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Dennis Donovan

(18,770 posts)
Mon Nov 2, 2020, 11:19 PM Nov 2020

Carol Arthur, Actress in 'Blazing Saddles' and Wife of Dom DeLuise, Dies at 85

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/carol-arthur-actress-in-blazing-saddles-and-wife-of-dom-deluise-dies-at-85


Carol Arthur

She appeared in four Mel Brooks films in all and on Broadway with Dick Van Dyke and Lauren Bacall.

Carol Arthur, the actor who appeared in Blazing Saddles and three other Mel Brooks films and on Broadway opposite Dick Van Dyke and Lauren Bacall and widow of comedian Dom DeLuise, has died. She was 85.

Arthur died Sunday at the Mary Pickford House at the Motion Picture & Television Fund home in Woodland Hills after an 11-year battle with Alzheimer's disease, her family announced. She had lived there since 2015.

Arthur is probably best remembered for her turn as Rock Ridge schoolmarm Harriett Van Johnson in Brooks' Blazing Saddles (1974). In one scene at a town council meeting, she takes the stage to read a letter she has written to the governor expressing displeasure with his choice of sheriff (Cleavon Little).

"The fact that you have sent him here just goes to prove that you are the leading asshole in the state!" she says to much applause.

Arthur also appeared for Brooks in Silent Movie (1976), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) — her husband was in those two movies as well — and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995).

-/snip-


Carol Arthur as Harriet Johnson in Blazing Saddles:



Cross gently, Carol.
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