Actress-comedienne Bea Arthur (born Bernice Frankel in New York City on May 13, 1922, died on April 25, 2009), received five Golden Globe awards as Best Actress – Comedy Series for Maude, between 1973 and 1978, and four nominations in the same category for The Golden Girls, between 1986 and 1989. For these same series Arthur won two Emmy Awards, among many others.
Before becoming and actress, Arthur worked as a laboratory technician, and in the Marine Corps at the time of WWII; she drove a truck and worked as a typist. After the war she joined the New York's Dramatic Workshop. Her breakthrough came on stage in The Three-penny Opera, with Lotte Lenya. In 1954 she was a regular on Sid Caesar's television show Caesar's Hour. In 1964 she received accolades as Yente the Matchmaker in the original Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof.
In 1971 Arthur appeared on the hit TV sitcom All in the Family as Maude Finlay, Edith Bunker's cousin, who'd drive Archie crazy with her liberal politics. This appearance led to Arthur's own series, Maude (1972), centered on that very character. She then worked on the sitcom Amanda (1983), and in 1985 Bea Arthur started her successful run with the acclaimed and top-rated sitcom Golden Girls, about three irresistible middle-aged friends and one elderly mother in Miami, acting next to Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty
Following the end of Golden Girls, in 1992, Arthur kept a low profile, appearing in only two movies, For Better or Worse (1995) and Enemies of the Laughter (2000).
