She died in her home after a battle with cancer, she was 86 years old at the time of passing. She's best known from her long running series's Maude and Golden Girls. She won two Emmy's, one each for Maude and Golden Girls, and was nominated for 11 Emmy's (including a nomination as a guest star in my favorite Malcolm In The Middle episode) and 9 Golden Globes. Here is a nice article on her passing. http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-bea-arthur26-2009apr26,0,176068.story
I loved her as Maude. While the Golden Girls were never my thing, she was always funny in that show as the straight person. As an aside, she was the victim of one of the funniest one-liners I've ever heard. She was in the audience at a celebrity roast, and the person who was getting roasted said something to the person on stage. The comic replied, "Oh, please. I wouldn't fuck you with Bea Arthur's dick." No one laughed harder than Bea Arthur. Cheers and RIP to a class act who made so many of us laugh.
I remember that! I'm pretty sure the comic was Jeffrey Ross. Yeah, she was a real class act, and extremely funny in her own deadpan way.
