Photo Blast from the Past: Bea Arthur and Hal Linden

Today, we're featuring Bea Arthur and Hal Linden circa 1981. Arthur's stage roles included Lucy Brown in the 1954 Off-Broadway premiere of Marc Blitzstein's English-language adaptation of Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera, Yente the Matchmaker in the 1964 premiere of Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway, and a 1966 Tony Award-winning portrayal of Vera Charles to Angela Lansbury's Mame. She reprised the role in the 1974 film version opposite Lucille Ball. In 1981, she appeared in Woody Allen's The Floating Light Bulb.

Linden became a staple of Broadway upon succeeding Sydney Chaplin in Bells Are Ringing in 1958, and made a further breakthrough on the New York stage in 1962 when he was cast as Billy Crocker in the revival of Cole Porter's Anything Goes. He went on to a successful stage career, winning a Tony Award for his performance in the musical The Rothschilds (1971).

Photo Credit: Walter McBride