Eddi-Rue McClanahan was born in Healdton, Oklahoma, on February 21, 1934. She was the daughter of Dreda Rheua-Nell (née Medaris), a beautician, and William Edwin "Bill" McClanahan, a building contractor.[1][2][3][4] Her name combined her father's middle name of "Edwin", to create Eddi, and her mother's middle name of "Rheua", to create Rue. She stopped using "Eddi" because it was mistaken for a male name, and once led to her accidentally receiving a conscription notice.[2]
She was raised Methodist and was of Irish and Choctaw ancestry.[4] Her Choctaw great-grandfather was named Running Hawk, according to her autobiography, My First Five Husbands... and the Ones Who Got Away (2007). Due to her father's work, her family moved frequently.[2] She graduated from Ardmore High School in Ardmore, Oklahoma,[5] where she acted in school plays and won the gold medal in oration.[6] A National Honor Society member, McClanahan earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, at the University of Tulsa, where she majored in both German and theater and joined the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority,[1] serving as vice president.[7]
Her role as Caroline Johnson on the TV show Another World (from July 1970 to September 1971) brought her notice. Once her role on Another World ended, McClanahan joined the cast of the CBS soap opera Where the Heart Is, in which she played Margaret Jardin.
After Maude, McClanahan starred in Apple Pie, a series created for her by Norman Lear, but which aired only two episodes before it was canceled. In an interview, McClanahan said she also did another of the pilot episodes The Baxters for Lear but told him she did not want to do the series itself. It is unknown if her appearance was in the actual pilot or an unaired pilot, presumably the latter given she is not credited and the show is not attributed to her anywhere. It is also possible she never actually filmed the episode but was just considering it. Many years later, a script binder entitled The Baxters was discovered to be a part of her collection.[11][12]
On Mama's Family (1983–90), McClanahan portrayed Fran, an uptight spinster sister to Mama Thelma Harper (Vicki Lawrence). Fran was a journalist for the local paper. Also in the cast was McClanahan's future Golden Girls costar Betty White. McClanahan and White appeared on the first two seasons before the show was canceled by NBC and then retooled for first run syndication.
On The Golden Girls (1985–92) and its short-lived spin-off The Golden Palace (1992–93), McClanahan portrayed man-crazed Southern belle Blanche Devereaux, owner of the house she lived in and rented out to her three roommates and best friends: Dorothy Zbornak (Arthur), Rose Nylund (White), and Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty). McClanahan received four Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on the show, winning the award in 1987.[13]
She appeared as a leader of Al-Anon in a 1970s informational film called Slight Drinking Problem, in which Patty Duke played the enabling and eventually self-empowered wife of an alcoholic. In feature films, she appeared in The Rotten Apple (1961) and Walk the Angry Beach (1968). She appeared in the Walter Matthau-Jack Lemmon comedy Out to Sea (1997).
On Broadway, McClanahan appeared in the all-woman cast of The Women in 2001-2002,[15] alongside Cynthia Nixon, Jennifer Coolidge, among others. She replaced Tammy Grimes as "The Visitor from New York" (Hannah Warren) in the Neil Simon comedy California Suite from April 4, 1977, until the show closed on July 2 of that same year.
Her autobiography, My First Five Husbands ... and the Ones Who Got Away, was released in 2007.[1][18] In June 2008, The Golden Girls was awarded the Pop Culture award at the Sixth Annual TV Land Awards; McClanahan accepted the award with co-stars Arthur and White.[19] McClanahan's final acting role was as Peggy Ingram in the cable series Sordid Lives on the Logo network, which premiered July 23, 2008.
McClanahan was a supporter of gay rights, including advocating for same-sex marriage in the United States. In January 2009, she appeared in the star-studded Defying Inequality: The Broadway Concert—A Celebrity Benefit for Equal Rights.[21]
Personal life and death
McClanahan was married six times, and had a son.[2]
In June 1997, McClanahan was diagnosed with breast cancer, for which she was treated successfully.[22]
On November 4, 2009, McClanahan underwent triple bypass surgery after being hospitalized for cardiac related symptoms. An event scheduled for November 14, 2009, to honor her lifetime achievements, Golden: A Gala Tribute to Rue McClanahan, at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, California,[23] had to be postponed. On January 14, 2010, Entertainment Tonight reported that while recovering from surgery, the actress suffered a minor stroke. In March 2010, fellow Golden Girls cast member Betty White reported on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that McClanahan was doing well and that her speech had returned to normal.[24]
McClanahan was survived by her sixth husband, Morrow Wilson (from whom she separated in 2009); her son from her first marriage, Mark Bish (of Austin, Texas); her sister, Melinda Lou McClanahan (of Silver City, New Mexico); and other family, including her niece, actress and author Amelia Kinkade.[28][2][29]
No funeral service was held for McClanahan; her family created an official memorial page on Facebook,[30] and memorial services were held during the summer of 2010 in New York and Los Angeles.[28][failed verification] On June 10, 2010, her New York apartment went on the market for an asking price of $2.25 million.[31][32]
In February 2017, a Golden Girls–themed eatery named Rue La Rue Cafe, owned by McClanahan's close friend Michael La Rue (who inherited many of the star's personal belongings and in turn decorated the restaurant with them), opened in the Washington Heights section of the New York City borough of Manhattan.[33] However, after less than a year in business, the cafe closed in November 2017.[34]
^Douglas, Martin (June 3, 2010). "Rue McClanahan, Actress and Golden Girl, Dies at 76". The New York Times. Retrieved November 15, 2013. Her manager, Barbara Lawrence, said Ms. McClanahan died of a brain hemorrhage at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. She was treated for breast cancer in 1997 and had heart bypass surgery last year.
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