You may know her as Maude from All in the Family and Maude, or even as Dorothy Zbornak from the Golden Girls, but there was much more to Bea Arthur and her seventy-year entertainment career than those two signature characters. Born Bernice Frankel in New York City, New York, on May 13, 1922, Arthur served in the U.S. Marine Corps before she began her entertainment career in the 1940s. Along with performing as a lounge singer, she appeared in a variety of musical productions, both on and off Broadway.
It wasn’t until 1971, however, when Arthur was nearly fifty, that she took to the small-screen, storming into the spotlight as Edith Bunker’s feminist cousin, Maude Findlay, on the CBS series, All in the Family. Playing opposite to Archie Bunker’s bigotry and prejudice, Maude was the voice of a new generation of women taking charge of their lives and making a stand for their rights. The character resonated with viewers and producers alike, which led to the debut of her very own spin-off series just one year later. Maude debuted in 1972, with Arthur’s voice speaking out to a changing nation on topics and issues most television sitcoms wouldn’t dare to explore.
After six years in the spotlight, Arthur moved on to new projects, but it wasn’t until 1985 that she took on the second largest role in her career, as Dorothy Zbornak in the NBC hit television series, The Golden Girls. While the times had changed, there was something both saucy and witty about Zbornak’s character, a divorced Miami teacher living out her golden years in style, that embraced the feminine strength and values developed in her earlier career roles. The role lasted for six seasons, and in 1991, Arthur left the show.
Along with appearances in a number of made-for-TV movies, Arthur also guest-starred in numerous television series, like Empty Nest, Futurama and Malcolm in the Middle. She also returned to Broadway in 2002 to appear in a series about her own life titled, Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends.
Though much of Bea Arthur’s career seems hinged on those two famous characters, there was much more to her than that. In my mind, I tend to think of her as a revolutionary of sorts, a powerful woman who left a mark on the entertainment industry that will not fade for years to come.
In April of 2009, Arthur died in her California home after suffering from lung cancer. She was eighty-six at the time of her death, and survived by her two sons, Matthew and Daniel Saks.
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