BILL MACY, who played Bea Arthur’s husband Walter Findlay on the “All in the Family” spinoff, “Maude,” died on Thursday. He was 97.

Macy was born in Revere, Massachusetts, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York He worked as a taxi driver for a decade before scoring a Broadway gig in 1958 as Walter Matthau’s understudy in “Once More, With Feeling.” In 1966, he played a cab driver on the soap opera “The Edge of Night,” and met his wife, Samantha Harper Macy, on the set of the 1969 Off Broadway play “Oh! Calcutta!”

Sitcom creator Norman Lear saw his comedic skills Off Broadway and brought him to Hollywood, where Macy first earned a small part as a police officer in “All in the Family” and then landed the role of Findlay on “Maude,” which ran for six seasons from 1972 to 1978.

Macy made other television appearances in “Seinfeld,” “St. Elsewhere,” “The Facts of Life,” “NYPD Blue” and “My Name Is Earl.” His other film credits include “Serial,” “Movers & Shakers” and “Surviving Christmas.” The actor is survived by his wife. (SD-Agencies)