Goodbye Ma.
Estelle Getty (July 25, 1923 - July 22, 2008) was an American actress who appeared in film and television and on stage. She is best known for her long-running role on The Golden Girls, for which she won Emmy and Golden Globe Awards. In her later years, after retiring from acting, she battled Lewy body dementia.
Early life and career
Getty was born Estelle Scher in New York City, the daughter of Sarah and Charles Scher, Polish immigrants who worked in the glass business. Getty got her start in the Yiddish theater and also as a comedian in the Catskills borscht belt resorts, and her most important stage role was playing Harvey Fierstein's mother on Broadway in the play Torch Song Trilogy. She is best known for her role as Sophia Petrillo on the popular 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls. Petrillo was a wise-cracking old Sicilian mother of Dorothy Zbornak, played by Beatrice Arthur (the other main characters being played by Betty White and Rue McClanahan); Getty was only one year younger than Arthur in real life.
Toward the end of her career, she wrote an autobiography, with Steve Delsohn, titled If I Knew Then, What I Know Now... So What? (Contemporary Books, 1988).
Personal life
Getty was married to Arthur Gettleman (from whose name she adapted her stage name) from 1946 until his death in 2004. Getty had two sons: Carl Gettleman, who lives in California, and Barry Gettleman, who lives in Florida.
In 1991, as later reported in Star magazine, Getty helped her 29-year-old nephew Steven Scher, who was suffering from the final stages of AIDS and near death. Because Scher's parents lived in England and his friends no were longer able to care for him in Greensboro, North Carolina, Getty had him flown to California and admitted to hospice care. He died in January 1992.
In 2000, Getty stopped making public appearances after revealing she had Parkinson's disease and osteoporosis. In 2002, media reports claimed she was also suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Doctors later discovered she actually had Lewy body dementia; both the Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diagnoses were incorrect. In 2003, Lifetime television hosted a Golden Girls reunion, but Getty did not appear due to her failing health.
On July 22, 2008, at approximately 5:30 a.m. PDT, Getty died in her Hollywood Boulevard home in Los Angeles from natural causes (according to her manager), three days before her 85th birthday.
Former "Golden Girls" co-star Rue McClanahan told The Associated Press. "Don't feel sad about her passing. She will always be with us in her crowning achievement, Sophia." Bea Arthur said in a statement, "Our mother-daughter relationship was one of the greatest comic duos ever, and I will miss her," while Betty White remarked, "The only comfort at this moment is that although Estelle has moved on, Sophia will always be with us."
Early life and career
Getty was born Estelle Scher in New York City, the daughter of Sarah and Charles Scher, Polish immigrants who worked in the glass business. Getty got her start in the Yiddish theater and also as a comedian in the Catskills borscht belt resorts, and her most important stage role was playing Harvey Fierstein's mother on Broadway in the play Torch Song Trilogy. She is best known for her role as Sophia Petrillo on the popular 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls. Petrillo was a wise-cracking old Sicilian mother of Dorothy Zbornak, played by Beatrice Arthur (the other main characters being played by Betty White and Rue McClanahan); Getty was only one year younger than Arthur in real life.
Toward the end of her career, she wrote an autobiography, with Steve Delsohn, titled If I Knew Then, What I Know Now... So What? (Contemporary Books, 1988).
Personal life
Getty was married to Arthur Gettleman (from whose name she adapted her stage name) from 1946 until his death in 2004. Getty had two sons: Carl Gettleman, who lives in California, and Barry Gettleman, who lives in Florida.
In 1991, as later reported in Star magazine, Getty helped her 29-year-old nephew Steven Scher, who was suffering from the final stages of AIDS and near death. Because Scher's parents lived in England and his friends no were longer able to care for him in Greensboro, North Carolina, Getty had him flown to California and admitted to hospice care. He died in January 1992.
In 2000, Getty stopped making public appearances after revealing she had Parkinson's disease and osteoporosis. In 2002, media reports claimed she was also suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Doctors later discovered she actually had Lewy body dementia; both the Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diagnoses were incorrect. In 2003, Lifetime television hosted a Golden Girls reunion, but Getty did not appear due to her failing health.
On July 22, 2008, at approximately 5:30 a.m. PDT, Getty died in her Hollywood Boulevard home in Los Angeles from natural causes (according to her manager), three days before her 85th birthday.
Former "Golden Girls" co-star Rue McClanahan told The Associated Press. "Don't feel sad about her passing. She will always be with us in her crowning achievement, Sophia." Bea Arthur said in a statement, "Our mother-daughter relationship was one of the greatest comic duos ever, and I will miss her," while Betty White remarked, "The only comfort at this moment is that although Estelle has moved on, Sophia will always be with us."