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 Bill Macy as Walter Findlay, Maude's fourth husband | ||||
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All in the Family guest appearances |
Maude Goes to Washington, Pt's. 1, 2 & 3 in Season 3 (All in the Family) | |||
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Played by |
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Gender |
Male | |||
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Spouses |
Maude Chadbourne (1968-) | |||
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Relatives |
Carol Traynor (step-daughter) | |||
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Occupation |
Businessman (Owner of Findlay's Friendly Appliances) | |||
Walter Findlay (played by Bill Macy), is the husband of Maude Findlay, the outspoken cousin of Edith Bunker who owned an appliance store called Findlay's Friendly Appliances; he was said to be a Maytag dealer in the first episode. Maude and Walter, who is Maude's fourth husband, met just before the 1968 presidential election. Maude sometimes got in the last word during their many arguments with her hallmark catchphrase, "God'll getcha for that, Walter." Maude's (and subsequently Bea Arthur's) deep, raspy voice was also an occasional comic foil whenever she answered the phone and said "No, this is not Mr. Findlay, this is Mrs. Findlay!" She would punctuate it with a snide and offhand remark about Walter.
Walter appears as a guest character in one three part episode of All in the Family, which would serve as the pilot episode for the new spinoff Maude CBS series the following TV season.
Ironically, his first wife, a gold digging woman named Marta (Carole Cook) was recently married to Maude's uncle Henry. Due to her remarriage to Henry, Walter was spared paying any more alimony to Marta.
Walter was the polar opposite of his wife. While she was brassy and ballsy, Walter was meek and timid. Though at times, Walter was able to put Maude in her place with one well placed "MAUDE! SIT!" That served as his catch phrase, and when he said it, Maude clearly obeyed.
Although he got on well with his stepdaughter, Carol Traynor (Adrienne Barbeau) and was a loving grandfather to her son, Phillip, he kind of feels that they impeded his being alone with Maude.
Despite his attempts at being liberal, Walter could be extremely chauvinistic at times, something Maude would not tolerate. He would also stoop to relentless emotional blackmail to get Maude to behave more like a traditional housewife, such as threatening their marriage when Maude wanted to work outside of the home, or run for state elected office.
Usually those attempts would end up blowing up in his face because the blackmail was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. It only served to encourage Maude.
Walter and Maude's marriage took many hits due to Walter's various medical and business issues, and also his constant attempts to force Maude to forego her own happiness to allow him to have his way. In this way, he would come across like a spoiled brat throwing a temper tantrum.
Walter's best friend is Arthur Harmon (Conrad Bain), whom he had known since they were in the war together. It was Arthur, a doctor, who had introduced Walter to Maude.
During several episodes, Walter's alcoholism was a major factor. His drunken spells ran the gamut from Maude getting hit through Walter getting drunk to try to force Maude to drop a run for State Senate and then realizing that his drinking was imperiling his marriage and faced with Carol threatening to move out of her mother's home and taking Phillip with her, to get him away from Walter's drinking.