Historical Figure
Bea Arthur
1922–2009
American actress and comedian (1922–2009)
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"Canadian TV Interview on One-Woman Show and Talk Shows" — c.2001
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Biography
Beatrice Arthur was an American actress, comedian, and singer. She began her career on stage in 1947, attracting critical acclaim before achieving worldwide recognition for her work on television beginning in the 1970s as Maude Findlay in the popular sitcoms All in the Family (1971–1972) and Maude (1972–1978) and later in the 1980s and 1990s as Dorothy Zbornak on The Golden Girls (1985–1992).
Timeline
The story of Bea Arthur, told in moments.
Born Bernice Frankel in New York City. Her family moved to Baltimore. She joined the Marine Corps Women's Reserve in 1943, working as a typist and truck driver before her honorable discharge in 1945.
Won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for playing Vera Charles in Mame on Broadway. She was 44 and had been grinding through off-Broadway and stock theater for nearly two decades.
Maude debuted on CBS as a spinoff of All in the Family. She played a loud, liberal feminist in the New York suburbs. A two-part episode about abortion aired a year before Roe v. Wade and drew 65 million viewers.
Cast as Dorothy Zbornak in The Golden Girls. Four older women sharing a house in Miami became one of NBC's top-rated shows. It ran seven seasons.
Died of lung cancer at 86. She left $300,000 in her will to the Ali Forney Center, a shelter for homeless LGBT youth in New York.
In Their Own Words (11)
I suddenly realized that comedy, for me, was just being honest, and playing it for real. I've seen so many wonderful actors who turn into creatures from another planet when they're told they are supposed to be playing comedy. I... was not too happy to suddenly take on this public role thrust upon me. They just assumed I was the Joan of Arc of the women's movement. And I wasn't at all. It put a lot of unnecessary pressure on me. I'd never even been to Wrigley Field. I never even enjoyed baseball that much, but I loved being there, the crowd was lovely, and they all sang with me!
Interview, TV Legends (August 6, 2005), 2005
I watch news programs and I love Comedy Central. I love The Daily Show-it's smarter than anything else. I also like The Critic and Celebrity Death Match and South Park. I love all of that.
Interview, TV Legends (August 6, 2005), 2005
You know, the way I'm accepted, I almost feel like Judy Garland, truly. It makes no sense to me because I don't think that I've been any more outspoken... Or maybe I have, I don't know. But everyone I know supports anything that has to do with raising money or with AIDS.
Interview, TV Legends (August 6, 2005), 2005
There were subjects we tackled that had never been even discussed, like I had an abortion. Nobody ever talked about that.
Interview, TV Legends (August 6, 2005), 2005
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.
Interview, TV Legends (August 6, 2005), 2005
Artifacts (14)
The earthquake (IA earthquaketraina00trairich)
Train, Arthur Cheney, 1875-1945 Charles Scribner's Sons Scribner Press
Cyclopedia of painters and paintings (IA cyclopediaofpain03cham)
Champlin, John Denison, 1834-1915 Perkins, Charles C. (Charles Callahan), 1823-1886
Arthur Mervyn, or, Memoirs of the year 1793 (IA cu31924014323848)
Brown, Charles Brockden, 1771-1810
Batut - La photographie appliquée à la production du type d’une famille, d’une tribu ou d’une race
Arthur Batut
The autobiography of Thomas Collier Platt - with twenty portraits in sepia photogravure (IA autobiographyoft00platrich)
Platt, Thomas Collier, 1833-1910 Lang, Louis J. (Louis Jay), 1859-
A short account of portraits, pictures, plate, etc., etc., in the possession of the Company (IA shortaccountofpo00wors)
Worshipful Company of Fishmongers (London, England) Towse, J. Wrench
Marlborough house and its occupants, present and past (IA marlboroughhouse00beav)
Beavan, Arthur H. (Arthur Henry), 1844-1907
I wouldn't have had good scientific ideas if I had thought more normally.
ed to his unhappiness, his desire to be recognized, and his characteristic way of thinking, saying, "I wouldn't have had good scientific ideas if I had thought more normally." He also said, "If I felt...
from scientific rationality of thinking into the delusional thinking characteris...
rt of what he termed "mental disturbances" to the early months of 1959, when his wife was pregnant. He described a process of change "from scientific rationality of thinking into the delusional...
If I felt completely pressureless I don't think I would have gone in this patter...
inking, saying, "I wouldn't have had good scientific ideas if I had thought more normally." He also said, "If I felt completely pressureless I don't think I would have gone in this pattern". Nash...
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