Though she was known to level her enemies with just one withering look, it just so happens that Bea Arthur’s laughter was just as lethal. This is according to Betty White, who spent years laughing with Arthur while the two starred on The Golden Girls.

Let it be known upfront that White didn’t suffer laughter during a scene lightly, as she explained in her memoir, Betty White: In Person.

“Breakups onstage, or in the studio, are devastating…to the person involved…as well as everyone else onstage at the time,” wrote the actor. “The more prone a person is to this sort of thing, the tighter rein he must hold on himself…The problem is, you never know when something is going to happen that will set you off…the harder you try to shape up, the funnier everything gets.”

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However, White noted that her co-star, though talented, was guilty of such breaking. “The least likely person in the world, with all her wonderful professionalism, I have seen turn into a mess before my very eyes….my tall friend Beatrice Arthur,” wrote White.

White acknowledged that Arthur breaking during a scene was a rarity, and stated that it had happened “three or four times in the past two seasons.”

“You know you are in trouble when you throw Bea a cue and get no answer,” wrote the actor. “You turn and find that she is beet red, with tears streaming down her face.”

The issue wasn’t simply Arthur’s laughter; it was the fact that it was contagious. Once Arthur began to laugh, her co-stars quickly joined in.

“Of course, it is contagious and spreads like wildfire through the cast,” said White. “We finally pull ourselves together to go on with the scene.”