Thursday, 3 June 2010

Golden Girls

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Rue McClanahan, the Emmy Award-winning actress who played the Golden Girl that got around, died Thursday of a massive stroke, People.com reported.

She was 76 - a fact her alter-ego on "The Golden Girls," the bawdy Blanche Deveraux, would never dream of divulging.

"She passed away at 1 a.m." at New York Presbyterian Hospital, her manager, Barbara Lawrence, told the magazine.

McClanahan "had her family with her," Lawrence added. "She went in peace."


The Oklahoma-born daughter of a beautician and a building contractor, McClanahan was a breast cancer survivor and had been in shaky health. She suffered a minor stroke earlier this year, while recovering from bypass surgery.

The death of the scene-stealing actress leaves Betty White as the last surviving member of "The Golden Girls," which ran on NBC from 1985 to 1992 and remains in syndication.

Last year, McClanahan's co-star Beatrice Arthur died from cancer. The wise-cracking Estelle Getty died in 2008.

White is in the midst of a career resurgence and recently hosted "Saturday Night Live."

McClanahan launched her acting career in New York in 1957 and made her Broadway debut in 1969 in the musical "Jimmy Shine," which starred Dustin Hoffman.

Moving to the small screen, McClanahan was paired with Arthur for the first time in the hit 1970's TV series "Maude."
After that series ended in 1978, McClanahan moved on to the role of Aunt Fran on "Mama's Family" in 1983.

Then, in 1985, McClanahan was reunited with Arthur on "The Golden Girls," which became the first TV sitcom to focus on the lives of aging women.

On the series, in which the four gals shared a house in Miami, McClanahan played a man-slaying Southern belle, a part that won her an Emmy.
Blanche Devereaux, she said in an interview, "is in love with life and she loves men."

Like Blanche, McClanahan was catnip to men. She was married six times and recounted her amorous adventures in her 2007 autobiography, "My First Five Husbands."

McClanahan had just one child - a son, Mark Bish, from her first marriage

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