthur herself was a liberal Democrat who confirmed her views by saying, "I've been a Democrat my whole life. That's what makes Maude and Dorothy so believable, we have the same viewpoints on how our country should be handled."[24]

Death[edit]

A private and introverted lady,[25] Arthur died at her home in the Sullivan Canyon section of Brentwood in the early morning hours of Saturday, April 25, 2009. Her family acknowledged the cause of death was cancer, but declined to specify what type. She was survived by her two sons and two granddaughters.[18][26][27] Her body was cremated.[28]
On April 28, 2009, the Broadway community paid tribute to Arthur by dimming the marquees of New York City's Broadway theater district in her memory for one minute at 8:00 pm.[29]
Arthur's co-stars from The Golden GirlsRue McClanahan and Betty White, commented on her death via telephone on an April 27 episode of Larry King Live. On the Today Show by phone, McClanahan said she and Arthur got along together "like cream". White said, "I knew it would hurt, I just didn't know it would hurt this much."[30][31]
Longtime friends Adrienne Barbeau (with whom she had worked on Maude) and Angela Lansbury (with whom she had worked in Mame) reflected on her death: Barbeau said, "We've lost a unique, incredible talent. No one could deliver a line or hold a take like Bea and no one was more generous or giving to her fellow performers";[32] and Lansbury said, "She became and has remained my Bosom Buddy [...] I am deeply saddened by her passing, but also relieved that she is released from the pain".[33]
Arthur bequeathed $300,000 to the Ali Forney Center, a New York City organization that provides housing for homeless LGBT youths.[34][35] The center was destroyed in October 2012 by Hurricane Sandy,[36][37] however it has since resumed its work.[38]
Arthur was only five days older than Bill Macy, her Maude co-star.

Awards[edit]

Arthur (left) at the 1989 Emmy Awards with close friend Angela Lansbury (right)
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.
Arthur received the second most nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series with nine (9). Only Mary Tyler Moore, with ten (10) nominations, has more. She received the Academy of Television Arts & SciencesEmmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series twice, once in 1977 for Maude and again in 1988 for The Golden Girls.[39] She was inducted into the Academy's Television Hall of Fame in 2008.[40]
On June 8, 2008, The Golden Girls was awarded the Pop Culture award at the Sixth Annual TV Land Awards. Arthur (in one of her final public appearances) accepted the award with McClanahan and White.[41]

Filmography[edit]

Television & Film[edit]

YearTitleRoleNotes
1951–58Kraft Television Theatre
1951Once Upon a Tune
1951–1953, 1955-1958Studio One
1955Max Liebman Presents: Kaleidoscope
regular performer 1954–1956Caesar's Hour
1957Washington Square
1957The Steve Allen Show
1958The Seven Lively Arts
1958Tonight Starring Jack Parr
1958Omnibus
1958The Gift of the Magi
1959The George Gobel Show
1959That Kind of Woman
1960The Best of Anything
1961The Perry Como Show
1962The Garry Moore Show
1963The Sid Caesar Show
1970Lovers and Other Strangers
1971 & 1972All in the Family
1972–1978Maude
1973The 45th Annual Academy Awards
1974-1976-1985The Merv Griffin Show
1974The 28th Annual Tony Awards
1974 & 1980The Mike Douglas Show
1974Mame
1974–1977, 1980, 1985, 1986, 1990The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1975, 1976, 1980Dinah
1976 & 1979Saturday Night Live
1976Cos]]
1977The 31st Annual Tony Awards
1977The 29th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
1977Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
1978CBS: On the Air
1978The 30th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
1978Star Wars Holiday Special
1979The Mary Tyler Moore Hour
1980The Beatrice Arthur Special
198030 Years of TV Comedy’s Greatest Hits: To Laughter with Love
1980Soap
1980Bob Hope Special: Bob Hope-Hope, Women and Song
1981Omnibus
1981The 35th Annual Tony Awards
1981The 33rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
1981History of the World, Part I
1982Bob Hope’s Women I Love-Beautiful but Funny
1982Nights of 100 Stars
1982Broadway Plays Washington on Kennedy Center Tonight
1983Amanda's(series; lasted 4 months)
1983The 9th Annual People's Choice Awards
1984The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Joan Collins
1984The 1st Academy TV Hall of Fame
1984a.k.a. Pablo
1984P.O.P.
1985The NBC All Star Hour
1985Entertainment Tonight
1985–1992The Golden Girls
1985The 37th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
1985The 10th Circus of the Stars
1986The 40th Annual Tony Awards
1986All Star Party for Clint Eastwood
1986The 38th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
1986NBC 60th Anniversary Celebration
1986The 43rd Annual Golden Globe Awards
1986Walt Disney World's 15th Birthday Celebration
1986Late Night with David Letterman
1986The 46th Annual Golden Apple Awards
1986The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts
1987The 39th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
1987All Star Party for Joan Collins
1987Comic Relief '87
hostAll Star Gala at Ford's Theater(1987)
1987The 1st Annual American Comedy Awards
1987The 44th Annual Golden Globe Awards
1987The 13th Annual People's Choice Awards
1987This is Your Life
1987Happy 100th Birthday Hollywood
1987The 41st Annual Tony Awards
1987Family Comedy Hour
1988The 9th Annual American Black Achievement Awards
1988The 45th Annual Golden Globe Awards
1988In Performance at the White House; A Salute to Broadway: Showstoppers
1988Irving Berlin's 100th Birthday Celebration
1988The 40th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
1988Mickey’s 60th Birthdayas Herself
1988The 13th Circus of the Stars
1988My First Love(ABC-TV Movie)
1989The 46th Annual Golden Globe Awards
1989Empty Nest
1989The 3rd Annual American Comedy Awards
1989Bob Hope’s Birthday Spectacular in Paris
1989The Society of Singers Presents a Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald
1989The 41st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
1989Later with Bob Costas
1989The Arsenio Hall Show
1989The 49th Annual Golden Apple Awards
1989Live with Regis and Kathie Lee
1990The TV Academy Tribute to Angela Lansbury
1990The 21st BAFTA Awards
1990The 4th Annual American Comedy Awards
1990The Earth Day Special
1990Aspel & Company
1990Night of 100 Stars III
1990The 42nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
1990Des O'Connor Tonight
1990A Conversation with Dinah
1990Live from the London Palladium: Happy Birthday, Happy New Year!
1991The 17th Annual People Choice Awards
1991The 48th Annual Golden Globe Awards
1991The 5th Annual American Comedy Awards
1991The 43rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
1991Funny Women of Television
1991Dame Edna's Hollywood
1992Evening at Pops
1992The Howard Stern Show
1992Guest Night
1992The 6th Annual American Comedy Awards
1992The Golden Palace2 episodes
1992Verstehen Sie Spaß?
1992The 1992 Pacific Center HIV-AIDS Benefit
1993The 7th Annual American Comedy Awards
1993Out There
1993This Joint is Jumpin‍ '​
1993The 47th Annual Tony Awards
1993Boulevard Bio
1993Sean's Show
1994Jerry Herman's Broadway at the Hollywood Bowl
1994The 8th Annual American Comedy Awards
1994Bob Hope’s Birthday Memories
1994She TV
1995The 9th Annual Genesis Awards
199550 Years of Funny Females
1995This Morning[citation needed]
1995For Better or Worse
1996The 10th American Comedy Awards
1996The 50th Annual Tony Awards
1996 & 1997Dave's Worldcast member
1997The Rosie O'Donnell Show
1998The RuPaul Show
1998Ellen: A Hollywood Tribute, Part 1
1998CBS: The first 50 Years
1998NY TV: By the People Who Made It-Part I & II
1999The 53rd Annual Tony Awards
1999Beggars and Choosers
1999Emily of New Moon
1999The Martin Short Show
2000So Graham Norton
2000Malcolm in the Middle"Water Park (Part 1)"
2000Intimate Portrait: Rue McClanahan
2000Enemies of Laughter
2000E! True Hollywood Story: The Golden Girls
2000E! True Hollywood Story: Good Times
2000E! True Hollywood Story: All in the Family
2000The 70s: The Decade That Changed Television
2001Intimate Portrait: Estelle Getty
2001Futuramaas "Femputer" in the episode "Amazon Women in the Mood"
2001Today
2002The View
2002CBS News Sunday Morning
2002The Rosie O'Donnell Show
2002Good Morning America
2002The Daily Show
2002The Big O! True West Hollywood Story
2002TV Most Censored Moments
2002TV Tales: The Golden Girls
2002Open Mike with Mike Bullard
2002Because I Said So
2002Inside TV Land: Taboo TV
2003Great Women on Television Comedy
2003Intimate Portrait: Bea Arthur
2003TV Land Awards: A Celebration of Classic TV
2003Rove Live
2003Broadway: The Golden Age by the Legends Who Were There
2003Through the Keyhole
2003The Golden Girls: Their Greatest Moments
2003Today with Des and Mel
2003Richard & Judy
2003The Terry and Gaby Show
2004The 2nd Annual TV Land Awards: A Celebration of Classic TV
2004Great Performances
2004The Best of So Graham Norton
2004Inside TV Land: Primetime Politics
2004TV's Greatest Sidekicks
2005Inside TV Land: Tickled Pink
2005Comedy Central Roast of Pamela Anderson
2005TV Land Confidential
2005Curb Your Enthusiasmas Larry David's deceased motherSeason 5 finale
2006Entertainment Tonight
2006Biography: Bea Arthur
2006The 100 Greatest TV Quotes & Catchphrases
2007The View
2007TV Land Confidential
2007Entertainment Tonight
2007Back to the Grind
2007Entertainment Weekly & TV Land Present: The 50 Greatest TV Icons
2008The 6th Annual TV Land Awards
2008Inside Editionas Herself
2008Entertainment Tonight
2009Entertainment Tonight
2014Broadway: Beyond The Golden Age

Theater performances[edit]

YearTitleRoleNotes
1947Lysistrata
1947Gas
1947The Dog Beneath the Skin
1947Yerma
1948No Exit
1948The Taming of the Shrew
1948Six Characters in Search of an Author
1948The Owl and the Pussycat
1949Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
1949Yes is for a Very Young Man
1949The Creditors
1949Heartbreak House
1951Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
1951Personal Appearance
1951Candle Light
1951Love or Money
1951The Voice of the Turtle
1951Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
1953The New Moon
1954–55The Threepenny Opera
1955What's the Rush?
1955Shoestring Revue
1955Plain and Fancy
1955Seventh Heaven
1956Mistress of the Inn
1956Ziegfeld Follies
1956Shoestring ‘57
1957Hamlet
1957Nature's Way
1958Ulysses in Nighttown
1959Chic
1960The Gay Divorcee at the Cherry Lane
1962A Matter of Position
1964Fiddler on the Roof
1966Mame
1968A Mother's Kissesclosed on the road
1981The Floating Lightbulb
1981Hey, Look Me Over!
1994Easter Bonnet Competition: A Salute to 100 Years of Broadway
1994La Fille du Regiment
1995–96Bermuda Avenue Triangle
November 17, 1996Angela Lansbury – A Celebrationbenefit concert
1997–98After Play
1998Jubilee
1999Thoroughly Modern Millie
2000Strike Up the Band
2000The Threepenny Opera Reunion Concert
2000 - 2006An Evening with Bea ArthurWestport, Connecticut (July 28–30, 2000)
Santa Fe, New Mexico (September 24, 2002)
Los Angeles, California (January 31 – February 1, 2004)
Saugatuck, Michigan (May 22–23, 2004)
Provincetown, Massachusetts (August 21, 2004)
Columbus, Georgia (October 30, 2004)
Nyack, New York (March 4–6, 2005)
Fort Wayne, Indiana (April 17, 2005)
Mount Pleasant, Michigan (April 19, 2005)
Atlantic City, New Jersey (June 3–4, 2005)
Holmdel, New Jersey (June 7, 2005)
Las Vegas, Nevada (August 27, 2005)
Hampton, Virginia (September 16–17, 2005)
Alexandria, Virginia (September 22, 2005)
Geneva, New York (September 24, 2005)
San Francisco, California (January 7, 2006)
Salem, Oregon (January 21, 2006)
Scottsdale, Arizona (February 24–25, 2006)
University Park, Illinois (March 19, 2006)
2001 - 2003And Then There's BeaUnited States Tour (April 24, 2001 – January 13, 2002)
Melbourne, Australia (October 15–27, 2002)
Sydney, Australia (October 29 – November 10, 2002)
Johannesburg, South Africa (August 12–24, 2003)
Cape Town, South Africa (August 26 – September 7, 2003)
2002Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between FriendsNew York, New York (January 29, 2002 – April 14, 2002)
Toronto, Canada (November 20 – December 8, 2002)
2003Bea Arthur at The Savoy in London, England (September 15 – October 18, 2003)
2004A Celebration of Life in Washington, D.C. (May 26, 2004)
2004There’ll Be Another Spring: A Tribute to Miss Peggy Lee at the Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, California (July 14, 2004)
2004Bea Arthur at the El Portal in North Hollywood, California (August 5–8, 2004)
2005Bea Arthur Back on Broadway (at 95th Street) in New York, New York (November 21, 2005)
2006Bea Arthur Back at the El Portal in North Hollywood, California (February 16–19, 2006)

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