Tony-winning performer Bea Arthur was born Bernice Frankel on May 13, 1922, in Brooklyn and raised in Cambridge, Md. After graduating from the Linden Hall boarding school in Lititz, Pa., she studied at Blackstone College but soon left to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps Women’s Reserve. After her honorable discharge, Arthur continued her studies at Franklin Institute but left there as well to study drama at the New School with Erwin Piscator. In 1947, Arthur and her fellow classmates founded their own company at the Cherry Lane Theatre, where she met her future husband, Gene Saks.
She made her TV debut in 1951 on the DuMont anthology series Once upon a Tune and her professional Off-Broadway debut as Lucy Brown in the 1954 premiere of Marc Blitzstein’s English-language adaptation of The Threepenny Opera. The following year, Arthur made her Broadway debut in Plain and Fancy, appeared in Shoestring Revue, then returned to Broadway in Seventh Heaven. Below is Arthur performing “Pirate Jenny” at a 2000 concert of Threepenny and singing Sheldon Harnick’s “Garbage” on the original recording of Shoestring Revue.
Over the next decade, Arthur returned to Broadway as Yente in Fiddler on the Roof (1964), then as Vera in Mame (1966), which her husband directed. She earned her sole Tony Award for her role as Vera, which she reprised in the 1974 film adaptation. She headlined Richard Adler’s 1968 musical A Mother’s Kisses, but it closed out of town after its two-city tryout. Below are Arthur and Angela Lansbury singing “Bosom Buddies” from Mame at the 1987 Tony Awards, and Arthur singing “There Goes My Life” from A Mother’s Kisses at the 1974 Tony Awards.
In 1971, Arthur was invited by TV producer Norman Lear to guest star on All in the Family as Edith Bunker’s outspoken cousin Maude Findlay. After just one episode, the CBS execs asked her to star in her own series. She earned five Emmy nominations for Maude (1972-78), winning in 1977. Her other TV work in the 1970s includes a guest spot on the TV variety show Laugh-In (1977), which brought her a sixth Emmy nomination, and The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978). Below is Arthur singing “Hard Hearted Hannah” on the 1973 episode “Maude’s Musical” and “Good Night but not Goodbye” in the 1978 special.
She began the 1980s as host of The Beatrice Arthur Special on CBS, performing with such stars as Rock Hudson, Melba Moore, and Wayland Flowers and Madame. Then in 1985, Arthur joined another long-running series, The Golden Girls. She received four Emmy nominations for her work as Dorothy, winning for leading actress in 1988. Below is the full broadcast of Arthur’s 1980 special and a clip from The Golden Girls of her singing “Miami,” accompanied by cast mate Betty White.
Arthur went into semi-retirement in the 1990s, returning to TV in 2000 for a guest spot on Malcolm in the Middle, for which she earned her 11th Emmy nomination, and to Broadway (for the final time) in 2002 with the one-woman show Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends, which was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Special Theatrical Event. She died at her Los Angeles home on April 25, 2009. Below is Lifetime’s Intimate Portrait documentary of Arthur.