Rose Nylund - Fictional Biography

Fictional Biography

Rose was born in May 1930 and her biological parents were a monk named Brother Martin and an 19-year-old girl named Ingrid Kerklavoner, who died giving birth to Rose. Brother Martin claimed to have not known about Rose's existence until after she had been given up for adoption. During that same episode, Rose explains that she was adopted by the Lindstroms at an early age after she was left on a doorstep in a basket with some hickory-smoked cheese and some crackers. It was stated that she was valedictorian in her high school graduation (fourth out of nineteen, and was chosen valedictorian because she drew the longest straw), she attended St. Paul Business School, Rockport Community College, and St. Gustaf University, but also that she had never graduated from high school (due to a case of mono). Nevertheless, she was voted "most likely to get stuck in a tuba" by one of her graduating classes. Her parents did not allow her to date until she was a high school senior, and between then and her wedding day, she had fifty-six boyfriends. Charlie Nylund and Rose fell in love and married in 1948. She and Charlie had a very active sex life--to the extent that she didn't even know there was a show named I Love Lucy--and a long and happy marriage. Over the course of the series, Rose names five children: Brigit, Gunilla, Kirsten, Adam, and Charlie Jr. Rose also had two granddaughters by Kirsten - Charlie (named for Kirsten's father) and another unnamed, mentioned in the episode where Rose had her heart attack. Of her children, only Brigit and Kirsten appeared on the show (although Kirsten was played by two different actresses).

Rose lost Charlie when he had a heart attack while he and Rose were making love and this gave Rose a fear of sexual intimacy for several years thereafter. Years later, another boyfriend of Rose's died in a similar fashion. Charlie and Rose's marriage length is unclear. However, they met when (she was seven and he was eight) Charlie sold Rose an insurance policy on her red wagon, which was eventually trampled by a group of hogs (her policy did not cover acts of swine - but Charlie paid for a new wagon anyway). Although it was mentioned in the 1985 pilot episode that Charlie had been dead for 15 years, in the first season episode "Job Hunting", Rose says that she had been a housewife for 32 years when Charlie died in 1980. In the late-first season episode "Job Hunting," Dorothy states that Rose is 55 years old in 1985, which would put her birth year in 1930. This makes her 55 when the series begins and 62 when the final season of The Golden Palace goes off the air in 1993.

Charlie is the only spouse of the four women on The Golden Girls the audience never sees. Even with Blanche, we see her late husband George in a dream, and in an episode where George's brother comes to visit and looks exactly like George. We see Sal Petrillo in Sophia's Brooklyn flashbacks, and Stan Zbornak is always hanging around. But we never get a glimpse of Rose's Charlie leaving him the most mysterious of the Golden Girls husbands. In an episode of The Golden Palace, a man said to bear an incredibly strong resemblance to Charlie makes an appearance, in which the look-alike is played by Eddie Albert.

Rose was laid off from her job at the grief counseling center in 1986, and briefly worked as a waitress at the Fountain Roc Coffee Shop (most likely created by combining names from the famous Miami Beach hotels Fountainbleu and Eden Roc) before being rehired at the counseling center shortly after. Later on in the series, Rose suffers financial difficulties when her late husband's employer files for bankruptcy and her pension is cut off. She suffers from age discrimination in her attempts to get a new job, but her luck changes when she gets a position as assistant to TV consumer reporter Enrique Más. Rose finally finds a significant romance with college professor Miles Webber, though their relationship is put through a serious strain when it is revealed that Miles is actually a former mobster accountant named Nicholas Carbone, and a participant in the witness protection program. His former employer, "The Cheese Man," begins dating Rose in order to get information on Miles's whereabouts. Eventually The Cheese Man is apprehended, Rose and Miles resume their lives together, and all goes well for the next year or so. In season 7, Rose and Miles consider marriage, but ultimately decide against rushing into anything. Their relationship later ends permanently during an episode of the spin-off show The Golden Palace when Rose discovers that Miles loves and subsequently marries another woman.