5 Little Facts-Betty White

• Her full name is Betty Marion White, not Elizabeth. She was born in Oak Park, Illinois (not St. Olaf), USA on January 17 1922.
• Betty has had 3 husbands, Frederick R. (Dick) Barker (9 July 1945 - December 1945) (divorced), Lane Allan (8 November 1947 - 1949) (divorced), and Allen Ludden (14 June 1963 - 9 June 1981) (his death). She has never had children.
•  Moved to Los Angeles when she was only two years old.
•  Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1988. The star is next to her late husband, Allen Ludden's star.
• At 88 and a half, she was the oldest person to ever host "Saturday Night Live" in 2010.

5 Little Facts

• All four cast members have appeared in every episode. The only other show to do this is Friends.
•  At series end, Beatrice Arthur and Betty White are the only cast members who never had their title card changed in the opening credits. Rue's was updated in season's three which featured a scene from "Take Him, He's Mine, and five with a scene from "Sophia's Choice." Estelle's was updated in season five as well, with a shot from "Fiddler on the Ropes."
• Season 4, Episode 23: Rites if Spring :  In this episode Sophia states she has never weighed more than 100 pounds in her life. In another episode when Sophia finds a list of things she wanted to accomplish in her life, on the list it says lose 200 pounds... and Sophia says, "did it!"
•  Dorothy says Rose is allergic to cats even though we know Rose met Blanche (in "The Way We Met") while looking for a new apartment after being evicted for having a cat. It is also mentioned in another episode that she had a cat named Lindstrom Lindstrom and in another episode she mentions that her dog Rusty saved her whole family from a fire, including a cat who they never really liked.
• Sophia mentions Mussolini and his torture devices. However, she left Italy before WWII (Dorothy was born in Brooklyn in 1932). How would she know about this?

5 Little Facts- Rue McClanahan

• Rue was born Edie-Rue McClanahan. She dropped the "Edie" after she was sent a letter from the US Army letting her know she had been conscripted (apparently she had been mistaken for a boy regularly in her youth, thinking her name was "Eddie").
• Rue has been married 6 times, her ex-husbands are; Tom Bish, Norman Hartweg, Peter DeMaio, Gus Fisher, and Tom Keel. Her sixth husband, Morrow Wilson, was married to her until her death, however they had been estranged since 2009.
• Was a vegan and dedicated animal rights activist.
• She kept every outfit she wore while on "The Golden Girls" and used a majority of them for her everyday wear away from the show.
• Rue was born Feb 21st 1934, in Healdton, OK and died June 3rd 2010, in New York, NY.

5 Little Facts- Bea Arthur

• She was born Bernice Frankel, in her youth she married Robert Alan Arthur. She later married Gene Saks.
• Bea did not like to watch her own performances in film or television.
• Before she was a successful actress and a comedienne, she was a truck driver and a typist in the Marine Corps.
•  According to a television interview, Arthur claimed that her start in comedy came when she was only a lounge singer. Apparently, when she got up on stage to sing torch songs, the audience would laugh at her because of her deep voice and her height. The nightclub manager then approached her and told her she was in the wrong business. She should be doing comedy instead.
• Was best friends with Angela Lansbury and Adrienne Barbeau

5 Little Facts-Estelle Getty

• Her birth name was Estelle Scher, her married name is Estelle Gettleman.
• Stood a whopping 4'10"
• Was married to Arthur Gettleman (until his death in 2004). They had 2 children: Carl Gettleman and Barry Gettleman.
• Was nicknamed "Slats" by her Golden Girls costars because of her short height and light weight. Other nicknames included "Stella" and "Ettle"
• Passed away on July 22 2008, only three days before her 85th birthday

5 Little Facts

• In Episode 8 of Season 1 (The Break In), Rose says that her hometown is Little Falls. In all the episodes after that, she says that her hometown is St. Olaf. 
• Betty played Rose Nylund on four different shows: Empty Nest, Nurses, The Golden Girls and The Golden Palace. 
• Betty White was the oldest of the four main actresses. Ironically, with the death of Rue McClanahan, she became the last surviving member of the cast.  
• Throughout the series, there are many jokes made by the girls at Rose regarding her natural hair colour. Betty is in fact a natural brunette and dyes her hair Blonde. 
• Betty admits to having plastic surgery before The Golden Girls, even though the program was about growing old and not having a problem with it.

5 Little Facts

 

 

• When asked by Rose about her marriage in the first episode of the series, Dorothy says she is from Queens. In all the other episodes, Dorothy says she is from Brooklyn. 
  

•   Actress Elaine Stritch was considered for the role of Dorothy.   

 

• One of the TV stage managers on this show from 1987 until 1992, Kent Zbornak, has the same last name as one of the lead characters, Dorothy Zbornak.

 

• Numerous episodes involve jokes about the girls unintentionally encountering a penis, whether real, in a painting, or even an erotic cake. Each time, Dorothy's reaction is the same: "Whoa!"   

 

• When the actresses trying out for the part of Dorothy, the description of the character was "a Bea Arthur-esque role".

5 Little Facts

 

• Estelle Getty (Sophia) is 1 year, 2 months and 12 days younger than Bea Arthur (Dorothy), even though Sophia is Dorothy's mother. She is also the second youngest of the four actresses (Rue McClanahan being the youngest, Betty White the oldest).

 

• It took 45 minutes in make-up for Estelle to be transformed into Sophia.  

• Estelle suffered from stage fright, every Friday night for 26 weeks during the show's taping.

• In several episodes which showed flashbacks to when Dorothy and Sophia were living in New York during the '40s and '50s, Estelle appears without the wig and makeup.Even though I know that's how she actually looks, I can't help but think it's fake when I watch it. The red hair throws me off!

• Estelle played Sophia on six different shows: The Golden Girls, The Golden Palace, Empty Nest, Blossom, Nurses and Ladies Man (Never heard of this one!)

5 Little Facts

• In the pilot episode Blanche's last name is Hollingsworth, not Devereaux. It is revealed later that Blanche's maiden name was Hollingsworth, her married name was Devereaux. 
• It was not originally in the script for Blanche to have a Southern accent, Rue McClanahan was told to speak with her original Alabama accent. Rue thought the accent was unappealing, and wanted Blanche to be over-the-top Southern. 
•  In the episode "Wham, Bam, Thank You Mammy", Blanche's full name is revealed to be "Blanche Marie Hollingsworth", but in a later episode she says her full name is "Blanche Elizabeth Devereaux", making her initials B.E.D.
•  Though it is widely believed that Blanche's age is never actually revealed, in an episode called "Mother's Day", it is shown in a flashback that Blanche was 17 in 1949. That would make her 53 years old when the series began in 1985 and 60 when it ended in 1992.However, if you asked Blanche I'm sure she'd tell you she was 29.
• Blanche's name was taken from Blanche DuBois, another timeless Southern Belle from "A Streetcar Named Desire"