I watched The Golden Girls constantly as a kid. It was one of my favorite shows. It still is today. I was really sad when I heard that Bea Arthur had passed away this past weekend. She was a terrific actress, not just on TV but on the Broadway stage also. Tonight the Great White Way went dark in a moment of silence as a way to remember this beautiful lady. You will truly be missed.
Full article courtesy of Playbill.com.....
Broadway to Dim Its Lights April 28 in Honor of Late Tony Winner Beatrice Arthur
By Andrew Gans
28 Apr 2009
Bea Arthur
The marquees of the Broadway theatres will be dimmed April 28 at 8 PM for one minute to pay tribute to the late Tony Award-winning actress Bea Arthur.
Ms. Arthur, who won a Tony Award for her performance as Vera Charles in Mame, died April 25 at the age of 86 following a battle with cancer.
In a statement Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of The Broadway League, said, "We are so fortunate that Bea Arthur's portrayals of memorable roles graced our Broadway stages. With a career spanning so many forms of entertainment, there is no doubt she will be missed by all."
Bea Arthur, Star of Stage and Screen, Dead at 86
By Andrew Gans
25 Apr 2009
Bea Arthur
Tony and Emmy Award winner Beatrice Arthur, who began her career onstage but would later become better known as Maude (on TV's "Maude") and Dorothy Zbornak (on "The Golden Girls") has died, according to the Associated Press. She was 86 and was suffering from cancer.
Born Bernice Frankel May 13, 1922, Beatrice (Bea) Arthur appeared at Off-Broadway's Theatre de Lys in the famed production of The Threepenny Opera, which featured Arthur as Lucy Brown and Lotte Lenya as Jenny.
Ms. Arthur's Broadway career began in 1955 with the original musical Plain and Fancy and continued with roles in Seventh Heaven and Nature's Way, but it was her work as Yente (the matchmaker) in the original 1964 staging of Fiddler on the Roof that won the attention of audiences and critics.
Ms. Arthur won a Tony Award two years later for her performance as the boozy Vera Charles in the original production of Jerry Herman's Mame, which cast Angela Lansbury in the title role. Ms. Arthur would later reprise the role of Vera on film opposite the Mame of Lucille Ball.
Ms. Arthur would return to Broadway only two more times following Mame: in the play The Floating Light Bulb and in her one-woman show Bea Arthur on Broadway, which was nominated for a 2002 Tony Award for Special Theatrical Event.
Broadway's loss, however, was television's gain. Ms. Arthur created two of the more memorable female characters in television history: the women's liberation champion Maude in "Maude" — a character she first created on "All in the Family" — and the divorced substitute teacher Dorothy Zbornak on "The Golden Girls."
She was nominated for a total of 11 Emmy Awards, winning two: one for her work in "Maude" and the second for her work on "The Golden Girls." Ms. Arthur's most recent Emmy nomination was in 2000 for her guest appearance on "Malcolm in the Middle."
In a May 2002 interview with Playbill.com, Ms. Arthur spoke about her acting influences: "My influences were [Lotte] Lenya and Sid Caesar. They affected me very strongly. The thing that she taught me was economy: I used to say, 'What do you do with your arms?' And she said, 'Never do anything unless you can't not do it.' If you're focused on something, really into it, you don't have to worry about what you're doing because it will follow through. Years ago, when I was living in New York and first starting out, I worked on [Sid Caesar's TV] show a couple of times, doing small parts — 'under fives' they called it. If you had under five lines they didn't have to pay you much money. I just watched the man. Such courage! He would do things nobody else had the nerve to do. I learned, 'Yeah, yeah — do it!'"
Ms. Arthur married director Gene Saks in 1950; that marriage ended in divorce in 1978. She is survived by her sons Matthew and Daniel Saks and grandchildren.
