Inside ‘Golden Girls’ Stars Bea, Estelle, Rue and Betty’s Bond: ‘There Were No Divas’

Bea Arthur arrived at Estelle Getty’s 75th birthday party with a big plastic bag. “She beelined to Estelle and just threw this bag — a heavy one! — to me,” Richard Weaver, Estelle Getty’s longtime personal assistant, exclusively recalls to Closer. “Bea said, ‘Happy birthday, Ma. Here’s a [freaking] brisket.’ It was an inside joke because they’re both Jewish. She literally brought her a brisket!”

On The Golden Girls, Bea, Estelle, Betty White and Rue McClanahan served up lots of love and laughter. Now, 30 years after the series aired its final episode, three of the men who knew the actresses best are sharing their memories in The Golden Girls Insiders Show. “There were no divas,” Art Harding, a makeup artist who worked on the series for five of its seven seasons, tells Closer. “I know sometimes they didn’t get along. There were some tough relationships, but they were always professional on the set. They always knew their lines, and they were always ready to roll.”

On most days, Bea, Rue and Betty ate lunch together so they could rehearse over the meal. “Estelle preferred to go to her trailer to study her lines,” explains Dan Watt, Bea’s personal assistant for the last six years of her life.

Despite her commanding presence, Bea could be very shy in person. “She hated talking about herself,” confides Watt. Adds Harding: “She had some quirks like she hated people chewing gum.” But when someone on the set needed to make a stand, Bea was the most vocal. One time, a director that the four actresses believed was a bad fit was hired to direct an episode. 

“She had the chutzpah to speak up and share everyone’s view,” recalls Watt. “She walked over and said, ‘Shouldn’t a comedy director be funny? I’m going to lunch now,’ ” The director was replaced by the next day. 

Bea could also be very generous. Because Betty was a huge animal lover, “Bea would have a Seeing Eye dog trained in Betty’s name for Christmas,” says Weaver. When Rue was despondent over her divorce, Bea sent her plane tickets and invited Rue to stay in her home while she recovered. Yet Bea’s closest Golden Girls friendship was with Estelle, who played her mother, Sophia on the show. “Bea lost her real mother during the taping of Golden Girls, and she looked to Estelle as a mother at that point,” says Weaver. “Estelle coddled her.”

Bea repaid this kindness by standing by Estelle, who suffered from stage fright and sometimes struggled to remember her lines. “There was an insecure part of Estelle because she was up against these powerhouse veterans,” says Weaver. “Bea told me there were times that she would go to Estelle’s dressing room and help calm her down. That’s when Bea became the mother figure in their relationship.”

The personal assistants had a chance to do things other people only dream of — like visit the L.A. Zoo in the early predawn hours with Betty. “We would go at 5:30 in the morning because Betty wanted to see her ‘kids.’ That’s what she called the animals,” says Watt. “We’d ride on a golf cart, and she’d go feed the animals.”

Another time, Watt went grocery shopping with Bea and her fellow Broadway alum, Angela Lansbury. “She didn’t tell me she was meeting Angie,” he recalls. “But I’m walking behind them as they’re catching up, and I’m thinking, ‘Oh, please, let them break into song in the aisle! ’”

Of course, not every moment as a personal assistant was fun. One night, Estelle took Weaver as her escort to see Rue perform in The Vagina Monologues. On the way to the theater, Estelle fell and broke her arm but insisted on seeing the show before she got medical attention. “She sat through the entire performance with a broken arm to show her devotion to Rue,” says Weaver. “She wouldn’t leave.”

All four actresses have passed on now, but The Golden Girls continues to delight viewers and serve as a lasting legacy to the talents of these four women. “They picked the best people to do that show,” says Harding, who shared memories along with Watt and Weaver in The Golden Girls Insiders Show, which premiered October 13 at Oscar’s Downtown Palm Springs. The men hope to take the show to other cities soon. “They were legends, and on The Golden Girls, they always made you laugh to no end.”