![]() She was loud and opinionated, but at the same time, Maude wasn't always completely sure what doing the right thing meant. Like the characters on All in the Family, Maude was an exaggeration of the idea of the middle-class liberal. That old compromisin', enterprisin', anything but tranquilizing, She didn't care if the whole world looked. Maude's theme song gives you the picture: Liberal to a fault, Maude was supposed to be the antithesis of Edith's husband Archie. In 1972, television writer Norman Lear called with an offer for Arthur to take on the part of Maude Findlay, the "women's libber" cousin of Edith Bunker on All in the Family. In her later years, she made several cameos, including the voice of the "Femputer" that ruled the giant Amazonian women on an episode of the animated TV comedy Futurama.īUT MORE than anything else, Bea Arthur will be remembered for her role in Maude. As late as 2002, she returned to Broadway to star in a show that incorporated stories and songs about her life and career.Īrthur managed to span several decades of the television era, from the George Gobel Show in the 1950s to The Golden Girls-the only sitcom where all the lead characters were all older women (and they all have sex lives) in the 1980s. Arthur said that something actress and movie magazine beauty Tallulah Bankhead said to her stuck with her: "It's all about bone structure."ĭespite what Bankhead said, Arthur's imposing presence and bass-baritone voice didn't stop her from becoming an unforgettable comedic talent and stage presence. She said in an interview several years ago that she always dreamed of playing the big female leads, of being the actress "wearing the white dress," but it never happened for her on the stage. With her big voice and big stage presence, she dominated in later roles as Vera Charles in Mame and Yente the Matchmaker in Fiddler on the Roof.īea Arthur as the title character in Maude In 1954, she got a part in the off-Broadway premier of the English version of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's Three Penny Opera, alongside Lotte Lenya. Her classmates included Marlon Brando, Walter Matthau and Tony Curtis. In 1947, Arthur moved to New York City to study theater at New School for Social Research. Arthur's depiction of Maude-oftentimes abrasive, sometimes sensitive and always funny-made a mark forever on television comedy history.īefore television, Arthur had a long career on the stage in musical theater. Bea Arthur died on April 25 at the age of 86 of lung cancer. The sitcom Maude, which ran from a 1972 to 1978, starred Beatrice Arthur as the liberal feminist head of her Westchester, N.Y., household. But go back to 1972, when the women's liberation movement was in full swing, and the choice was obvious. WHEN YOU hear a five-foot-nine, 47-year-old woman with a deep, husky voice, one of the last things most people think of today is a prime-time television star. ![]()
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