- In May 2013 a nude painting of her sold for $1.9 million in New York City.
- Remained a big fan of The Golden Girls (1985) long after the show ended, proudly watching old reruns. She said, "Sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of the night AND think of a line and start to laugh. The writing was brilliant".
- Just a few days after her death, the Broadway community paid tribute to Arthur by dimming the marquees of New York City's Broadway theater district in her memory for one minute at 8:00 p.m.
- Was a qualified medical technician.
- Since appearing together in "Mame," she and Angela Lansbury were best friends. She spoke fondly of the friendship in her one-woman show.
- She served in the Marine Corps during World War II.
- Legally changed her name from Bernice Frankel to Bea Arthur, a variation of Robert Alan Aurthur's surname, whom she wed in 1947.
- Before she was a successful actress and comedienne, Bea Arthur was one of the first women to become an active-duty United States Marine. She volunteered and served during World War II as a truck driver and as a typist. She was stationed at Marine Corps and Navy air stations in Virginia and North Carolina. During her military career, Arthur's rank rose from private to corporal to sergeant to staff sergeant, the title she held upon her honorable discharge in September 1945.
- In an interview after Arthur's death, ex-The Golden Girls (1985) co-star, Betty White said Arthur wasn't too fond of White. Arthur had found her a pain in the neck sometimes and White would set her off.
- Met first husband Robert Alan Aurthur, at the time a Marine, the year after her enlistment in the Marines.
- Before becoming a successful actress and comedienne, she was employed to sing on weekends, occasionally, for $2 a night, in Cambridge, Maryland.
- Met second husband Gene Saks, while in acting school, in 1949.
- Was 5'9-1/2" by the time she was 12 years old.
- Dorothy Zbornak, her character from The Golden Girls (1985) was based on creator Susan Harris.
- According to a television interview, Arthur claimed that her start in comedy came when she was only a lounge singer. Apparently, when she got up on stage to sing torch songs, the audience would laugh at her because of her deep voice and her height. The nightclub manager then approached her and told her she was in the wrong business. She should be doing comedy instead.
- After her death The Ali Forney Center, a New York not-for-profit agency devoted to providing emergency shelter, medical services, and help getting off the streets to young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender homeless people, learned that she had left them $300,000.00 in her will. The center plans to use the bequest to buy a building that will become permanent housing for some of these youths. The center plans to name the building The Bea Arthur Residence for LGBT Homeless Youth.
- In 1966 she won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for playing Vera Charles in "Mame", a part she recreated in the film version by the same name, Mame (1974).
- When she was a young girl, she used to do Mae West imitations.
- She and Golden Girls costar Estelle Getty were posthumously inducted as Disney Legends in 2009. Betty White and Rue McClanahan were also inducted the same year.
- On 8 June 2008 her show The Golden Girls (1985) was awarded the Pop Culture award at the Sixth Annual TV Land Awards. Arthur accepted the award with Rue McClanahan and Betty White. It was Arthur's last public appearance.
- Once appeared on Judge Judy (1996) as a witness for a defendant who was involved with the animal rights organization PETA. The defendant won.
- Though Estelle Getty played her mother in The Golden Girls (1985), Estelle was one year younger than Bea.
- In 2002 she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event for her one-woman show "Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends".
- Survived by her two sons, Matthew Saks (born July 14, 1961) and Daniel Saks (born May 8, 1964), whom she and former husband Gene Saks adopted at birth.
- Enjoyed spending time with her family, singing, collecting antique furniture, traveling, gardening, taking care of pets and dancing.
- Met Carroll O'Connor, in 1964, when he was doing a play called "Ullysees in Nighttown." Eight years later, Arthur guest-starred on 2 episodes of All in the Family (1971), before she starred in the spin-off Maude (1972).
- Her son, Daniel Saks, was the set designer for the sitcom Dharma & Greg (1997).
- Instructed her family that no funeral be held after her passing.
- Future actors Ron Howard, Tom Hanks and future comediennes/comedians Graham Elwood, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Leah Remini, all said Arthur was their childhood television heroine.
- She retired from acting, at the age of 83, after her last guest-starring role on Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000).
- Considered Amanda's (1983) and an episode of Saturday Night Live (1975) as her worst career experiences. She also regretted the film version of Mame (1974), directed by her then-husband Gene Saks.
- She was frequently referenced in dialogue as being the favorite actress and an icon to the Marvel Comics' character Deadpool.
- Got a phone call from Norman Lear, about guest-starring on a few episodes of All in the Family (1971). Lear strongly insisted on her doing it, despite Arthur hating flying. She agreed to take the role, for a few episodes, at the very last minute, and it led onto her starring role on Maude (1972).
- Bea Arthur passed away on April 25, 2009. Her ex-The Golden Girls (1985) co-star, Estelle Getty, passed away 1 year before her in July 2008.
- Remained good friends with Adrienne Barbeau during and after Maude (1972).
- She was a lifelong liberal Democrat and over the years she was in support of Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Adlai Stevenson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. She was also a donor to the Democratic National Committee and, like her trademark characters Maude Findlay and Dorothy Zbornak; her Democratic concepts constantly coincided with her views on education, women's rights, gay liberation, and economics.
- Her former Maude (1972) co-star, Adrienne Barbeau, was reunited with her on The View (1997), in 2007. They were there to promote the DVD release of the first season of Maude.
- As a girl, Arthur attended Linden Hall School for Girls, an all girls school in Lititz, Pennsylvania, where she was voted "The Wittiest Girl in High School". Later she attended Blackstone College for Girls in Blackstone, Virginia, where she was active in drama productions.
- Claimed that co-star Esther Rolle didn't display any comedic talent on Maude (1972), until she was given her own show Good Times (1974). She would quote Maude writer Arthur Julian statement about Rolle: "My name is Esther Rolle. I don't do windows, and I don't do comedy.".
- Appeared on the front cover of TV Guide six times.
- Resided in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood, California, for 37 years, from 1972-2009. She sublet her apartment on Central Park West in New York City and her country home in Bedford, New York.
- Arthur's first husband Robert Alan Aurthur died of lung cancer in 1978.
- Played Dorothy Zbornak on three shows: The Golden Girls (1985), Empty Nest (1988) and The Golden Palace (1992).
- Was the popular national spokesperson for Canadian drug store chain Shoppers Drug Mart in television and radio commercials throughout the 1980s.
- Her parents, Philip and Rebecca (née Pressner) Frankel, who were both Jewish, were both managers at a woman's department store in Cambridge, Maryland.
- In September 2003, at the Savoy Theatre in London, England, UK she performed her show "Bea Arthur at the Savoy," which was created by herself and Billy Goldenberg in collaboration with Charles Randolph-Wright with production consultants Mark Waldrep and Richard Maltby Jr..
- Had escaped the alienation she felt in the Eastern shoretown, by going to the movies on Saturdays.
- She is survived by two granddaughters, Kyra and Violet.
- Best known by the public for her starring roles as the title character in Maude (1972) and as Dorothy Zbornak in The Golden Girls (1985).
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