Since Rue McClanahan died just days after Gary Coleman and Dennis Hopper did, you have to wonder if there’s some truth to that old wives’ tale about death always coming in threes. Actually, McClanahan’s also the third actress from The Golden Girls who has died recently, along with Bea Arthur and Estelle Getty. Of the original four, the only one who’s still alive is Betty White, and for as big of a name as she’s made for herself by appearing on lots of sitcoms throughout the years, that Snickers commercial she turned up in during the Super Bowl has given her the strangest comeback since the one Mickey Rourke attempted a while ago.
Some might say it’s a shame that McClanahan never got that kind of attention after the show went off the air in 1992, and that for as many TV shows as she’s appeared on, people will remember her primarily for her role on The Golden Girls, where she played a Southern sexpot named Blanche Devereaux. It’s actually a glorious burden to have to bear–few TV shows have endured the way The Golden Girls has, so much so that it isn’t unusual for the people at WE to broadcast several marathons of it a week. The fact that they’ve got seven seasons worth of episodes to work with helps.
All four actresses were essential to the show’s success, which might explain why each of them took home Emmys for making their characters work as well as they did. Of course, they all probably had a blast playing them–Arthur was Dorothy Zbornak, the substitute teacher who had a knack for snappy answers to stupid questions; White was Rose Nylund, the farm girl from Minnesota with well-intentioned but ridiculous anecdotes that bored people to tears; Getty was Sophia Petrillo, the hell raiser who was trapped in an octogenarian’s body.
McClanahan’s Blanche was the oversexed widow who was forever 39, but she saw a little deeper into the role than that. The army of gentleman callers she kept at arm’s length was a sign of how afraid she was of commitment, and as sincerely confident as she was in her own sexuality, there was still a very vulnerable part of herself that she sought to protect. Although it isn’t easy to balance those extremes, it helps when you’ve got an actress who knows what she’s doing.
There’s also something to be said for the chemistry she had with her fellow cast members, which is probably why there’s such a strong sense of intimacy throughout the series. It’s nice to know that that intimacy will survive, even after the stars who shared it have faded away.
This article originally appeared on AllMediaNy.com
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