If Bea Arthur were reincarnated as a plant, she'd come back as a California cactus: tough on the outside, but soft and sweet on the inside.

In The Golden Girls tv series, Arthur plays Dorothy, the sharp-tongued but caring daughter who has invited her aging mother Sophia (Estelle Getty) into the home she shares with Blanche and Rose (Rue McClanahan and Betty White). In real life, Arthur cared for her widowed mother Bea Frankel at Arthur's five-acre Brentwood estate for ten years until her mother's death this year at age 84.

Frankel had moved to California to be closer to her daughter. "At that time she was thriving well," says Arthur. "She was living in her own apartment and was terribly independent." But Frankel developed a disease that causes degenerative blindness and could no longer care for herself.

The mother/daughter relationship on The Golden Girls seemed very real to Arthur in one particular episode. "There's a segment in which I have an affair with a married man," Arthur explains. "And Sophia tells me how upset she is with me. And it's like I'm 17 and she's 35 when she says, 'You kids get to be middle-aged and you think you know everything. I raised you to have some respect for yourself, not to be somebody's floozie!' I cried. I cry every time she talks to me. I can't describe it--I felt as though I was a 17-year-old!"

It's episodes like that, Arthur says, that keep the show "ageless," despite the mature years of its four lead characters. "Age has absolutely nothing to do with our themes, We reflect the way people interact at any age. They keep throwing the word demographics around. I don't even know what it means!"

Arthur initially had her doubts about the show, which in its original form reminded her too much of her old hit series Maude. When Arthur read the pilot script for The Golden Girls, she said to her agent, "My God! It's 'Maude and Vivian meet Betty White!'"

But, she says, her agent insisted it was time Arthur got out of the house and shared the caring for her mother with nurses. "And I knew he was right," says Arthur. "But I cannot believe what has happened with this show! They're telling us it's a hit! And for the first time we're seeing three older women who look good, dress well, live well and are bright. They're not pushing wheelchairs. And they're not playing crazed matriarchs of horrible families."

In an abrupt change of pace, Arthur suddenly reaches over and tenderly pats the soil in a potted plant on the lunch table. She explains, "I worry about little plants having enough water. And I worry about animals. No one should ever wear a fur coat! No one should ever wear the skin of a trapped and tortured animal.

"I'm into children and animals," says Arthur, who has two sons and three dogs.

She was born Bernice Frankel, one of three daughters of Rebecca and Philip Frankel in Cambridge, MD, where her parents owned a department store. "I did away with the name Bernice very early on," she says. "I really hated it. Everyone called my mother Bea, so I took it." The name Arthur is from her short-lived first marriage. Her second marriage, in 1950 to producer/director Gene Saks, lasted 28 years. (The character Dorothy is also divorced.)

Arthur had some strange occupations before her acting career blossomed, including that of lab technician. "I loathed it," she says. "I interned at a Maryland hospital for a summer, running urine tests and taking blood. I only did it because I was dating midshipmen at Annapolis."

But her strangest job was as blues singer/drink spitter! "I got a job singing in this terrible place in Greenwich Village called the 19th Hole, long gone, where paid to sit and make guys buy drinks.

"We would always order a shot of whisky and a Coke for ourselves. I'd put the whisky in my mouth and spit it out into the glass of Coke. I thought it was strange at first. At to make it all legal, I'd sing onstage. I would do something like 'I'm Confessing That I Love You' with this horrible pianist, and then I'd sit down with three Norwegian sailors, who spoke not one word of English, and I'd spit into drinks. And I thought, "This is not the way to build a career! So I left."

Arthur says she has always identified with petite Ida Lupino, despite the fact that Arthur at age 12 was five feet nine and one half inches--her present height. "Ida Lupino was blond and cute and could play the piano and sing in bars. And she always got involved with the wrong guy. Oh, I loved her!"

Arthur is svelte now, though just as tall. She explains, "I'd always been heavy and I'd been doing a lot of eating to do 'Maude'. But after the show ended we went to France, and for three weeks I ate at all the four-star restaurants! We came back, and I looked at myself in the mirror and I immediately went to see the doctor. He took a look and said, "I think the time has come." Dieting was in order.

But, Arthur advises, "Don't count calories! And you may quote me! Counting calories means all you do is reward yourself. You spend the whole day thinking about how many you've had or how many you can have at the other end. I never counted calories."

What she did, upon her doctor's orders, was start eating breakfast. "It was a real struggle," says Arthur. "I used to have only black coffee and cigarettes." Breakfast would gag her, she claims. "But the doctor made me have a piece of fruit and a slice of toast, and maybe a glass of milk. I found that I ate less later on in the day, once I managed to keep it down!" Arthur lost 30 pounds over a year's time.

The Golden Girls has done something for Arthur personally. She explains: "It has taken me 13 years to get over my shyness and appear on the Carson show. Just recently, I did the show with Joan Rivers. I grabbed her before we went on and said, Please be nice. Please make me comfortable. Don't put your finger down your throat, please. Don't talk about who I'm sleeping with. Just be nice.' Joan is actually a very kind person, and I couldn't believe it, but I got out there and I was fine! And I don't know whether it's the success of Golden Girls, but I suddenly felt I didn't have to prove myself or be witty. I sat there and was perfectly relaxed. Never happened before. I'm going to go back now!"

Arthur won a Tony Award in 1966 for her performance as Vera Charles in Mame. But Arthur's Emmy for Maude, which was on the air from 1972-78, was a long time coming. "The first year (when she didn't win) I was shocked," says Arthur. "Not only did I assume I was going to be nominated, I also assumed I was going to win. One year (producer) Norman Lear wrote my acceptance speech and took me to the ceremony. And I still didn't win!" But finally, the last year, she did win an Emmy.

Arthur's sons--Matt, 24 and Dan, 21--are following in their mother's footsteps onto the stage. "They're absolutely terrific!" she says. "Dan is in his senior year at Sarah Lawrence. He's a brilliant scenic designer. And Matt just graduated from the Neighborhood Playhouse (in Manhattan), lives in New York and he's going to try and make it as an actor there. They're both delicious!"

Delicious, but very different despite their mutual interest in theatre. "You can't believe they were raised the same way. One is interested in motorcycles and trucks, the other one paints. One is an introvert, the other is not. Diametrically opposite."

Arthur got her own acting start in the '40s by struggling through drama school in New York, playing classics. She then tried to make it as a singer and started in television by getting what are called "under five" parts (under five lines) working with Sid Caesar. "He's my idol," Arthur says. "Sid Caesar taught me the outrageous." Two other people strongly influenced her career: "Lee Strasberg (the leading teacher of "method" acting) taught me what I call reality, and Lotta Lenya (who starred in "Three Penny Opera" in which Arthur had a small part), with whom I worked and whom I adored, taught me economy."