Bea Arthur

Bea Arthur

...ing theatrical heft she had learned from 25 years on the Broadway stage.
She had worked in TV before, in 1956 in Caesar's Hour among other shows. But like Angela Lansbury, her co-star in the original production of Mame, Arthur didn't really become a TV star until she was a mature, middle-aged woman. And like no one before or since, she made most everyone else around her look like kids.
There are stars who, when they leave, you realize how far we've come. With Arthur, sad to say, you realize how far we've regressed; there's no way Maude or Golden Girls gets on the air on any of the broadcast networks today. In an era in which networks cater to young viewers and kowtow to advertisers, everything about those shows would be a no-go, from the age of their stars to their no-holds-barred, no-sacred-cows style.
Maude had an abortion. Wherever one stands on the issue, we can all probably agree that no sitcom today would dare take that kind of risk.
Oddly enough for one of TV's most famous liberal characters, Maude owed her existence to one of the most conservative: Archie Bunker. Arthur was brought into All in the Family in 1971 to provide a serpent-tongued foil to Archie, and with her towering size and acidic way with a Joke, she was perfect for the part.
So good, CBS spun her off into her own show the next year, and cast McClanahan - who would later rejoin her in Girls - as Maude's sweet best friend.
For good and not. Maude is a perfect example of a "70s social sitcom: a loud, pointed, fictional version of the debates you now find on cable news shows. It could be very funny, particularly in the early years, when Esther Rolle's Florida was around to take some of the wind out of Maude's liberal sails. But it probably hasn't aged as well as Golden Girls.
There's a seven-year gap between the end of Maude and the 1985 launch of Girls (and a failed Americanized version of Fawlty Towers in between). But as Arthur herself often admitted, Maude Findlay and Dorothy Zbornak had much in common - and how could they not? Arthur just wasn't built to play shy, retiring types.
Still, she wasn't all blast, either. There's a sweetness in her scenes with Dorothy's mother (Getty). and in her sometimes unwilling fondness for her ex-husband, that served to soften the show's tone, which could get too nasty.
As wonderful as she was in front of a camera, Arthur's appeal didn't seem to translate to film, or perhaps she just wasn't given the right chance. Her stage role as Yente in Fiddler on the Roof went to Molly Picon in the movie. She did get to repeat her Tony-winning Broadway role as Vera Charles in the flm version of Mame, but her co-star was Lucille Ball rather than Lansbury, and that pretty much did the film in.
But then there's Maude, and Dorothy, and that look. And that's a legacy of which any star can be proud.

Bea Arthur: 1922-2009
Bea Arthur, who died Saturday of cancer at her LA. home at age 86, was unmistakable: She was Maude, a Golden Girl, a Broadway baby and, most of all, a force of nature. From stage to TV and back, her tough, no-nonsense approach was appealing, affirming, and amusing. USA TODAY's Ann Oldenburg recaps highlights from her life and career:

Early years. When Bernice Frankel was 11, her family moved from New York to Cambridge, Md., where her father opened a clothing store. She was always tall, reaching her adult height of 5-foot-9 1/2 by age 12. Self-conscious, she took refuge in the movies, collecting pictures of Hollywood actors and daydreaming she was a small, blond, beautiful screen star (particularly June Allyson). She learned to delight classmates with impersonations of Mae West. "I started being funny to get accepted. I guess it happens to a lot of us oddballs," she told The Toronto Star in 2002.
Soon after high school, she headed back to New York, enrolling in the celebrated Dramatic Workshop of the New School for Social Research and making her stage debut in 1947. Among her fellow students was a young actor named Gene Saks; they married in 1950. Saks would find fame as a director of such movies as The Odd Couple and Cactus Flower. During the 1950s. she sang in nightclubs and played bit parts on TV.

Stage and (small) screen. Norman Lear invited her to come to Hollywood in 1959 to appear on The George Gobel Show, where he was producer/ director. But after two episodes, she returned to New York, where in 1964 she rose to fame as Yente the matchmaker in Fiddter on the Roof with Zero Mostel. Two years later, she was acclaimed on Broadway as Vera Charles in the smash Mame, directed by Saks and starring Angela Lansbury.
"There was no one else like Bea," Mame composer Jerry Herman told the AP. "She would make us laugh during 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."
Lear nagged Arthur to try a guest role on his All in the Family. She put him off until 1971, when she went to Hollywood to visit her husband, directing The Last of the Red Hot Lovers. For her, Lear created Maude Findlay, a cousin of the Bunker family who was as outspoken as, but the political opposite of, prejudiced, narrow-minded Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor). Viewers loved it so much that Lear spun off Maude into a series in fall 1972.

And then there's ... Maude, like Family, was controversial. The episode that caused the most uproar was a two-parter whose story line involved the character, at 47, becoming pregnant and - alter much debate - deciding on an abortion. Another program tackled the topic of face lifts, an operation undergone not only by Maude, but also by Arthur. She won an Emmy for the role in 1977.
Arthur, an animal rights activist and a frequent speaker at AIDS events, had a large gay following. When told of drag-queen Bea Arthur lookalike competitions, she said, "I'm flattered," and added, "Of course I have gay friends - doesn't everybody?" And when told she was dogged by rumors that she was a lesbian, her answer was, "I think it is because of the voice, but who cares?"

'Golden' age. When Maude ended in 1978, Arthur's acrimonious marriage ended. She was offered other series, but it wasn't until 1985 and The Golden Girls that she found another hit, as feisty Dorothy Zbornak. The show, about four older women in Florida, reunited her with Rue McClanahan, who had become famous playing Maude's best friend, the gullible Vivian.
McClanahan said at the time: "We're not close friends, I can't say that. We don't socialize. (But) we certainly think highly of each other. Every third or fourth show, she squeezes my hand and says, "God I'm glad you're here. I feel the same way."
McClanahan also described Arthur as reticent. "She doesn't talk much. She's very quiet and laid-back. She's different. And I love acting with her."

Between friends. In 1992, Arthur left Golden Girls, and for the next decade kept a low profile, doing occasional movies and TV appearances. (A 2000 appearance as a terrifying babysitter on Malcolm in the Middle earned her an Emmy nomination.)
In 2002, she returned to Broadway with her one-woman show, Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends. In an interview at the time, she pointed to a TV set and said, "I feel as if I've spent the majority of my adult life in that little box there."
But she was never one for regrets, carving out a reputation for getting the most out of life. In The Toronto Star interview, Arthur was asked to comment on a widely known fondness for alcohol. She replied, "I believe that you're here on Earth for a short time, and while you're here, you shouldn't forget it. I always remember that line from Mame: "Life's a banquet, and most poor sons of bitches are starving to death." Do I look like I'm hungry? Or thirsty?"