Bea Arthur

Beatrice Arthur (born Bernice Frankel; May 13, 1922 – April 25, 2009) was an American actress and comedian.

Bea Arthur
Arthur as Maude Findlay in 1973
Born	Bernice Frankel (1922-05-13)May 13, 1922 Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
Died	April 25, 2009(2009-04-25) (aged 86) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other names	Beatrice Arthur
Alma mater	Linden Hall School for Girls Blackstone College for Girls Franklin Institute The New School
Occupation	Actress, comedian, singer, activist
Years active	1947–2008
Spouse(s)	Robert Alan Aurthur ​ ( m. 1947; div. 1950) Gene Saks ​ ( m. 1950; div. 1978)
Children	2
Parent(s)	Rebecca Pressner Philip Frankel

Arthur began her career on stage in 1947 and made her Broadway debut in The Threepenny Opera in 1954. She won the 1966 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for playing Vera Charles in Mame. She went on to play Maude Findlay on the 1970s sitcoms All in the Family (1971–72) and Maude (1972–78), and Dorothy Zbornak on the 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls (1985–92), winning Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1977 and 1988. Her film appearances include Lovers and Other Strangers (1970) and Mame (1974). In 2002, she starred in the one-woman show Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends.

Early life

Beatrice Arthur was born Bernice Frankel on May 13, 1922, to Rebecca (née Pressner; 1895–1985, born in Austria) and Philip Frankel (1885–1973, born in Poland) in Brooklyn, New York.[1][2] Arthur was raised in a Jewish home with older sister Gertrude and younger sister Marian.

In 1933, the Frankel family relocated to Cambridge, Maryland, where her parents subsequently operated a women's clothing shop. At age 16, Frankel developed a serious condition called coagulopathy, in which her blood would not clot.[3] Concerned for her health, her parents decided to send her to Linden Hall School for Girls, an all-girls' boarding school in Lititz, Pennsylvania, for her final two years of high school.[3] Afterwards she studied for a year at Blackstone College for Girls in Blackstone, Virginia.[4]

During World War II, Arthur enlisted as one of the first members of the United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve in 1943. After basic training, Arthur served as a typist at Marine headquarters in Washington, D.C. In June 1943, the Marine Corps accepted her transfer request to the Motor Transport School at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Arthur then worked as a truck driver and dispatcher in Cherry Point, North Carolina, between 1944 and 1945. She was honorably discharged at the rank of staff sergeant in September 1945.[5]

After serving in the Marines, Frankel studied for a year at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, where she became a licensed medical technician.[3][4] After interning at a local hospital for the summer, Frankel decided against working as a lab technician, departing for New York City in 1947 to enroll in the School of Drama at The New School.[3]

Career

Theater

1943 United States Marine Corps identification card photo

From 1947, Arthur studied at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York, N.Y. 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.

In 1966, Arthur auditioned for the title role in the musical Mame, which her husband Gene Saks was set to direct, but Angela Lansbury won the role instead.[3] Arthur accepted the supporting role of Vera Charles, for which she won great acclaim, winning a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical the same year. 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

Arthur as Maude, c. 1973

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 considered the antithesis role to the caricatured reactionary character Archie Bunker, who described her as a "New Deal fanatic". Nearly 50, Arthur's tart turn on All in the Family impressed viewers as well as 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 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, women's lib, gay rights, abortion, and 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.[10] Even though abortion was legal in New York State since 1970, as well as in California since its state's 1969 on-demand ruling, 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.[11] The episode initially aired two months before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized the procedure nationwide in the Roe v. Wade outcome in January 1973.[12]

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 Hudson, Melba Moore and Wayland Flowers and Madame.[13]

Arthur returned to television in the short-lived 1983 sitcom Amanda's (an adaptation of the British series Fawlty Towers). Unfortunately, the show was a not a hit with audiences and only 10 of the 13 filmed episodes actually aired.

In 1985, Arthur was cast in The Golden Girls, in which she played Dorothy Zbornak, a divorced substitute teacher living in a Miami house owned by widow 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. The series was a hit, and remained a top-ten ratings fixture for six of its 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 lasted only one season.[14][15] Arthur also appeared as a guest on the sitcom Malcolm in the Middle, playing a babysitter who was a strict disciplinarian; her character died in the episode.

Film

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 Brooks' History of the World, Part I (1981). She appeared in the 1995 American movie For Better or Worse as Beverly Makeshift.[16]

Later career

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 as well as And Then There's Bea.[17] 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.[18] She appeared in a first-season episode of Malcolm in the Middle as Mrs. White, one of Dewey's babysitters.[19][20] She was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance.[21] She also appeared as Larry David's mother on Curb Your Enthusiasm.[22]

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.[23] The show was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event.[24]

In addition to appearing in a number of programs looking back at her own work, Arthur performed in stage and television tributes for Jerry Herman, Bob Hope, Ellen DeGeneres. In 2004, she appeared in Richard Barone's "There'll Be Another Spring: A Tribute to Miss Peggy Lee" at the Hollywood Bowl, performing "Johnny Guitar" and "The Shining Sea". 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.[25]

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 [original Threepenny Opera star] Lotte Lenya, whom I adored, taught me economy."[26] Another source of influence to Arthur, was that of famed actress/director Ida Lupino whom Arthur praised as, "My dream was to become a very small blonde movie star like Ida Lupino and those other women I saw up there on the screen during the Depression.[27] "

Personal life

Arthur was married twice. Her first marriage took place in 1947, shortly after her time in the military, when she wed fellow Marine Robert Alan Aurthur,[28] later 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. She and Saks remained married until 1978.[29]

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.[30] In a 2003 interview, while in London promoting her one-woman show, she described the British capital as her "favorite city in the world".[31]

Arthur was a longtime champion of equal rights for women and an active advocate of the elderly, and Jewish communities, in both her major television roles and through her charity work and personal outspokenness.[32]

Late in life, Arthur took up the cause of LGBT youth homelessness. She raised $40,000 for the Ali Forney Center with one of her final live performances, a revival of her one-woman Broadway show in 2005, after she had fallen ill with cancer. She would go on to advocate for the Center until her death, telling Next Magazine, “These kids at the Ali Forney Center are literally dumped by their families because of the fact that they are lesbian, gay or transgender — this organization really is saving lives.”[33]

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."[34]

Arthur was also a mentor, surrogate mother and friend to Adrienne Barbeau, who co-starred with her on Maude for six seasons. Barbeau was unavailable to perform on the sitcom during its last two seasons due to her schedule; nevertheless, the two remained close and stayed in touch until Arthur's passing. In a 2018 interview with the American website Dread Central, Barbeau shared some of her feelings about her friend:

I was doing an interview for this one-woman show that I am doing and the interviewer asked, "What do people usually ask you," and I said, "They always want to know what it was like working with Bea." She was fantastic and, you know, I realized years later how much I took it for granted because it was my first experience on television. I just assumed that everyone was as giving as she was, as professional as she was, that everyone who was doing a TV show showed up knowing their lines and showed up on time and was willing to say to the writers, "I think this line was funnier if Adie had said it or Conrad had said it or Bill had said it." I mean, she was just the best, she was the best, very funny. She was not Maude when she wasn't saying those lines. I don't know if I'd say she was quiet. She was a homebody. She had her sons, her dog and her cooking and she wasn't into the celebrity scene and she was a great lady. I loved her dearly and we had a great cast and they were my family for six years. I loved each of them and all of them and it was the best experience anyone could've had, being introduced to television like that.[35]

Death and legacy

A private and introverted woman according to her friends,[36] Arthur died of lung cancer at her home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles on April 25, 2009. She was two and a half weeks short of her 87th birthday.[37]

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 p.m.[38] On September 16, 2009, a public tribute to Arthur was held at the Majestic Theatre in Manhattan, where friends and colleagues including Angela Lansbury, Norman Lear, Rosie O'Donnell and Rue McClanahan paid tribute to the actress.[39]

Arthur's surviving co-stars from The Golden Girls, Rue 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, whose relationship was not as sweet, said "I knew it would hurt, I just didn't know it would hurt this much."[40][41]

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".[42] 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".[43]

Arthur bequeathed $300,000 to the Ali Forney Center, a New York City organization that provides housing for homeless LGBT youths.[44][45] The center was heavily damaged in October 2012 by Hurricane Sandy,[46][47] but has since been restored and re-opened.[48] The Bea Arthur Residence, which opened in 2017, is an 18-bed residence in Manhattan for homeless LGBT youth operated by the Ali Forney Center.[49][50]

Awards

The Golden Girls Disney Legends

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.[51]

Arthur received the third most nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series with nine; only Julia Louis-Dreyfus (11) and Mary Tyler Moore (10) have more. She 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.[52] She was inducted into the academy's Television Hall of Fame in 2008.[53]

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.[54]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1959	That Kind of Woman	WAC	Uncredited
1970	Lovers and Other Strangers	Bea Vecchio
1974	Mame	Vera Charles
1981	History of the World, Part I	Dole office clerk	Uncredited
1995	For Better or Worse	Beverly Makeshift	Uncredited
2000	Enemies of Laughter	Paul's Mother

Television

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1951–58	Kraft Television Theatre
1951	Once Upon a Tune
1951–53, 1955–58	Studio One in Hollywood
1955	Max Liebman Presents: Kaleidoscope
1954–56	Caesar's Hour		Regular performer
1957	Washington Square		2 episodes
	The Steve Allen Show
1958	The Seven Lively Arts
	Tonight Starring Jack Paar
	Omnibus
	The Gift of the Magi		Television film
1959	The George Gobel Show
1960	The Best of Anything		Television film
1961	The Perry Como Show
1962	The Garry Moore Show
1963	The Sid Caesar Show
1971–72	All in the Family	Maude Findlay	2 episodes
1972–78	Maude		141 episodes
1973	The 45th Annual Academy Awards
1974	The 28th Annual Tony Awards
1974–80	The Mike Douglas Show		6 episodes
1974–85	The Merv Griffin Show		3 episodes
1974–90	The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson		8 episodes
1975–80	Dinah!		5 episodes
1976–79	Saturday Night Live		2 episodes
1976	Cos	Herself
1977	The 31st Annual Tony Awards
	The 29th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
	Laugh-In
1978	CBS: On the Air
	The 30th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
	Star Wars Holiday Special	Ackmena	Television film
1979	The Mary Tyler Moore Hour	Herself	Episode #1.2
1980	The Beatrice Arthur Special	Herself (Host / Performer)	Television special
	30 Years of TV Comedy's Greatest Hits: To Laughter with Love
	Soap	Angel	Episode: "Jessica's Wonderful Life"
	Bob Hope Special: Bob Hope-Hope, Women and Song
1981	Omnibus
	The 35th Annual Tony Awards
	The 33rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
1982	Bob Hope's Women I Love: Beautiful But Funny
	Nights of 100 Stars
	Broadway Plays Washington on Kennedy Center Tonight
1983	Amanda's	Amanda Cartwright	13 episodes
	The 9th Annual People's Choice Awards
1984	The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Joan Collins
	The 1st Academy TV Hall of Fame
	a.k.a. Pablo	Press Agent	Episode: "My Son, the Gringo"
	P.O.P.	Rosalyn Gordon	Television film
1985–92	The Golden Girls	Dorothy Zbornak	180 episodes
1985	The NBC All Star Hour
	The 37th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
	The 10th Circus of the Stars
	The 40th Annual Tony Awards
1985–2008	Entertainment Tonight	Herself	7 episodes
1986	All Star Party for Clint Eastwood
	The 38th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
	NBC 60th Anniversary Celebration
	The 43rd Annual Golden Globe Awards
	Walt Disney World's 15th Birthday Celebration
	Late Night with David Letterman
	The 46th Annual Golden Apple Awards
	The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts
1987	The 39th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
	All Star Party for Joan Collins
	Comic Relief '87
	All Star Gala at Ford's Theater	Host
	The 1st Annual American Comedy Awards
	The 44th Annual Golden Globe Awards
	The 13th Annual People's Choice Awards
	This Is Your Life
	Happy 100th Birthday Hollywood
	Sally Jessy Raphael Show
	The 41st Annual Tony Awards
	Family Comedy Hour
1988	The 9th Annual American Black Achievement Awards
	The 45th Annual Golden Globe Awards
	In Performance at the White House; A Salute to Broadway: Showstoppers
	Irving Berlin's 100th Birthday Celebration
	The 40th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
	Mickey's 60th Birthday	Dorothy Zbornak
	The 13th Circus of the Stars
	My First Love	Jean Miller	Television movie
1989	The 46th Annual Golden Globe Awards
	Empty Nest	Dorothy Zbornak	Episode: "Dumped"
	The 3rd Annual American Comedy Awards
	Bob Hope's Birthday Spectacular in Paris
	The Society of Singers Presents a Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald
	The 41st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
	Later with Bob Costas
	The Arsenio Hall Show
	The 49th Annual Golden Apple Awards
	Live with Regis and Kathie Lee
1990	The TV Academy Tribute to Angela Lansbury
	The 21st BAFTA Awards
	The 4th Annual American Comedy Awards
	The Earth Day Special
	Aspel & Company
	Night of 100 Stars III
	The 42nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
	Des O'Connor Tonight
	A Conversation with Dinah
	Live from the London Palladium: Happy Birthday, Happy New Year!
1991	The 17th Annual People Choice Awards
	The 48th Annual Golden Globe Awards
	The 5th Annual American Comedy Awards
	The 43rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
	Funny Women of Television
	Dame Edna's Hollywood
1992	Evening at Pops
	The Howard Stern Show
	Guest Night
	The 6th Annual American Comedy Awards
	The Golden Palace	Dorothy Hollingsworth	Episodes: "Seems Like Old Times" (Parts 1 & 2)
	Verstehen Sie Spaß?
	The 1992 Pacific Center HIV-AIDS Benefit
1993	The 7th Annual American Comedy Awards
	Out There
	This Joint is Jumpin'
	The 47th Annual Tony Awards
	Boulevard Bio
	Sean's Show
1994	Jerry Herman's Broadway at the Hollywood Bowl	Herself (Performer)	Television special
	The 8th Annual American Comedy Awards
	Bob Hope's Birthday Memories
	She TV
1995	The 9th Annual Genesis Awards
	50 Years of Funny Females
	This Morning
1996	The 10th American Comedy Awards
	The 50th Annual Tony Awards
1997	Dave's World	Mel Bloom	3 episodes
	The Rosie O'Donnell Show
1998	The RuPaul Show
	Ellen	Herself	Episode: "Ellen: A Hollywood Tribute: Part 1"
	CBS: The First 50 Years
	NY TV: By the People Who Made It-Part I & II
1999	The 53rd Annual Tony Awards
	Beggars and Choosers	Herself	5 episodes
	Emily of New Moon	The Voice	Episode: "A Fall from Grace"
	The Martin Short Show
2000	So Graham Norton
	Malcolm in the Middle	Mrs. White	Episode: "Water Park"
	Intimate Portrait: Rue McClanahan
	E! True Hollywood Story: The Golden Girls
	E! True Hollywood Story: Good Times
	E! True Hollywood Story: All in the Family
	The 70s: The Decade That Changed Television
2001	Intimate Portrait: Estelle Getty
	Futurama	Femputer	Episode: "Amazon Women in the Mood"
	Today
2002–07	The View	Herself / Guest	2 episodes
2002	CBS News Sunday Morning
	The Rosie O'Donnell Show
	Good Morning America
	The Daily Show
	The Big O! True West Hollywood Story
	TV Most Censored Moments
	TV Tales: The Golden Girls
	Open Mike with Mike Bullard
	Because I Said So
	Inside TV Land: Taboo TV
2003	Great Women on Television Comedy
	Intimate Portrait: Bea Arthur
	TV Land Awards: A Celebration of Classic TV
	Rove Live
	Broadway: The Golden Age by the Legends Who Were There
	Through the Keyhole
	The Golden Girls: Their Greatest Moments	Herself (Host)	Television special
	Today with Des and Mel
	Richard & Judy
	The Terry and Gaby Show
2004	The 2nd Annual TV Land Awards: A Celebration of Classic TV
	Great Performances
	The Best of So Graham Norton
	Inside TV Land: Primetime Politics
	TV's Greatest Sidekicks
2005	Inside TV Land: Tickled Pink
	Comedy Central Roast of Pamela Anderson
	TV Land Confidential
	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Larry's mother	Episode: "The End"
2006	Biography: Bea Arthur
	The 100 Greatest TV Quotes & Catchphrases	Herself	5 episodes
2007	TV Land Confidential	Herself / Interviewee	Documentary (4 episodes)
	Back to the Grind	Herself	Bea Arthur and Ed Begley Jr.
	Entertainment Weekly & TV Land Present: The 50 Greatest TV Icons
2008	The 6th Annual TV Land Awards	Herself	Winner
	Inside Edition		Documentary
2014	Broadway: Beyond The Golden Age

Theater performances

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1947	Lysistrata
1947	Gas
1947	The Dog Beneath the Skin
1947	Yerma
1948	No Exit
1948	The Taming of the Shrew	Katherina
1948	Six Characters in Search of an Author
1948	The Owl and the Pussycat
1949	Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
1949	Yes is for a Very Young Man
1949	The Creditors
1949	Heartbreak House
1951	Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
1951	Personal Appearance
1951	Candle Light
1951	Love or Money
1951	The Voice of the Turtle
1951	Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
1953	The New Moon
1954–55	The Threepenny Opera	Lucy Brown
1955	What's the Rush?
1955	Shoestring Revue
1955	Plain and Fancy
1955	Seventh Heaven
1956	Mistress of the Inn
1956	Ziegfeld Follies
1956	Shoestring '57
1957	Hamlet
1957	Nature's Way
1958	Ulysses in Nighttown
1959	Chic
1960	The Gay Divorcee at the Cherry Lane
1962	A Matter of Position
1964	Fiddler on the Roof	Yente the Matchmaker
1966	Mame	Vera Charles	Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical
1968	A Mother's Kisses		Closed on the road
1981	The Floating Lightbulb
1981	Hey, Look Me Over!
1994	Easter Bonnet Competition: A Salute to 100 Years of Broadway
1994	La Fille du Regiment
1995–96	Bermuda Avenue Triangle
November 17, 1996	Angela Lansbury – A Celebration		Benefit concert
1997–98	After Play
1998	Jubilee
1999	Thoroughly Modern Millie
2000	Strike Up the Band
2000	The Threepenny Opera Reunion Concert
2000–2006	An Evening with Bea Arthur		Westport, 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)
2001–2003	And Then There's Bea		United 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)
2002	Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends		New York, New York (January 29, 2002 – April 14, 2002) Toronto, Canada (November 20 – December 8, 2002)
2003	Bea Arthur at The Savoy		London, England (September 15 – October 18, 2003)
2004	A Celebration of Life		Washington, D.C. (May 26, 2004)
2004	There'll Be Another Spring: A Tribute to Miss Peggy Lee		at the Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, California (July 14, 2004)
2004	Bea Arthur at the El Portal		North Hollywood, California (August 5–8, 2004)
2005	Bea Arthur Back on Broadway (at 95th Street)		New York, New York (November 21, 2005)
2006	Bea Arthur Back at the El Portal		North Hollywood, California (February 16–19, 2006)

References

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2. "Certificate and Record of Birth #21106". City of New York, Department of Health. May 13, 1922. Archived from the original (.JPG) on May 29, 2014. Retrieved July 12, 2008.
3. Lifetime TV (September 17, 2016). Bea Arthur 2002 Intimate Portrait (HD). YouTube.com. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
4. "Bea Arthur (1926–2009)". jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved September 14, 2018.
5. "#VeteranOfTheDay Marine Veteran Bea Arthur". VAntage Point. March 3, 2020. Retrieved March 14, 2020.
6. "Bea Arthur". Playbill.com. Playbill, Inc. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
7. "Obituaries: Actors Dom DeLuise and Beatrice Arthur; mezzo Margreta Elkins; soprano Anne Brown, Gershwin's original Bess; composer Lukas Foss dies at eighty-six". Opera News. 74 (1). July 2009. Retrieved December 28, 2010. (subscription required)
8. "Golden Girls Star Be Arthur Dies at 86". NPR. April 25, 2009. Archived from the original on April 27, 2009. Retrieved April 27, 2009.
9. "Feminist Timeline: United States". Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved April 27, 2009. The television show Maude, a spin-off of All in the Family, premiers, starring Beatrice Arthur as Maude Findlay, a leftist feminist who supports abortion and civil rights.
10. Maude's Dilemma. IMDB. September 2017. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0793153/
11. "Susan Harris". Archived from the original on October 21, 2007. Retrieved April 27, 2009.
12. Whitcomb, Dan (April 26, 2009). ""Golden Girls" star Bea Arthur dies at 86". Reuters. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
13. Hall, Phil (March 26, 2004). "The Bootleg Files: "the Beatrice Arthur Special"". Film Threat. Archived from the original on January 27, 2011. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
14. Hayward, Anthony (April 28, 2009). "Bea Arthur: Actress who found fame as the acid-tongued Dorothy in 'The Golden Girls' sitcom". The Independent. Retrieved June 13, 2014.
15. Ferguson, Lee (April 27, 2009). "And then there's Bea: Remembering Bea Arthur". CBC News. Retrieved June 13, 2014.
16. For Better or Worse, retrieved December 18, 2018
17. Shirley, Don (August 30, 2001). "Being Bea: A Life Set to Music". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 27, 2018.
18. Handlen, Zack (March 26, 2015). "Futurama: "Parasites Lost"/"Amazon Women in the Mood"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved January 27, 2018.
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27. "My dream was to become a very small blonde movie star like Ida Lupino and those other women I saw up there on the screen during the Depression. Bea Arthur". Quotemaster.org. Retrieved August 10, 2017.
28. Her Marine Corps records are available for perusal at the National Archives and Records Administration website
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35. "Brainwaves Episode 80: Legendary Actress Adrienne Barbeau". dreadcentral.com. March 8, 2018. Retrieved March 9, 2018.
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38. "Broadway Plans Tribute to Bea Arthur". Entertainment Tonight. April 28, 2009. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
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42. Eng, Joyce (April 27, 2009). "Friends and Colleagues Remember Beatrice Arthur". TV Guide. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
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45. The Ali Forney Center – The Bea Arthur Residence for LGBT Youth Archived October 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
46. "Ali Forney Center For LGBT Youth Drop-In Center Destroyed By Hurricane Sandy". PrideSource. November 8, 2012. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
47. Pearce, Matt (November 5, 2012). "Twitter in the time of Sandy: A few lies, and then redemption". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
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50. "Shelter For Homeless LGBTQ Youth, Named For 'Golden Girls' Star, Opens in NYC | HuffPost". M.huffpost.com. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
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External links

• Bea Arthur on IMDb
• Bea Arthur at the Internet Broadway Database
• Bea Arthur at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Bea Arthur at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
• Bea Arthur Interview, emmytvlegends.org; accessed June 13, 2014.
• Bea Arthur profile, Comedy Hall of Fame website; accessed June 13, 2014.
• Beatrice Arthur at the University of Wisconsin's Actors Studio audio collection; accessed June 13, 2014.
• Beatrice Arthur profile by Kirsten Fermaglich, Jewish Women Encyclopedia; accessed June 13, 2014.
• N.Y. Times obituary, April 26, 2009; accessed June 13, 2014.
• "Huffington Post" obituary; April 25, 2014; accessed June 13, 2014.
• "Beatrice Arthur: A towering comedic talent from another era", L.A. Times, August 27, 2009; accessed June 13, 2014
• Entertainment Weekly article about her death, ew.com; accessed June 13, 2014.
• Beatrice Arthur obituary, Daily Telegraph; accessed June 13, 2014.
• Bea Arthur at Find a Grave