1. Welcome! Please take a few seconds to create your free account to post threads, make some friends, remove a few ads while surfing and much more. ClutchFans has been bringing fans together to talk Houston Sports since 1996. Join us!

'Golden Girl' Rue McClanahan Dies

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by GRENDEL, Jun 3, 2010.

  1. GRENDEL

    GRENDEL Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Nov 21, 2002
    Messages:
    17,169
    Likes Received:
    4,622
    Associated Press | Thursday, June 3, 2010, 9:18 AM

    NEW YORK – Rue McClanahan, the Emmy-winning actress who brought the sexually liberated Southern belle Blanche Devereaux to life on the hit TV series "The Golden Girls," has died. She was 76.

    Her manager Barbara Lawrence said McClanahan died Thursday at 1am of a stroke.

    She had undergone treatment for breast cancer in 1997 and later lectured to cancer support groups on "aging gracefully." In 2009, she had heart bypass surgery.

    McClanahan had an active career in off-Broadway and regional stages in the 1960s before she was tapped for TV in the 1970s for the key best-friend character on the hit series "Maude," starring Beatrice Arthur.

    But her most loved role came in 1985 when she co-starred with Arthur, Betty White, and Estelle Getty in "The Golden Girls," a runaway hit that broke the sitcom mold by focusing on the foibles of four aging — and frequently eccentric — women living together in Miami.

    "Golden Girls" aimed to show "that when people mature, they add layers," she told The New York Times in 1985. "They don't turn into other creatures. The truth is we all still have our child, our adolescent, and your young woman living in us."

    Blanche, who called her father "Big Daddy," was a frequent target of roommates Dorothy, Rose, and the outspoken Sophia (Getty), who would fire off zingers at Blanche such as, "Your life's an open blouse."

    McClanahan snagged an Emmy for her work on the show in 1987. In an Associated Press interview that year, McClanahan said Blanche was unlike any other role she had ever played.

    "Probably the closest I've ever done was Blanche DuBois in 'A Streetcar Named Desire' at the Pasadena Playhouse," she said. "I think, too, that's where the name came from, although my character is not a drinker and not crazy."

    Her Blanche Devereaux, she said, "is in love with life and she loves men. I think she has an attitude toward women that's competitive. She is friends with Dorothy and Rose, but if she has enough provocation she becomes competitive with them. I think basically she's insecure. It's the other side of the Don Juan syndrome."

    After "The Golden Girls" was canceled in 1992, McClanahan, White and Getty reprised their roles in a short-lived spinoff, "Golden Palace."

    McClanahan continued working in television, on stage and in film, appearing in the Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau vehicle "Out to Sea" and as the biology teacher in "Starship Troopers."

    She stepped in to portray Madame Morrible, the crafty headmistress, for a time in "Wicked," Broadway's long-running "Wizard of Oz" prequel.

    In 2008, McClanahan appeared in the Logo comedy "Sordid Lives: The Series," playing the slightly addled, elderly mother of an institutionalized drag queen.

    During production, McClanahan was recovering from 2007 surgery on her knee. It didn't stop her from filming a sex scene in which the bed broke, forcing her to hang on to a windowsill to avoid tumbling off.

    McClanahan was born Eddi-Rue McClanahan in Healdton, Oklaholma, to building contractor William McClanahan and his wife, Dreda Rheua-Nell, a beautician. She graduated with honors from the University of Tulsa with a degree in German and theater arts.

    McClanahan's acting career began on the stage. According to a 1985 Los Angeles Times profile, she appeared at the Pasadena (Calif.) Playhouse, studied in New York with Uta Hagen and Harold Clurman, and worked in soaps and on the stage.

    She won an Obie — the off-Broadway version of the Tony — in 1970 for "Who's Happy Now," playing the "other woman" in a family drama written by Oliver Hailey. She reprised the role in a 1975 television version; in a review, The New York Times described her character as "an irrepressible belle given to frequent bouts of 'wooziness' and occasional bursts of shrewdness."

    She had appeared only sporadically on television until producer Norman Lear tapped her for a guest role on "All in the Family" in 1971.

    She went from there to a regular role in the "All in the Family" spinoff "Maude," playing Vivian, the neighbor and best friend to Arthur in the starring role.

    When Arthur died in April 2009, McClanahan recalled that she had felt constrained by "Golden Girls" during the later years of its run. "Bea liked to be the star of the show. She didn't really like to do that ensemble playing," McClanahan said.

    After that series ended in 1978, McClanahan landed the role as Aunt Fran on "Mama's Family" in 1983.

    McClanahan was married six times: Tom Bish, with whom she had a son, Mark Bish; actor Norman Hartweg; Peter D'Maio; Gus Fisher; and Tom Keel. She married husband Morrow Wilson on Christmas Day in 1997.

    She called her 2007 memoir "My First Five Husbands ... And the Ones Who Got Away."

    http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/golden-girl-rue-mcclanahan-dies--1299
     
  2. Cannonball

    Cannonball Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jul 27, 2006
    Messages:
    21,649
    Likes Received:
    1,907
    Estelle Getty - Died 2008
    Bea Arthur - Died 2009
    Rue McClanahan - Died 2010

    Betty White is the only one left.
     
  3. moestavern19

    moestavern19 Member

    Joined:
    Dec 8, 1999
    Messages:
    39,003
    Likes Received:
    3,637
    Final Destination: Golden Girls.
     
  4. SwoLy-D

    SwoLy-D Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jul 20, 2001
    Messages:
    37,617
    Likes Received:
    1,448
    R.I.P. the sexiest of all Golden Girls. :( And Blanche, too.
     
  5. Falcons Talon

    Falcons Talon Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Feb 28, 2002
    Messages:
    7,807
    Likes Received:
    945
    Can we have a Golden Girls reboot with older black women cast as the Golden Girls?
     
  6. Shroopy2

    Shroopy2 Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Feb 16, 2003
    Messages:
    15,896
    Likes Received:
    1,565
    Estelle Getty - Died 2008
    Bea Arthur - Died 2009
    Rue McClanahan - Died 2010
    Betty White - 2011 (?)
    Mayan Calendar - Die 2012

    It is foretold
     
    1 person likes this.
  7. VanityHalfBlack

    Joined:
    May 7, 2009
    Messages:
    18,094
    Likes Received:
    3,730
    R.I.P Rue... Betty White's gonna go out with a bang!!!
     
  8. RedRowdy111

    RedRowdy111 Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2006
    Messages:
    3,890
    Likes Received:
    94
    NOOOOOOOOOOOO. Thats one fantasy I will never get to acheive.

    :grin:
     
  9. BetterThanI

    BetterThanI Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2007
    Messages:
    4,181
    Likes Received:
    381
    [​IMG]
     
    1 person likes this.
  10. OmegaSupreme

    OmegaSupreme Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Mar 19, 2003
    Messages:
    6,378
    Likes Received:
    1,458
    hmmm... i thought betty playing ding-bat was better. sad day. that show was waaaaaaay ahead of it's time.


    lol. rep (edit... must spread).
     
  11. RKREBORN

    RKREBORN Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2006
    Messages:
    9,701
    Likes Received:
    10,601
    Pics of GTFO
     
  12. RKREBORN

    RKREBORN Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2006
    Messages:
    9,701
    Likes Received:
    10,601
    Fail.


    Pics OR GTFO
     
  13. the futants

    the futants Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jul 26, 2002
    Messages:
    5,157
    Likes Received:
    174
    [​IMG]
     
  14. Precision340

    Precision340 Member

    Joined:
    Apr 4, 2007
    Messages:
    3,481
    Likes Received:
    37
    wow
    RIP Rue.. all my childhood memories are dying... first Arnold, now Blanche.
     
  15. Steve_Francis_rules

    Joined:
    Dec 11, 1999
    Messages:
    8,467
    Likes Received:
    300
    She looked pretty old on The Golden Girls for only being 51 years old when it started.

    Regardless, RIP.
     
  16. Oski2005

    Oski2005 Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Nov 14, 2001
    Messages:
    18,100
    Likes Received:
    446
    You know when she started on Golden Girls she was younger than Kim Cattrall is now?
     
  17. The Real Shady

    The Real Shady Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2000
    Messages:
    17,170
    Likes Received:
    3,966
    If I had to tap a Golden Girl it would have been her.
     
  18. Dairy Ashford

    Dairy Ashford Member

    Joined:
    May 20, 2002
    Messages:
    14,502
    Likes Received:
    1,831
    Done and done.

    [​IMG]
     
  19. Dr of Dunk

    Dr of Dunk Clutch Crew

    Joined:
    Aug 27, 1999
    Messages:
    45,156
    Likes Received:
    31,111
  20. Coach AI

    Coach AI Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Feb 15, 1999
    Messages:
    7,942
    Likes Received:
    727
    I don't care what anyone says, Golden Girls was funny as hell. They insulted each other at a near Married With Children level.
     

Share This Page

  • About ClutchFans

    Since 1996, ClutchFans has been loud and proud covering the Houston Rockets, helping set an industry standard for team fan sites. The forums have been a home for Houston sports fans as well as basketball fanatics around the globe.

  • Support ClutchFans!

    If you find that ClutchFans is a valuable resource for you, please consider becoming a Supporting Member. Supporting Members can upload photos and attachments directly to their posts, customize their user title and more. Gold Supporters see zero ads!


    Upgrade Now