12:39 AM EDT 10/15/2009
Beatrice Arthur
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Bea Arthur Remembered at R-Rated Tribute
Originally posted 09/15/2009 07:00AM
Golden, indeed: Heavyweights from the stage and TV gathered at Broadway's Majestic Theatre Monday to pay tribute to the late Beatrice Arthur, mixing tears with loud laughs – and ribald recollections that would have been bleeped had the 2½ ceremony been broadcast on TV.
Instead, speaking live before a near-capacity house, Rue McClanahan told of the time her Golden Girls costar opened in her own 2002 one-woman Broadway show and graciously invited McClanahan and her husband, Morrow Wilson, to the opening-night performance and party afterwards.
Admitting Arthur – who died of cancer in April, at 86 – often wasn't at her best when she was drinking, McClanahan said an intoxicated Bea told Wilson when he introduced himself to her, "Rue, I love." But when McClanahan quoted Arthur's description of another costar on Golden Girls ("Betty's a c---"), an audible gasp ricocheted through the crowd – before it erupted into the longest and heartiest laugh of the afternoon.
Permalink | Filed Under: Angela Lansbury, Beatrice Arthur, Rosie O'Donnell
Betty White, Rue McClanahan Recall 'Shy' Bea Arthur
Originally posted 04/27/2009 08:55AM
Despite her booming voice and boisterous personality – "Let's face it," the 5'9" leading lady once quipped, "nobody ever asked me to play Juliet" – Beatrice Arthur was very private, sensitive, even shy, her two surviving Golden Girls costars, Betty White and Rue McClanahan, affectionately recalled Monday morning.
Speaking over the phone on the Today show about their late friend and professional colleague – Arthur, 86, died early Saturday morning at her home in Los Angeles after a lengthy battle with cancer – both expressed their amazement when Arthur headlined her own, autobiographical one-woman show, 2002's Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends.
Permalink | Filed Under: The Golden Girls, Beatrice Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan
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