GOLDEN GIRLS TOGETHER AGAIN SERIES
GOLDEN GIRLS TOGETHER AGAIN TV

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 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. 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. McClanahan's acting career began on the stage. She graduated with honors from the University of Tulsa with a degree in German and theater arts.

McClanahan was born Eddi-Rue McClanahan in Healdton, Okla., to building contractor William McClanahan and his wife, Dreda Rheua-Nell, a beautician. 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. In 2008, McClanahan appeared in the Logo comedy 'Sordid Lives: The Series,' playing the slightly addled, elderly mother of an institutionalized drag queen.ĭuring production, McClanahan was recovering from 2007 surgery on her knee. She stepped in to portray Madame Morrible, the crafty headmistress, for a time in 'Wicked,' Broadway's long-running 'Wizard of Oz' prequel. 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.' It's the other side of the Don Juan syndrome.'Īfter 'The Golden Girls' was canceled in 1992, McClanahan, White and Getty reprised their roles in a short-lived spinoff, 'Golden Palace.' She is friends with Dorothy and Rose, but if she has enough provocation she becomes competitive with them. I think she has an attitude toward women that's competitive. Her Blanche Devereaux, she said, 'is in love with life and she loves men. 'I think, too, that's where the name came from, although my character is not a drinker and not crazy.' Rue McClanahan: 1934-2010 10 photos 'Probably the closest I've ever done was Blanche DuBois in 'A Streetcar Named Desire' at the Pasadena Playhouse,' she said. In an Associated Press interview that year, McClanahan said Blanche was unlike any other role she had ever played. McClanahan snagged an Emmy for her work on the show in 1987. 'It hurts more than I even thought it would, if that's even possible.'

GOLDEN GIRLS TOGETHER AGAIN TV

'I treasured our relationship,' said White, who was working on the set of her TV Land comedy 'Hot in Cleveland' on Thursday. The truth is we all still have our child, our adolescent, and your young woman living in us.'īlanche, 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.'įellow 'Golden Girl' Betty White called McClanahan a close and dear friend. 'Golden Girls' aimed to show 'that when people mature, they add layers,' she told The New York Times in 1985.

GOLDEN GIRLS TOGETHER AGAIN SERIES

After that series ended in 1978, McClanahan landed the role as Aunt Fran on 'Mama's Family' in 1983.īut 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. 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. She went in peace.' Actresses Beatrice Arthur, left, Rue McClanahan, center, and Betty White arrive at the TV Land Awards on Sunday Jin Santa Monica, Calif. Lawrence added that at the time of her death, the actress 'had her family with her.

Golden girls together again