Actress Rue McClanahan died 3 June 2010 of a stroke. Born Eddi-Rue McClanahan on 21 February 1934, in Healdton, Oklahoma, she’ll be best remembered as Blanche Devereaux, the sexually liberated member of The Golden Girls (1985-92), for which she won an Emmy Award in 1987 (she was also nominated for Emmys in 1986, 1988, and 1989, and for Golden Globes in 1986, 1987, and 1988).
After graduating from the University of Tulsa with a degree in German and theater arts, she began her acting career on the stage, and won an Obie Award in 1970 for Who’s Happy Now. She had only sporadic television/film roles through the 1960s, but in 1971, Norman Lear gave her a guest starring role on All in the Family. When the recurring character Maude (played by Bea Arthur, her later Golden Girls co-star) was spun off into her own series (which ran 1972-78), McClanahan went along as Maude’s best friend Vivian Cavender Harmon. From there, her television career was ascendant, although she did continue to appear on stage (including a stint as Madame Morrible in Wicked earlier this decade).
Her genre roles include: A Saintly Switch (1999), Starship Troopers (1997), Spider-Man (1995), The Dreamer of Oz (1990), Nightmare Classics (1989), Small & Frye (1983), The Skin of Our Teeth (1983), two episodes of Fantasy Island (1979 and 1982), Darkroom (1981), Topper (1979), and Supertrain (1979).
McClanahan is survived by her son, Mark Bish, from her first marriage, and by her sixth husband, Morrow Wilson, whom she married in 1997. Her five previous marriages all ended in divorce. She was married to Tom Bish (1958-59), Norman Hartweg (1959-61), Peter D’Maio (1964-71), Gus Fisher (1976-78), and Tom Keel (1985-86). Her 2007 memoir is called My First Five Husbands… And the Ones Who Got Away.