Actress. Best known as the co-star of the popular TV sitcom The Golden Girls. Born Eddi-Rue McClanahan, she grew up in Ardmore, Oklahoma, graduated from the University of Tulsa, and began a career as an actress in 1957. In 1969 she made her Broadway debut as Sally Weber in the original production of the musical Jimmy Shine, starring Dustin Hoffman. McClanahan’s most noteworthy roles were on television from the 1970s to the 1990s, beginning with stints on the daytime dramas Another World and Where the Heart Is. From 1972 to 1978 she played Vivian Harmon, the best friend to Bea Arthur’s Maude on the CBS sitcom of the same name, and she starred on Mama’s Family as Fran Crowley from 1983 to 1985. She was reunited with Arthur for The Golden Girls (1985 to 1992), playing the sexually liberated Blanche Devereaux, for which she won an Emmy in 1987; she reprised the character in the spin-off show The Golden Palace (1992 to 1993). In 2000 she played she played Peggy Ingram in a TV Series Called Sorred Lives. McClanahan also appeared in such films as The Rotten Apple (1963), Walk the Angry Beach (1968), Some of My Best Friends Are…” (1971), and The Fighting Temptations (2003), and continued to take on theatre roles, including Madame Morrible in the Broadway musical Wicked (2005). Her last performance was a guest starring appearance on the Logo Network’s series Sordid Lives. She was also active in the animal rights movement as a member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Her autobiography My First Five Husbands was published in 2007. In 1997 McClanahan was diagnosed with breast cancer, from which she completely recovered, and she underwent triple bypass surgery in 2009. (bio by: Bill McKern)  Family links:  Parents:  William Edwin McClanahan (1908 – 1999)  Rheua Nell Medaris McClanahan (1912 – 1973)  Spouse:  Gus Sam Fisher (1931 – 2004)Cause of death: Stroke