Actress Rue McClanahan was best known for her role as lusty Southern belle Blanche Devereaux on the television sitcom The Golden Girls. She had a successful career on stage, film and television for over fifty years.
She was born Eddi-Rue McClanahan in Healdton, Oklahoma on February 21, 1934. She studied theater at the University of Tulsa and made her professional stage debut at the Erie Playhouse in Pennsylvania in 1957. Soon after, she was performing in off-Broadway plays in New York.
McClanahan began acting in films in the early 1960s, appearing in the low-budget thriller Five Minutes to Live (aka Door-to-Door Maniac) (1961) starring Johnny Cash. She continued her career in such features as the Sherlock Holmsian fantasy They Might Be Giants (1971) with George C. Scott, and the western slasher film Blade (1973).
She starred as Vivian Cavender Harmon, Bea Arthur’s title character’s best friend, in the sitcom Maude from 1972 to 1978. She starred as Ginger-Nell Hollyhock in the short-lived comedy series Apple Pie in 1978, and guest-starred in episodes of Supertrain, Darkroom, Fantasy Island, and Small & Frye. She was also featured in the supernatural comedy tele-film Topper in 1979.
She had a recurring role in the sitcom Mama’s Family from 1983 to 1984 as Aunt Fran Crowley. She rejoined Bea Arthur in the hit sitcom The Golden Girls in 1985, which also starred Betty White and Estelle Getty as a quartet of senior citizens sharing a home in Miami. McClanahan earned several Emmy nominations and won the award for Outstanding Lead Actress for her performance as Blanche Devereaux in 1987. The series continued through 1992, and she guest-starred as Blanche in episodes of Nurses and Empty Nest. She also reprised the role in the short-lived spin-off Golden Palace from 1992 to 1993.
McClanahan was also seen in the tele-films The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1989) on Nightmare Classics, The Man in the Brown Suit (1989), The Wickedest Witch (1989), The Dreamer of Oz (1990) as L. Frank Baum’s mother-in-law. Her other television credits include episodes of the animated Spider-Man, Touched by an Angel, and Wonderfalls.
McClanahan also continued to appear on films later in her career, with roles in Biosphere 2 (1991), the animated Christmas classic Annabelle’s Wish (1997), Starship Troopers (1997), and Wit’s End (2005). She returned to Broadway in April of 2005, taking over the role of Madame Morrible in the musical Wicked for the remainder of the year.
McClanahan had been in poor health for several years and died of complications from a stroke and a brain hemorrhage in a New York City hospital on June 3, 2010 at age 76.
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