‘Golden Girl’ Bea Arthur Dies
Posted April 25, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
‘Golden Girl’ Bea Arthur has died. She was 86 years old.
A family spokesperson announced that the actor passed away peacefully at her Los Angeles home. The sharp-tongued woman with the gravelly voice had battled cancer for many years.
Arthur’s big break came when she took the role of Maude Findlay opposite Carroll O’Connor’s Archie Bunker on All In The Family. That led to her own sitcom, entitled simply Maude.
From there, Arthur – born Bernice but called Bea – went on to play Dorothy Zbornak on The Golden Girls.
She won an Emmy for both of those roles. In 1977 and in 1988, she took home the trophy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.
Arthur also worked on stage, appearing in many Broadway plays. She won a Tony for her work in the musical Mame and in 2002, she performed Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends.
In fact, she started late in television, especially by today’s standards: she made her debut as Maude at the age of 50.
She is survived by her sons and two granddaughters
Arthur attends the 2008 Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ Hall of Fame ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel on December 9, 2008 in Beverly Hills, California. Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images.
