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Betty White as Rose Nylund
"It's like we say in St. Olaf, Christmas without fruitcake is like St. Sigmund's Day without the headless boy."

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Charles "Charlie" Nylund, Sr. 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[]

Charlie was born in 1929, one year before his future wife, Rose Lindstrom, into a family who owned a successful grout company. In 1937, 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. After returning from the war, Charlie and Rose 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. Rose later learned that the Nylunds' hostility was due to a feud between the Nyluds and her mother's family, the Gorkleknabygens.[2] In 1948, Rose and Charlie were married in St. Olaf Church, and later had six children together.

Though Charlie always wanted to be, and was, an insurance salesman 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.  

In 1980, Charlie had a heart attack while making love with Rose, and after dressing him in a blue flannel shirt and striped tie, he died at the age of 51, after 32 years of marriage. Around than a year after his death, Rose sold their house and moved to Miami, where she would live in an apartment for 3 years, before being evicted by her senile landlord, due to her new cat, Mr. Peepers.  Due to these events, Rose Nylund met Blanche Devereaux at the supermarket, and moved into her house, where she spent the next 7 years, before Dorothy Zbornak moved out, and she, Blanche, and Sophia Petrillo purchased the Golden Palace Hotel, where they would remain for several years later.

Relationships[]

To be added.

Appearances[]

To be added.

Trivia[]

  • Betty White said in an interview that it was sometimes difficult to do a scene that involved the characters late husband, Charlie because she always had to think of her real-life late husband Allen Ludden, during those scenes.
  • Charlie is the only late and/or divorced husband whose never made an appearance while Dorothy, Blanche, and Sophia's former husbands made an appearance.
  • 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.

Site Navigation[]

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References[]

  1. The Golden Girls, Season 1, Episode 14, "That Was No Lady". Sage, Liz (writer) & Drake, Jim (director) (December 21st, 1985)
  2. The Golden Girls, Season 2, Episode 18, “Forgive Me, Father”. Speer, Kathy and Grossman, Terry (writers) & Hughes, Terry (director) (February 14th, 1987)
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