Rue McClanahan

Birthplace: Healdton, Oklahoma, USA
Birthday: February 21, 1934

Able to move alternate between comedy and melodrama, and portray everything from vixens to suffering mothers, the curvaceous yet full-boned, slender-nosed McClanahan has been on TV almost continuously since snagging the role of Vivian Harmon, best friend to "Maude", in 1972. Flirtatious and a bit ditzy as Vivian, McClanahan took out the "ditzy" but kept in the flirt more than a decade later when she created the role for which she is most recognized, that of Blanche Devereaux, self-proclaimed middle-aged sex goddess on "…more

Full Biography

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Credits

Actor

TV Land Awards 2008
To My Daughter
Laura Carlston
Baby of the Bride
Margret Becker Hix
And They All Lived Happily Ever After
Liz Wescott
The Rimers of Eldritch
Cora Groves

Producer

Baby of the Bride
Co-Executive Producer
Mother of the Bride
Co-Executive Producer

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Career Milestones

2008
Starred in the short-lived series, "Sordid Lives" on the Logo network
2007
Published her autobiography, My First Five Husbands
2005
Replaced Carole Shelley as Madame Morrible in the Broadway musical, "Wicked"
2003
Appeared in the musical romantic comedy, "The Fighting Temptations," with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyonce Knowles
2001
Returned to the New York stage for the Broadway revival of "The Women"