Bea Arthur in the unsuccessful 1974 film version opposite Lucille Ball. In 1981, she appeared in Woody Allen's "The Floating Light Bulb". She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1994 portraying the Duchess of Krakenthorp, a speaking role, in Gaetano Donizetti's "La fille du régiment". In 1971, Arthur was invited by Norman Lear to guest-star on his sitcom "All in the Family", as Maude Findlay, the cousin of Edith Bunker. An outspoken liberal feminist, Maude was the antithesis role to the conservative Republican character Archie Bunker, who described her as a "New Deal fanatic". Nearly 50, Arthur's tart turn on
Tony Connor Tony Connor John Anthony Connor (born 1930) is an English poet and playwright. Tony Connor was born in Manchester, England. After leaving school at 14, he served in the Royal Army as a tank gunner, and worked as a textile designer between 1944 and 1960, and in radio and television in Manchester in the 1960s. He was a founder member of The Peterloo Group. He earned an MA at the University of Manchester in 1967 and in 1968 visiting writer at Amherst College in Massachusetts. From 1971 until he retired in 1999 Connor was professor of English at Wesleyan University