The Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris that aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning 7 seasons. Starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, the show is about four older women who share a home in Miami, Florida. It was produced by Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions, in association with Touchstone Television. Paul Junger Witt, Tony Thomas, and Harris served as the original executive producers.
BeatriceArthur was an American actress, comedienne and singer. She began her career on stage in 1947, attracting critical acclaim before achieving worldwide recognition for her work on television beginning in the 1970s as Maude Findlay in the popular sitcoms All in the Family (1971–1972) and Maude (1972–1978) and later in the 1980s and 1990s as Dorothy Zbornak on The Golden Girls (1985–1992).
Adrienne Jo Barbeau is an American actress and author. She came to prominence in the 1970s as Broadway's original Rizzo in the musical Grease, and as Carol Traynor, the divorced daughter of Maude Findlay on the sitcom Maude (1972–1978). In 1980, she began appearing in horror and science fiction films, including The Fog (1980), Escape from New York (1981), Creepshow (1982), and Swamp Thing (1982). She also provided the voice of Catwoman in the DC Animated Universe. In the 2000s, she appeared on the HBO series Carnivàle (2003–2005) as Ruthie.
Craig Kenneth Bruderlin, known professionally as James Brolin, is an American actor. Brolin has won two Golden Globes and an Emmy. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 27, 1998. Brolin is the father of actor Josh Brolin and the husband of Barbra Streisand.
Betty Marion Ludden was an American actress and comedian. A pioneer of early television with a career spanning almost seven decades, she was noted for her vast number of television appearances acting in sitcoms, sketch comedy, and game shows. She produced and starred in the series Life with Elizabeth (1953–1955), thus becoming the first woman to produce a sitcom.
Joan Martha Van Ark is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Valene Ewing on the primetime soap opera Knots Landing. A life member of The Actors Studio, she made her Broadway debut in 1966 in Barefoot in the Park. In 1971, she received a Theatre World Award and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for the revival of The School for Wives.
Beatrice Benaderet was an American actress and comedienne. Born in New York City and raised in San Francisco, she began performing in Bay Area theatre and radio before embarking on a Hollywood career that spanned over three decades. Benaderet first specialized in voice-over work in the golden age of radio, appearing on numerous programs while working with comedians of the era such as Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, and Lucille Ball. Her expertise in dialect and characterization led to her becoming Warner Bros.' leading voice of female characters in their animated cartoons of the early 1940s through the mid-1950s.
Richard Paul Kiley was an American stage, film, and television actor and singer. He is best-known for his distinguished theatrical career in which he twice won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Kiley created the role of Don Quixote in the original 1965 production of the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha and was the first to sing and record "The Impossible Dream", the hit song from the show. In the 1953 hit musical Kismet, he played the Caliph in the original Broadway cast and, as such, was one of the quartet who sang "And This Is My Beloved". Additionally, he won four Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards during his 50-year career and his "sonorous baritone" was also featured in the narration of a number of documentaries and other films. At the time of his death, Kiley was described as "one of theater's most distinguished and versatile actors" and as "an indispensable actor, the kind of performer who could be called on to play kings and commoners and a diversity of characters in between."
Richard Samuel Benjamin is an American actor and film director. He has starred in a number of well-known films, including Goodbye, Columbus (1969), Catch-22 (1970), Portnoy's Complaint (1972), Westworld, The Last of Sheila and Saturday the 14th (1981). Benjamin was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series for his performances in He & She (1968), opposite his wife Paula Prentiss.
My Friend Irma is a media franchise that was spawned by a top-rated, long-running radio situation comedy created by writer-director-producer Cy Howard. The radio show was so popular in the late 1940s that its success escalated the films, television, a comic strip and a comic book that comprise the franchise. Marie Wilson portrayed the title character Irma Peterson on radio, in two films and the television series. The radio series was broadcast on CBS from April 11, 1947, to August 23, 1954.
Amy Marie Madigan is an American actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1985 film Twice in a Lifetime. Her other film credits include Love Child (1982), Places in the Heart (1984), Field of Dreams (1989), Uncle Buck (1989), The Dark Half (1993), Pollock (2000), and Gone Baby Gone (2007).
Dorothy Zbornak is a character from the sitcom television series The Golden Girls, portrayed by Bea Arthur. Sarcastic, introspective, compassionate, and fiercely protective of those she considers family, she is introduced as a substitute teacher, and mother. At the time, Dorothy was recently divorced from her ex-husband Stanley. She, her mother Sophia Petrillo, and housemate Rose Nylund all rent rooms in the Miami house of their friend Blanche Devereaux. Dorothy often acted as den mother and voice of reason among the quartet, "the great leveler" according to Bea Arthur, though at times she also acted foolishly or negatively and would need her friends and family to help ground her again. Arthur also considered her the "great balloon pricker," someone who openly defied and called out hypocrisy, injustice, cruelty, delusion, short-sighted remarks, and behavior she simply found dull, ill-considered, rude, or unreasonable.
Susan Harris is an American former television writer and producer who created the Emmy Award-winning sitcoms Soap (1977–1981) and The Golden Girls (1985–1992). Between 1975 and 1998, Harris was one of the most prolific television writers, creating 13 comedy series. In 2011, she was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.
Miss Coco Peru is the drag persona of American actor, comedian and drag performer Clinton Leupp, known for her role in the 1999 independent film Trick and for her series of live theater performances. Recognizable by her "trademark copper-toned flip hairdo", Peru also starred in Richard Day's Girls Will Be Girls (2003) and was one of six performers featured in the Logo original stand-up comedy series Wisecrack (2005). She has also appeared in a number of other supporting and guest-starring roles in film and television.
Karen Arthur is an American television and film director, producer, and actress. She directed more than 40 feature and made-for-television movies, miniseries, and television series. In 1985 she become the first woman to win a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series.
Robert Alan Aurthur was an American screenwriter, film director, and film producer. Many of his works examined race relations and featured In the Heat of the Night star Sidney Poitier.
Estelle Gettleman, known professionally as Estelle Getty, was an American actress and comedienne. She was best known for her portrayal of Sophia Petrillo on The Golden Girls (1985–1992), for which she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She reprised the role in Empty Nest (1993–1995), The Golden Palace (1992–1993), Blossom (1990–1995), and Nurses (1991–1994). Notable films in which she appeared include Mask (1985), a semibiographical film in which she played the grandmother of Roy L. Dennis, Mannequin (1987), and Stuart Little (1999). She retired from acting in 2001 due to failing health, and died in 2008 from dementia with Lewy bodies.
I Love My Wife, stylized as I Love My...Wife, is a 1970 American comedy film directed by Mel Stuart. It stars Elliott Gould and Brenda Vaccaro.
Do You Remember Love is a 1985 American drama television film starring Joanne Woodward and Richard Kiley. It won 3 Primetime Emmy Awards, the Humanitas Prize, the Writers Guild of America Award, and a Peabody Award.
Goodnight, My Love is a 1972 American television mystery film directed by Peter Hyams and starring Richard Boone, Barbara Bain and Michael Dunn.
