Bill Macy, a Memorable Sitcom Foil on 'Maude,' Dies at 97 [View all]
Source: New York Times
Bill Macy, an actor best known for his role as Walter Findlay, Bea Arthur’s harried husband, on the popular 1970s sitcom “Maude,” died on Thursday night at his home in Los Angeles. He was 97. The death was confirmed by his wife, Samantha Harper Macy.
Mr. Macy’s acting career took off after he turned 40 and peaked with his role on “Maude.” He played Walter for the show’s entire run, from 1972 to 1978. “Maude” pushed sitcom boundaries. Its lead character was an outspoken middle-aged feminist whose atypical household consisted of her husband, her daughter from an earlier marriage and the daughter’s son. The show, seen on CBS, addressed complex social issues like abortion, alcoholism and racial and sexual relations. Some episodes generated thousands of complaints. “We took very serious things,” Mr. Macy said in a phone interview for this obituary in 2010. “We didn’t lampoon them, we lived them.”
Mr. Macy’s blue-collar background — he grew up in Brooklyn and had driven a taxi — made him a good fit for the character of Walter, the owner of a struggling appliance store who had some memorable clashes with Maude, an idealistic liberal firebrand. More often than not, Maude had the last word. Fans were sometimes taken aback by Walter’s subordinate position. “People come up to you in the street and say, ‘How can you take that stuff from her?’” Mr. Macy said.
The show began as a spinoff of the pioneering producer Norman Lear’s breakthrough hit series “All in the Family,” in which Ms. Arthur appeared occasionally as a cousin of Edith Bunker’s who stood up to Edith’s bigoted husband, Archie.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/18/arts/television/bill-macy-dead.html
Wow. Didn't realize he was 97 and still around! That was a great show - one of the few "spin offs" of a popular show that itself became successful.
R.I.P.
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