Bea Arthur stands five foot nine and a half inches tall and has a voice that one reviewer characterized as “deep as a pothole.” Her formidable stature and booming vocal register made her an unlikely leading lady in an industry driven by a narrow regime of feminine beauty. But as character traits for Maude Findlay, they proved to be the perfect foil for the sexist bravado of Archie Bunker in Norman Lear’s 1970s sitcom, All in the Family, in which Arthur first appeared in the role. The spin-off series Maude was created for her virtually overnight. As opinionated and caustic in her own way as Archie, Maude Findlay was a crusader for women’s liberation. And in the nascent gender consciousness of the 1970s, the women’s movement’s fictional spokeswoman had to be big and booming.

Television viewers’ love affair with the character Arthur created in Maude resulted in a struggle with the actors’ nemesis: typecasting. Arthur was a recognized actor on Broadway before making the move to television, appearing in, among others, Fiddler on the Roof, The Threepenny Opera, and Mame (for which she won a Tony Award), but she is nevertheless most remembered as the bombastic caricature of a liberated woman on the small screen. Upon leaving Maude in 1978, Arthur took a four-year hiatus before accepting another television series, in hopes the Findlay character would fade from the public mind. When she reappeared on the short-lived Amanda’s in 1983, playing the owner of a seaside hotel, it was as a physically thinner person. Yet despite Arthur’s attempt at transformation, audiences and reviewers alike found it hard to shake their favorite character. “Bea has shed so many pounds she is scarcely recognizable as the imposing, flotilla-like Maude,” wrote one reviewer. Arthur responded to the evocation of her prior character, “what can you do? I’m still five feet nine and my voice is still deep. But I’m not going to cut off my legs or change my voice.” Arthur’s typecasting continued on the hit series Golden Girls, which first aired in 1985. Playing alongside well-established actors Rue McClanahan, Betty White, and Estelle Getty, only Arthur seemed rooted in a past performance. Her character, Dorothy Zbornak, was a continuation of the Maude character: loud, worldly, and flippant, she was Maude, approaching old age.

Whether as Maude, breaking television’s mold of female beauty, or as Dorothy, challenging the omnipotent image of youth, Arthur’s roles on the two hit series were instrumental in broadening television representation. She has been recognized for her work in television with two Emmys, for Maude and Golden Girls. In 2000, a guest appearance on the series Malcolm in the Middle garnered her another Emmy nomination and an American Comedy Award for Funniest Guest Appearance in a TV Series. She has been nominated five times for an American Comedy Award’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2002, she returned to the stage in her one-woman show, Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends. Arthur passed away on April 25, 2009.