‘Golden Girl’ McClanahan passes away

(Photo: Golden Girls Season 3 – DVD Signing, Barnes & Noble Chelsea – New York, NY 11/22/2005 © Janet Mayer / Photorazzi)

By DMITRY RASHNITSOV

Just like there is only one original Beatle left on the planet, there is now only one Golden Girl roaming on earth. Actress Rue McClanahan, who is best known for her role as Blanche Devereaux on the Golden Girls passed away on June 3 from a massive stroke. She was 76-year-old.

The loss of McClanahan leaves Betty White as the sole remaining member of The Golden Girls, a favorite show among gay men and anyone alive during its original run from 1985-1992 and the subsequent reruns shown nearly every day of the week.

“Rue was a close and dear friend. I treasure our relationship,” White, 88, said in a statement. “It hurts more than I ever thought it would, if that’s even possible.” The other members of The Golden Girls passed away not too long ago with Estele Getty dying in 2008 and Bea Arthur in 2009.

McClanahan was also a longtime supporter of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), and long before the organization was founded, she publicly associated herself with gay acceptance.

McClanahan was born in Healdton, Oklahoma, and went on to major in German and theater at the University of Tulsa. She began acting on off-Broadway in New York City in 1957, but did not make her Broadway debut until 1969 when she portrayed Sally Weber in the original production of the musical, Jimmy Shine. She then starred as as Caroline Johnson on Another World from July 1970 to September 1971.

In 1971, she starred in the film Some of My Friends Are…, about a group of gay men who meet up with their female friends at a bar in Greenwich Village on Christmas Eve.

In 1972, she teamed with Arthur to play her best friend in the primetime sitcom Maude, which ran for six seasons.

When The Golden Girls hit the airwaves in 1985, it was a show unlike any that had been on television. Four mature women discussing their sex lives and starting over after their husbands divorces, deaths or disappearances. McClanahan’s character Blanche was the precursor to Samantha Jones from Sex and the City. She was brash, never coy about having a love of sex, and the company of multiple partners. McClanahan went on to win an Emmy for best lead actress in 1987.

McClanahan said she had never played a character like Blanche before.

“Blance is in love with life and she loves men,” McClanahan said after she won her Emmy. “I think she has an attitude toward women that’s competitive. She is friends with Dorothy and Rose, but if she has enough provocation she becomes competitive with them. I think basically she’s insecure. It’s the other side of the Don Juan syndrome.”

She continued to act after The Golden Girls (and its spinoff show The Golden Palace) went off the air and among the gay community is best known for her portrayal of Peggy Ingram, a slightly addled, elderly mother of an institutionalized drag queen in the 2008 Logo series Sordid Lives.

Over the years, the tough as nails actress did have some health scares. She had undergone treatment for breast cancer in 1997 and had heart bypass surgery in 2009. She later became a vegan and was strongly involved with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

In McClanahan’s 2007 memoir My First Five Husbands…And the Ones Who Got Away, she wrote: “People always ask me if I’m like Blanche. And I say, ‘Well, Blanche was an oversexed, self-involved, man-crazy, vain Southern belle from Atlanta—and I’m not from Atlanta!’

McClanahan had asked that her family not hold a funeral for her but instead they have set up a Facebook page where people can leave well wishes and tell stories of how McClanahan changed their life. The page can be found at www.facebook.com/RueMcClanahan.

According to McClanahan’s manager, the actress was taken off of life support by her oldest son and she did go in peace.