Just a few weeks shy of her 87th birthday (May 13), actress Beatrice “Bea” Arthur (birth name Bernice Frankel) passed away from cancer over this past weekend on April 25, 2009. News of her cancer was not publicly known at the request of Bea. She’s one of the few entertainers who managed a lifetime in the industry. Standing at 5′-9″ and posessing a deep voice, what once made Bea insecure as child was her ticket to theater and television success. She’s most memorable in television hits “All In The Family,” “Maude” (spinoff from “All In The Family”), and most notably in “Golden Girls” where she played the character Dorothy. Bea’s keen ability to make us laugh still lives on.
Bea, “thank you for being a friend.”
(sources: huffington post, geocities group Bea Boulevard )
ABC News video (embedding disabled but it’s a nice interview, worthy of clicking on over to You Tube)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HCcGDvTl_Y&feature=fvsr
from Associated Press…
i loved her!