Bea Arthur (1922-2009)
Saturday, 25 April 2009 | 23:27My favourite Golden Girl, Dorothy, is no more. Bea Arthur was 50 years old before being “discovered” for television. After having spent the first part of her life doing stage work on and off Broadway, she started a second career as an actress on the small screen. Tall and with a deep voice, she was often cast as a strong-minded, independent woman who needed no man to get by. Her two main TV characters fit that mold to a T: Maude (who began as a guest character on the excellent All in the Family, as Edith’s cousin, before getting her own show) and Dorothy (on The Golden Girls). Her cutting wit and biting sarcasm caught my attention even as a child, when I used to watch The Golden Girls in the evening as I ate my bedtime snack… 
Below, a few clips. Be entertained.
I wandered here from your post of Marc-André Hamelin playing Medtner… what a player, and what amazing music–if you haven’t heard Medtner’s “Forgotten Melodies” (“Vergessene Weisen”) I recommend them enthusiastically.
Bill Macy, who played Walter on “Maude,” is in a terrific, underappreciated movie, “the Late Show,” in which Lily Tomlin gives what I think is her best movie performance–the script gives her a real character and real dialog and she takes it from there.
Nice video choices–Statler and Waldorf! Lovely, many thanks.