Bea Arthur Dies at 86

Beloved actress Bea Arthur has died of complications brought on by cancer in her Los Angeles home at the age of 86. She is remembered most for her Emmy award-winning roles as Dorothy on the 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls and Maude on the Norman Lear sitcom of the same name set in Tuckahoe a decade before. Arthur, born Bernice Frankel in NYC in 1922, had a long stage career on and off-Broadway (including a Tony in 1966) before her late success on the small screen. Arthur will also fondly be remembered as a regular at Friars Club Roasts throughout the last decade—first serving as the punchline of a series of jokes and then delivering some of her own dirty zingers at Pamela Anderson's send-up in 2005. Just last year Arthur was inducted into the TV Hall of Fame. She is survived by two sons and two granddaughters.