Saturday, April 25, 2009

Bea Arthur 1922- 2009



I was saddened to hear of Bea Arthur's death today at 86. I will always remember her as Maude Finley of "Maude" and later as Dorothy Zbornak in "Golden Girls", among other memorable roles.

Arthur's ascerbic wit and her incredible sense of comedic timing will be missed.

RIP Bea.

18 comments:

Papa Frank said...

She was quite funny indeed. I'm sad to hear of this as well.

sue said...

I hadn't heard that she died. I always think about how Maude would say: God'll get you for that!

Jan said...

I hadn't heard it either. I remember when she was Maude on "All in the Family" and was so glad the spun her off to her own show. One funny lady.

Caz said...

Yes, a great lady, smart and dignified.

She reached a goodly age. Bless her.

Rick (Ratty) said...

She was another person who I took for granted that she would always be there. She was famous all of my life. It's a sad loss.

Ananda girl said...

I always liked Bea. She had a great way of being funny... very matter of fact, not silly like Lucy. I think before Bea's Maud role women in comedy only got to be cute fluff heads that did ditzy stuff.

DaBlade said...

I don't like to speak ill of the dead, but I never thought she was that funny. The show Maude was just a liberal tool used to promote the destruction of our culture. Just my opinion. As Simon Cowell would say... "sorry".

artsyprincess said...

Thanks for dropping by my blog!

I always loved Bea on Golden Girls. I was too young to ever watch or know what Maude was about.

She will always be Dorthy to me.

RIP

Z said...

Darn! I saw her name on Yahoo and clicked on it but didn't see this news.......how sad. She sure didn't seem that old....

Artsyprincess, we simply CANNOT have people too young to have watched Maude in our blogosphere, and that's THAT! (Smile!) yikes!!

Hey, Cube..just for a little aside; Adrienne Barbeau, who played her daughter on maude (of course, I'm too young, too....ya, right!) was Armenian. (I honestly don't follow this stuff that closely but did know that!)xx

cube said...

Papa Frank: Ditto from me.

Sue: Thanks for reminding me of that. It was a great tagline.

Jan: Both shows were lib-fests, but I enjoyed watching them.

Caz: Absolutely.
We should all be so lucky.

Ananda girl: You make a good point. This was an older woman who played a more cerebral feminine role. Some did find that disconcerting, but not me.

Ratty: Yeah, we all do that.

DaBlade: No need for an apology. Here you are entitled to your opinion without apology.

I know where you're coming from because I've often cited Norman Lear as the beginning of the end when it came to liberal sitcoms pushing the envelope on civil societal mores.

Then again I realize that if I were to cut out the liberals from the material I watched growing up, there'd be precious little left
and yet, despite all the indoctrination, I still ended up a proper conservative.

Basically, I'm just sad that such a comedic talent is now gone. Today I'm not focusing on her politics, but please feel free to comment if you disagree.

cube said...

Arstyprincess: That's cool, but it reminds me of the guy whose kid was amazed that Paul McCartney had a previous band before Wings.

Don't get me wrong. I loved Dorothy Zbornak too, but there was
much to be admired in Arthur's Maude character as well.

Z: As a matter of fact, I did know that. Somehow, if there is anyone with an ounce of Armenian blood, we hear about it ;-)

Nomad said...

I watched the Golden Girls on daytime television all time about 15 years ago... Bea Arthur was one of the funnier members of that cast

Anonymous said...

She will be missed indeed. My wife absolutely loved her.

nanc said...

i've belonged to a group of gals who go by "future golden girls"! we'd always trade characters, but sophia (dorothy's mom) was ALWAYS my favorite.

r.i.p. bea.

Unknown said...

She was one of my favorites.

Artsyprincess said...

Haha.. you are all funny.

I'll make sure to go on YouTube and look up some episodes of Maude..

Then maybe I'll be allowed to rub elbows with you all in the blogosphere..

Hee hee..

cube said...

Nomad: She was a master at giving looks that could kill, too.

KrisEveland: Yep.

Nanc: Sophia's character was a hoot. Did you know that Estelle Getty was younger than Bea Arthur?

Jill: Ditto.

Artsyprincess: You can hang out here even if you don't catch up on Maude episodes. But don't be surprised if we call you a young whippersnapper ;-)

Gifted Typist said...

You said it!