The death of popular actress Bea Arthur, who starred in the US television sitcom¹ The Golden Girls, has been reported in Los Angeles.

美国情景喜剧女星Bea Arthur在洛杉矶去世。

Arthur, who played Dorothy Zbornak to the late Estelle Getty's Sophia Petrillo, died at home of cancer at the age of 86, a family spokesman said.

She was also famous for the sitcom（情景喜剧） Maude, first creating the character in the comedy series All In The Family.

Arthur also won an Emmy Award for the musical Mame.

The tall, deep-voiced actress's razor-sharp（锋利的，犀利的） delivery of comedy lines made her a TV star, the Associated Press news agency notes.

She won Emmy Awards for both The Golden Girls and Maude.

Dan Watt², her personal assistant for six years, announced the death, saying she had died peacefully.

"She was a brilliant and witty³ woman," he recalled.

"Bea will always have a special place in my heart."

"Miami Nice" with The Golden Girls

The 'new girl'

Arthur first appeared in All In The Family as Edith Bunker's loudly outspoken⁴, liberal cousin, Maude Finley.

She proved a perfect foil（衬托，阻止） for blue-collar bigot（盲信者，顽固者） Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor), and their blistering⁵ exchanges were so entertaining that producer Norman Lear fashioned Arthur's own series.

In a 2008 interview with AP, Arthur said she had been lucky to be discovered by TV after a long stage career, recalling with bemusement CBS executives（巨头） asking about the new "girl".

"I was already 50 years old," she said.

"I had done so much off Broadway, on Broadway, but they said: 'Who is that girl? Let's give her her own series.'"

Maude was an instant hit when it aired（晾干，使通风） in September 1972.

Golden Girls (1985-1992) was another groundbreaking（开创性的） comedy, finding surprising success in a television market increasingly skewed（斜交的） toward a younger audience.

The series concerned three retirees（退休人员） - Arthur, Betty White and Rue⁶ McClanahan - and the mother of Arthur's character, Estelle Getty, who lived together in a Miami apartment.

In contrast to the violent Miami Vice⁷, the comedy was nicknamed Miami Nice, AP recalls.

As Dorothy Zbornak, Arthur seemed as caustic⁸（腐蚀性的，刻薄的） and domineering（极权的，作威作福的） as Maude.

She was unconcerned about the similarity of the two roles.

"Look, I'm five feet nine [1.75m], I have a deep voice and I have a way with a line," she told an interviewer.

"What can I do about it? I can't stay home waiting for something different. I think it's a total waste of energy worrying about typecasting（铸字）."

Arthur was born Bernice Frankel in New York City in 1922 and when she was 11 her family moved to Cambridge, Maryland, where her father opened a clothing store.

At 12 she had grown to full height, but she dreamed of being a petite（小的，细的） blond movie star like June Allyson.

One advantage of being tall and deep-voiced, however, was that she was chosen for the male roles in school plays.

Tall at 12

After an early, brief marriage which gave her the name Arthur, she married Broadway actor and future Tony-winning director Gene⁹ Saks in 1950, with whom she had two sons.

They divorced in 1978.

The actress is survived by her sons and two granddaughters. No funeral services are planned.