Died at 104
female
Beatrice Arthur (born Bernice Frankel; May 13, 1922 – April 25, 2009) was an American actress and comedian. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, Arthur 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). She won several accolades throughout her career, beginning with the 1966 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for playing Vera Charles in Mame. She won Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1977 for Maude and 1988 for The Golden Girls. Arthur has received the third most nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series with nine; only Julia Louis-Dreyfus (11) and Mary Tyler Moore (10) have more. She was inducted into the academy's Television Hall of Fame in 2008. Her film appearances include Lovers and Other Strangers (1970) and the film version of Mame (1974). In 2002, she starred in the one-woman show Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends. An obituary described Arthur as "the tall, deep-voiced actress whose razor-sharp delivery of comedy lines made her a TV star." She served in the U.S. Marine Corps Women's Reserve in World War II.
If Anaïs Mitchell's folk musical had instead begun as a movie musical in the late 90s---primarily because I kept coming back to Andráe Crouch as Yertle the Turtle when I thought of Hades--where Orpheus and Eurydice came of age in the Harlem Renaissance. I imagine the world of the living as a vibrant, thriving underground jazz club in Harlem, where a musician like Orpheus could be looking for a break, with Eurydice being more from a Hooverville, suffering from the turmoil of The Great Depression and hoping to find kinder, more generous souls among the creatives. I see Perspeohone running a gorgeous Art Deco speakeasy in both worlds, and Hadestown reflecting the Rust Belt future of automobile cities. Everything in Hadestown looks like Depression-era Detroit, but with 50 years' coating of coal dust and crude oil. (Everything outside of Hades's plush, old men's club vibe office, that is.) His office is located skybox style over Hadestown, where he often watches the workers as a factory manager might, from behind a clean, safe wall of windows.
