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The Golden Girls article
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"It's like we say in St. Olaf, Christmas without fruitcake is like St. Sigmund's Day without the headless boy." This article is incomplete. You can help the Golden Girls Wiki by expanding it. |
Charles Nylund, Sr., often referred to by his nickname Charlie, is a major unseen character in The Golden Girls. He is the late husband of Rose Nylund, and the father of their five children. Having met Rose when they were children and marrying her soon after they became adults, Charlie became an insurance salesman and lived with Rose in St. Olaf. After around twenty years of marriage, Charlie died from a heart attack whilst he and Rose were making love.
Biography[]
Childhood[]
Charlie was born in St. Olaf, Minnesota in 1929, one year before his future wife, Rose,[1] into a family who owned a successful grout company in town. His family had a long-standing feud with the Gorkleknabygens for an unknown reason.[2]
In 1937, the eight year-old Charlie set up an insurance booth on the street corner. That day, he met Rose Lindstrom while he was selling insurance on the street corner. One day while Rose was hauling home a smoked ham, a group of hogs were set off and trampled her wagon. Though Rose's policy didn't cover acts of swine, Charlie paid for the replacement wagon himself. Though it was love at first sight, and he proposed marriage, Rose was told to wait by her mother Alma.[1]
Charlie later went off to fight in World War II, being placed in the 82nd Airborne Unit from Fort Bragg to Nottingham.[3] After returning home in 1946, Charlie proposed to Rose and they became engaged. Upon learning of this, Charlie's family threatened to cut him out of the family fortune, but Charlie refused to bend to their will, saying he loved Rose more than grout.[2]
Rose and Charlie were married on February 12th, 1948, in St. Olaf Church. After the wedding, per St. Olaf tradition, they got into a car with dead fish tied to the back and drove until they could no longer stand the smell. The house they stopped in front of became their marital home.[4] Charlie was very patient with Rose on their wedding night.[5]
Married life[]
Though Charlie always wanted to be an insurance salesman and was for some time, he was eventually fired for giving up too often. He was then employed with an iron company, where he specialized in making horseshoes. He could never pass a horse without saying "Can I show you something in an Oxford?" causing him and Rose to laugh. According to Rose, sometimes even the horse would laugh.
In 1979, at the age of 50, Charlie took a business trip from St. Olaf to Miami. Due to Blanche taking pictures with double-exposed film in Charlie's old camera, Rose believed that Charlie and Blanche had an affair.
Death[]
Charlie unexpectedly passed away in 1980, suffering from a heart attack while he and Rose were making love.[6] As he had his heart attack, he asked Rose to dress him so he wouldn't be naked when the paramedics arrived. Rose was able to dress him despite a brief argument about her dressing him in white, and just before Charlie died, he told her he loved her.[7]
Legacy[]
Due to the circumstances of Charlie's death, Rose spent the next handful of years abstaining from sexual intimacy out of fear that the next man she slept with would die like Charlie did.[6] She eventually gets over this fear in Rose The Prude, where she has sex with her boyfriend, Arnie, during a trip to the Bahamas. Arnie is never seen after this episode, but he is mentioned in In A Bed Of Roses.
Relationships[]
Rose Nylund[]
To be added.
Appearances[]
The Golden Girls (1985 - 1992)[]
Season 1
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| 1. "The Engagement": | Mentioned | 13. "A Little Romance": | Absent | ||
| 2. "Guess Who's Coming to the Wedding": | Absent | 14. "That Was No Lady": | Mentioned | ||
| 3. "Rose the Prude": | Mentioned | 15. "In a Bed of Rose's": | Mentioned | ||
| 4. "Transplant": | Absent | 16."The Truth Will Out": | Mentioned | ||
| 5. "The Triangle": | Absent | 17. "Nice and Easy": | Absent | ||
| 6. "On Golden Girls": | Absent | 18. "The Operation": | Absent | ||
| 7. "The Competition": | Absent | 19. "Second Motherhood": | Absent | ||
| 8. "Break-In": | Mentioned | 20. "Adult Education": | Absent | ||
| 9. "Blanche and the Younger Man": | Absent | 21. "The Flu": | Absent | ||
| 10. "The Heart Attack": | Mentioned | 22. "Job Hunting": | Absent | ||
| 11. "The Return of Dorothy's Ex": | Mentioned | 23. "Blind Ambitions": | Absent | ||
| 12. "The Custody Battle": | Absent | 24. "Big Daddy": | Absent | ||
| 25. "The Way We Met": | Mentioned | ||||
Season 2
| |||||
| 1. "End of the Curse": | Absent | 14. "The Actor": | Absent | ||
| 2. "Ladies of the Evening": | Absent | 15. "Before and After": | Absent | ||
| 3. "Take Him, He's Mine": | Absent | 16."And Then There Was One": | Absent | ||
| 4. "It's a Miserable Life": | Absent | 17. "Bedtime Story": | Absent | ||
| 5. "Isn't It Romantic": | Absent | 18. "Forgive Me, Father": | Absent | ||
| 6. "Big Daddy's Little Lady": | Absent | 19. "Long Day's Journey into Marinara": | Absent | ||
| 7. "Family Affair": | Absent | 20. "Whose Face is This, Anyway?": | Absent | ||
| 8. "Vacation": | Absent | 21. "Dorothy's Prized Pupil": | Absent | ||
| 9. "Joust Between Friends": | Absent | 22. "Diamond in the Rough": | Mentioned | ||
| 10. "Love, Rose": | Absent | 23. "Son-in-Law Dearest": | Absent | ||
| 11. "'Twas The Nightmare Before Christmas": | Absent | 24. "To Catch a Neighbor": | Absent | ||
| 12. "The Sisters": | Absent | 25. "A Piece of Cake": | Absent | ||
| 13. "The Stan Who Came to Dinner": | Absent | 26. "Empty Nests": | Absent | ||
Trivia[]
- In an interview, Betty White said that it was sometimes difficult to do a scene that involved Charlie because she always had to think of her late husband, Allen Ludden.
- Charlie is the only late and/or divorced husband whose never made an appearance in the show.
- According to Rose, Charlie was said to have been so well-endowed he'd have made a bull jealous, which shocked both Blanche and Dorothy to point the former wanted to learn more details.[5]
[]
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References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Golden Girls, Season 1, Episode 14, "That Was No Lady". Sage, Liz (writer) & Drake, Jim (director) (December 21st, 1985)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Golden Girls, Season 2, Episode 18, “Forgive Me, Father”. Speer, Kathy and Grossman, Terry (writers) & Hughes, Terry (director) (February 14th, 1987)
- ↑ The Golden Girls, Season 3, Episode 12, “Charlie's Buddy”. Speer, Kathy and Grossman, Terry (writers) & Hughes, Terry (director) (December 12th, 1987)
- ↑ The Golden Girls, Season 6, Episode 17, “There Goes The Bride, Part 2”. Parent, Gail and Vallely, Jim (writers) & Diamond, Matthew (director) (February 9th, 1991)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Golden Girls, Season 1, Episode 22, "Job Hunting". Speer, Kathy and Grossman, Terry (writers) & Bogart, Paul (director) (March 8th, 1986)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 The Golden Girls, Season 1, Episode 3, "Rose the Prude". Fanaro, Barry and Nathan, Mort (writers) & Drake, Jim (director) (September 28th, 1985)
- ↑ The Golden Girls, Season 1, Episode 10, "The Heart Attack". Harris, Susan (writer) & Drake, Jim (director) (November 23rd, 1985)