Rue McClanahan makes Blanche Devereaux's vanity funny without asking us to dislike her. We rate her for that precision: the woman enjoying everyone's attention is also the woman who needs it.
Fi1m perspective
Blanche Devereaux wants to be noticed, and Rue McClanahan makes the wanting as funny as the confidence. In The Golden Girls (1985), she lets us enjoy the vanity while seeing how much another person's attention matters to Blanche. We laughed at her self-satisfaction, then found ourselves feeling protective of her because McClanahan makes that need so plain. She allows the other women to find Blanche exhausting without making us wish she would leave. That is a difficult balance, and she gets it right.
As Vivian Harmon in Maude (1972), McClanahan established herself as a sitcom presence opposite Bea Arthur. Aunt Fran Crowley in Mama's Family (1983) followed before The Golden Girls. The later role concentrated the qualities for which she became known: comic timing, sexual confidence and a willingness to let a woman be self-absorbed.
Susan Harris's sitcom gives her partners who can answer back, and McClanahan's performance benefits from being part of that company. Estelle Getty's Sophia Petrillo delivers a cutting remark with little ceremony; Blanche's pleasure in being noticed makes a useful contrast. We believe the affection between them because the irritation is allowed to remain, rather than being tidied away whenever a joke is over. The weakness comes when the programme turns a conversation into a lesson. Those passages explain what the actors have already made clear through their timing and their responses to one another.
The Biology Teacher in Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers (1997) belongs to the occasional film work alongside the television career. We recommend that film for its insect battles and military satire, not as a starting point for McClanahan. Begin instead with The Golden Girls, where familiarity with Blanche makes her need for attention more affecting. Watch for how much the attention matters, especially when Blanche seems most certain of her appeal.
Biography
Rue McClanahan was an American actress. Born Eddi-Rue McClanahan on 21 February 1934 in Healdton, Oklahoma, she died on 3 June 2010 in New York City.
She began her career on the New York stage in the 1950s and made her Broadway debut in 1969. Television producer Norman Lear cast her as Vivian Harmon on Maude (1972–1978) and Aunt Fran on Mama's Family (1983–1984). She received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1987 for her role as Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls (1985–1992) and reprised the part on the spin-off The Golden Palace (1992–1993).
McClanahan appeared in feature films including Out to Sea (1997) and as the Biology Teacher in Starship Troopers (1997). She studied drama at the University of Tulsa.
