The Only Recurring Actors Still Alive From The Golden Girls

If you're making a list of the most timeless sitcoms ever produced, "The Golden Girls" has to be at or near the top. Yes, it's so very 1980s with its Miami fashions and decor, but its themes and sense of humor have aged better than most hit series of its era. At any moment, you can hop on Hulu, click on a random episode, and know you'll laugh yourself silly while watching Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur), Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan), Rose Nylund (Betty White), and Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty) get in some kind of jam and ultimately be reminded of the importance and power of friendship.

The writing on "The Golden Girls" was always sharp (it won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series twice), but the secret to its seven years of sustained success (it ranked in the Nielsen ratings top ten for all but its final season) was undoubtedly its cast. Arthur, McClanahan, White, and Getty were a perfect fit from day one, with each actor getting ample opportunity to step into the spotlight multiple times a season — which is why all four performers won Emmys before the series ended in 1992.

Given that "The Golden Girls" has been off the air for 33 years, it shouldn't come as a surprise that many of the fabulous actors who appeared on the show are no longer with us. This includes its terrific recurring cast members, who added indelible color to the show's mixture of zaniness and heartfelt sentiment. There are, however, still some familiar faces out in the world doing their thing (whether it's acting or something else). Let's peruse "The Golden Girls" talent roster.

Sadly, none of the titular "Golden Girls" are still with us today. Estelle Getty, who played Dorothy's mother Sophia (and was actually a year younger than Bea Arthur), died in 2008 at the age of 84. We lost Arthur next in 2009 at the age of 89, while McClanahan, the youngest of the four by 11 years, passed in 2010 at the age of 76.

White (who initially auditioned for the part of Blanche) experienced a career resurgence in 2010 when Facebook users successfully lobbied for her to host "Saturday Night Live" at age 88. Suddenly, White was in high demand. She starred in the TV Land sitcom "Hot in Cleveland" alongside sitcom veterans Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, and Wendie Malick for six seasons, and was the subject of an NBC broadcast gala on the occasion of her 90th birthday. During this time, White continued her advocacy on behalf of animal welfare and returned to "Saturday Night Live" as a guest for its 40th anniversary celebration in 2015. She was so astonishingly active in her 90s that it was something of a shock to lose her at 99 years old, just 18 days shy of her 100th birthday.

In the strange, time-honored tradition of network sitcoms, the part of Dorothy Zbornak's daughter, Kate Griffiths, was played by two different actors over the series' seven seasons. When the character first appeared as a bride-to-be in the series second episode "Guess Who's Coming to the Wedding," she was portrayed by Lisa Jane Persky. It was unusually early in a series' run to get a big wedding episode, but, again, the core-four ensemble was so immediately perfect together that it felt like we'd been watching them for years.

Perskey is quite good in the 1985 episode, and might've returned to the show had she not been in such high demand for supporting roles at the time. You might very well remember her from such '80s classics as "The Sure Thing," "The Big Easy," and "When Harry Met Sally..." She was a favorite of directors Francis Ford Coppola, Rob Reiner, and Jim McBride at the time, and worked steadily throughout the 1990s in such hit television shows as "Murphy Brown," "Quantum Leap" and "The X-Files." In the 2000s she segued from acting back to journalism, the profession where she'd gotten her start in the 1970s as a founding staff member of the punk magazine New York Rocker. She's written for publications like LA Weekly, Fortean Times, and Bomb, and founded the "Los Angeles Review of Books" in 2010. She's also a respected photographer, and is no doubt familiar as a call-in guest to listeners of Tom Scharpling's "The Best Show."

When the character of Kate Griffiths returned for the season 2 episode "Son-in-Law Dearest," she was portrayed by Deena Freeman. Though just a year into her marriage, Kate has left her husband after he cheated on her; when she reconciles with him, Dorothy is none too pleased. It's unclear as to whether Perskey was unavailable or if the producers simply wanted to go in a different direction with Kate. If that was the case, it's telling that they never brought the character back.

Like Perskey, Freeman was a busy working actor at the time of her appearance. She'd played a recurring character on "Too Close for Comfort" and had also dropped by such hits as "Newhart" and "Crazy Like a Fox." After her one-and-done "The Golden Girls" performance, Freeman kept booking work in movies and television – and video games as well. Freeman has been a particular favorite of Pixar, which has cast her in such games as "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command," "Monsters, Inc.: The Video Game," and "The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer." Her most recent live-action appearance was in the Apple+ drama series "Little America" in 2022.

In the season 4 episode of "The Golden Girls" titled "Scared Straight," Blanche's brother Clayton comes to visit after getting divorced. While he tells Rose in confidence that he's gay, he doesn't feel comfortable opening up to his sister. This leads to a series of misunderstandings (most amusingly that Clayton has slept with Rose), which, for a 1988 episode of network television, is surprisingly deft (and quite funny) in its portrayal of a closeted gay man.

Markham returned for the season 6 episode "Sister of the Bride," but that was it for Clayton, who went back to his immensely successful career of being a journeyman character actor — which he'd been since making his TV debut on a 1966 episode of "Mission: Impossible." Prior to playing Clayton, you could name a 1970s show and it's very possible Markham appeared on it. He dropped by such hit series as "Hogan's Heroes," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," and "Hawaii Five-O," and landed small roles in big-ticket movies like "Midway" and "Airport '77." After "The Golden Girls," Markham has been on series as diverse as "Melrose Place," "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," and "Leverage." He's also kept busy in the film world, and is set to star in the forthcoming sci-fi flick "Space Samurai: Oasis."

While Dorothy loved both of her children, they certainly made it rough on her whenever their activities were deemed episode-worthy. A struggling musician, Dorothy's son Michael Zbornak made three appearances and was played by Scott Jacoby each time. By his last appearance, he was separated from his wife and wearing out the patience of both Dorothy and her ex-husband Stan. We never found out what became of Michael after that, but there wasn't much reason to hope he'd straighten his life out.

Jacoby's showbiz career was quite a contrast to Michael's. He was nominated for a Tony Award at the age of 11 for his performance in the Walter Marks musical "Golden Rainbow," and quickly segued to movies where he made a memorably creepy impression in the 1974 ABC TV horror movie "Bad Ronald" (one of /Film's Rob Hunter's Best Horror Movies You've Never Seen). Jacoby also turned in an excellent performance as Peter Van Daan opposite Melissa Gilbert in the NBC TV Movie rendition of "The Diary of Anne Frank," but his career began to lose steam around the time of his "The Golden Girls" appearances. After co-starring in the trashy vampire flicks "To Die For," and "Son of Darkness: To Die For II," he quit acting and, aside from directing the 2001 documentary "Rage: 20 Years of Punk Rock West Coast Style," seems to have moved on from the entertainment industry altogether.

Lynnie Greene snagged the rough task of portraying a young Dorothy Zbornak in four flashback episodes of "The Golden Girls," and it's a testament to her talent to say that she absolutely aced the assignment (while acting opposite a non-aged-up Getty). The biggest surprise here is that her work was never deemed Primetime Emmy worthy, because, as fans of the series will tell you, her every appearance was special.

Greene's acting career was interestingly brief. Her biggest success on television was probably landing a series regular role in the short-lived 1970s sitcom "On Our Own" (which also featured Bess Armstrong and Dixie Carter), but she earned critical acclaim for her New York City stage work as Emma Goldman in the original off-Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's brilliant musical "Assassins"; she also earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for her turn in the Scott Ellis-directed, Susan Stroman-choreographed revival of John Kander and Fred Ebb's "Flora the Red Menace." After "The Golden Girls," she segued to writing and producing, and earned a WGA Award nomination as a member of the writing staff for "Masters of Sex."