Broadway Vet and Beloved Golden Girl Rue McClanahan Dies at 76

Actress Rue McClanahan, a Broadway veteran best known for playing Blanche Deveraux in the hit TV comedy The Golden Girls, died on June 3 of a massive stroke, according to her manager, Barbara Lawrence. The actress was 76. “She passed away at 1:00 AM this morning,” Lawrence told People.com, with “her family with her. She went in peace.”

Born Eddi-Rue McClanahan in Healdton, Oklahoma on February 21, 1934, McClanahan studied theater at the University of Tulsa and arrived in New York in 1957, where worked as a part-time file clerk while trying to find jobs in the theater. She made her Broadway debut in 1968 in the musical Jimmy Shine (opposite Dustin Hoffman) and appeared on Broadway in California Suite, The Women and most recently in an eight-month run as Madame Morrible in Wicked in 2005. McClanahan worked off-Broadway many times over the years, most famously in MacBird! and an Obie-winning performance in Who’s Happy Now?

The sassy comic actress earned a place in TV history for her seven-season run on The Golden Girls. She played a man-obsessed southern belle alongside the late Bea Arthur and Estelle Getty and surviving cast member Betty White on the show, which remains popular in syndication. McClanahan won one Emmy for her performance and was nominated for three other Emmys and three Golden Globes. She had previously been featured alongside Arthur in Maude.

In the past decade, McClanahan had survived breast cancer, a triple-bypass operation and a minor stroke. As recently as April, she was seen at Broadway opening nights, supporting friends and former co-stars.

The actress published a memoir, My First Five Husbands, in 2007 and is survived by her sixth husband, Morrow Wilson, and by one son, Mark Bish, from her first marriage.