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Vale: Rue McClanahan

Veteran US actress Rue McClanahan, best known as Golden Girls' Blanche Deveraux, has died aged 76.

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Veteran US actress Rue McClanahan, best known as Golden Girls‘ Blanche Deveraux, has died aged 76.

“She passed away at 1 a.m. this morning,” her manager, Barbara Lawrence told People magazine. “She had a massive stroke.”

McClanahan had suffered a minor stroke earlier this year while recovering from bypass surgery, according to the report. She had undergone treatment for breast cancer in 1997 and later lectured to cancer support groups on “aging gracefully.”

Lawrence added that at the time of her death, the actress “had her family with her. She went in peace.”

McClanahan had an active career in off-Broadway and regional stages in the 1960s before being cast as the key best-friend character on the hit series Maude, starring Beatrice Arthur. After that series ended in 1978, McClanahan landed the role as Aunt Fran on Mama’s Family in 1983.

But her most loved role came in 1985 when she co-starred with Arthur, Betty White and Estelle Getty in The Golden Girls, a runaway hit that broke the sitcom mold by focusing on the foibles of four aging – and frequently eccentric – women living together in Miami.

The Golden Girls aimed to show “that when people mature, they add layers,” she told The New York Times in 1985. “They don’t turn into other creatures. The truth is we all still have our child, our adolescent, and your young woman living in us.”

Blanche, who called her father “Big Daddy,” was a frequent target of roommates Dorothy, Rose and the outspoken Sophia (Getty), who would fire off zingers at Blanche such as, “Your life’s an open blouse.”

Fellow Golden Girl Betty White called McClanahan a close and dear friend.

“I treasured our relationship,” said White, 88, who was working on the set of her TV Land comedy Hot in Cleveland on Thursday. “It hurts more than I even thought it would, if that’s even possible.”

McClanahan snagged an Emmy for her work on the show in 1987.

“Probably the closest I’ve ever done was Blanche DuBois in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ at the Pasadena Playhouse,” she said. “I think, too, that’s where the name came from, although my character is not a drinker and not crazy.”

After The Golden Girls was cancelled in 1992, McClanahan, White and Getty reprised their roles in a short-lived spinoff, Golden Palace.

Source: LA Times, CBS

26 Responses

  2. I am not a Golden Girls fan but I looked up when Bea Arthur and Estelle Getty passed away.

    Estelle Getty passed away in 2008, Bea Arthur the following year 2009 and now Rue McClanahan this year 2010.

    I don’t want to speculate whether Betty White will still be around by the end of next year 2011.

  4. very sad news indeed! RIP Rue …

    one of the best scenes ever has to be the one where dorothy just end with the quip, “Blanche! I could get herpes listening to this story!”

    lol ~ classic … but only one of many … audience fragmentation these days means we’ll probably never see the tv shows like this become the same type of pop culture icons like the wave of big sitcoms and soaps from the 70s and 80s … if they are popular today, they’re seem to be a quick flash in the pan before ppl run to the net n download them, bypassing the big mass tv audiences of yesteryear ~ sigh … 🙁

  5. Another talented performer gone,very sad news.Rue was a great actress and her work on Golden Girls was amazing,she made that role and the show a hit,RIP Rue……..she will be missed

  6. @dave June 4, 2010 at 1:14 pm

    as quoted from your last line i think Dorothy then hilariously replied “Wait a minute Blanche, are you trying to tell me that you are devastated”….

    great show, great actress RIP Rue

  8. Terrible news, first Gary Coleman and now Rue all in the same week. And to think that all 4 Golden Girls were alive and well just a little over a year ago. How sad. RIP

  9. How Sad, indeed one of my favourite Golden Girls, only watching Betty White on Ellen when she was asked how Rue was she commented she was much better… RIP Rue!

  10. Rue was a class act both as a person and a performer.

    I loved her in the Golden Girls and everyone on it made for a very fine ensemble.

    Sad to see three of them go almost all at once over the last few years – RIP Rue, you were indeed a fine lady.

  12. The tv landscape is poorer for the loss of Rue McClanahan. Her Blanche was a once in a lifetime part and she relished it. I remember the Midnight Shift in Sydney would turn whisper quiet when they stopped the hi n-r-g music to switch on the Golden Girls and the room came alive as the four women strutted their stuff. For me, Rue was the revelation, as I knew Bea Arthur, but connected with the bitchy and slutty side to Blanche. I am most saddened to realise that the amazing cast is but 1 remaining. I’m sure Rue will find that revolving door to her bedroom in the afterlife.I feel as she famously said “I’m devastated, Just Devastated.”

  15. I had the honour of meeting Rue at a theare in Los Angeles a few years ago , and she was so charming..she loved the theatre and went many times a week.
    The play we were seeing was quite bad, but Rue said she couldn’t leave then,at intermission ,because it would hurty the young actors , if the knew she was in the audience.

    1. Wow that’s generous. Even I have walked out on shows with friends in it if it’s a real stinker (wait til a blackout though). Sorry friends, but I have too much respect for Shakespeare to see him mutilated on stage!

  16. Condolences to her family, friends & fans.
    Rue was a wonderful actress.
    The Golden Girls was one of my favourite shows.
    Now there’s only one left. 🙁
    Rest In Peace, Rue. 🙁

  23. Was shocked to learn of the news. She was the youngest Golden Girl! R.I.P Rue – you were fantastic in Golden Girls as the overly sex hungry “Blanche”.

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