Bea Arthur Net Worth: Bea Arthur was an American actress, comedian, and singer who had a net worth of $25 million at the time of her death in 2009. She had a long career in film and television, but Bea is probably the most known. because he starred in the sitcom “Golden Girls”.
Primarily a comedic actress, Arthur was known for playing strong, independent women whose thirst for knowledge superseded their interest in beauty. Arthur began her career as a stage actress and soon caught the attention of Hollywood producers. She went on to play two iconic characters in two of the small screen’s most acclaimed, critically acclaimed and controversial series.
She has won several awards for her work on stage and screen in her long career. She had the third most Primetime Emmy nominations of any actress in history. She has also hosted Hollywood tributes and award shows.
Arthur was a twice divorced mother of two. She has been an activist for LGBTQ issues as well as feminist issues. She died in 2009 of lung cancer.
The first years of life : Born Bernice Frankle on May 13, 1922, in Brooklyn, NY, to Rebecca and Philip Frankel, Arthur was the middle child of three girls.
When she was 11, the family moved to Cambridge, MD, where her parents would eventually open a clothing store. She suffered from coagulopathy as a child, which is a condition where the blood will not clot properly.
She graduated from an Amish high school for girls in Lititz, PA. She attended college for a year at Braxton College in Virginia.
Arthur was among the first women to serve in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. She enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Women’s Reserve in 1943 and served for two years. After basic training, she worked as a truck driver and dispatcher in Cherry Point, North Carolina.
In 1947, he attended acting classes at the famous New School in New York, where he met Robert Alan Aurthur, a naval alumnus. He would become Mrs. Arthur’s first husband and a successful screenwriter and director. They were married between 1947 and 1950, she adjusted the spelling of her surname and kept it for the rest of her career. She later married theater director Gene Saks.
Stage career: Like many of her generation, Arthur began her career in live theatre. He joined the Cherry Lane Theatre, which was an Off-Broadway repertory company. She primarily played small roles when she was with the company.
In 1966, Arthur’s husband, Gene Saks, was preparing to direct the Broadway production of “Mame.” She decided to audition for the title role. Instead, Broadway veteran Angela Lansbury played the part, and Arthur landed the role of Vera Charles, Mame’s boozy boozy friend.
The role suited him well and he ended up receiving a Tony Award for the performance.
Career in Television: Women’s roles changed a lot in the 1970s. “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” was one of the biggest hits on television, and feminism was starting to be taken seriously by activists like Gloria Steinem.
Archie Bunker’s character in Norman Lear’s All in the Family was a bigoted sexist who believed in traditional roles for men and women. She was married to Edith Bunker, a nervous and complacent housewife. Bea Arthur made an appearance on the show as Edith’s cousin Maude, a conscious and militant feminist. The executives at CBS were very impressed when they received many phone calls praising Arthur’s performance and character. They decided to give Maude her own series.
“Maude” debuted in 1971. Arthur’s character lived in Westchester County, New York. Maude was a thrice-divorced housewife, a real estate agent, businessman, Walter Finley, was an alcoholic.
Maude’s character will go down in television history as a feminist icon. She was the leader in her relationship with her husband. Her tall stature, husky voice and broad shoulders often caused her to be mistaken for a man.
Like many of Norman Lear’s sitcoms, Maude dealt with serious political issues such as mental illness, gay rights, and women’s liberation. Maude was politically outspoken and would eventually be elected as a congresswoman.
(Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images)
In 1972, just months before the Supreme Court’s famous Roe v. Wade decision, “Maude” aired one of the most controversial episodes in television history. The two-part episode, “Maude’s Dilemma” centered around Arthur’s character discovering she was pregnant in middle age.
Although the character was married, educated and financially secure, she decided to have an abortion. Abortion was legal in New York, where the staff lived, but not in all states in America. Despite many network affiliates refusing to air the episode, it had 65 million viewers.
The series ended in 1978 when it was decided that the character was playable. She participated in several other projects over the next seven years. However, she didn’t get her big break until 1985, when she was cast as Dorothy Zbornak on The Golden Girls.
Dorothy was a substitute teacher who lived with three other women, including her mother, an elderly debutante, and a slow innocent from Minnesota. The show dealt with issues such as menopause, financial difficulties and romantic problems. Like “Maude,” it is considered a television classic and remains in syndication today.
Activism and personal life: Although she never gave birth to children, Bea Arthur adopted two boys with her second husband, Gene Saks. She divorced Saks in 1978.
Authur was a lifelong Democrat, particularly passionate about animal and gay rights issues. She was very popular with gay men. When he died in 2009, he left an endowment to the Ali Forney Center , an organization for homeless LGBT youth in New York City. They used the money to open an 18-bed shelter.
immobility : In the 1970s, Bea paid an undisclosed amount for a 7,000-square-foot mansion on 3.7 acres in the prime part of LA’s Brentwood neighborhood. In the mid-2000s, she underwent an extensive renovation of the house. In the years after her death, her heirs rented the house out for sale for $30,000 to $60,000 a month. They listed the house for sale in 2015 for $16 million, eventually accepting $15 million a few months later. The buyers were married mega-film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall.
