Estelle Getty, the diminutive actress who spent 40 years struggling
for success before landing a role of a lifetime in 1985 as the
sarcastic octogenarian Sophia on TV's "The Golden Girls," has died. She
was 84.
Estelle Getty, seen in blue, was known for playing Sophia on the show "Golden Girls."
Getty, who
suffered from advanced dementia, died at about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday at her
Hollywood Boulevard home, said her son, Carl Gettleman of Santa Monica.
"She was loved throughout the world in six continents, and if they
loved sitcoms in Antarctica she would have been loved on seven
continents," her son said. "She was one of the most talented comedic
actresses who ever lived."
"The Golden Girls," featuring four
female retirees sharing a house in Miami, grew out of NBC programming
chief Brandon Tartikoff's belief that television was ignoring its older
viewers.
Three of its stars had already appeared in previous
series: Bea Arthur in "Maude," Betty White in "The Mary Tyler Moore
Show" and Rue McClanahan in "Mama's Family." The last character to be
cast was Sophia Petrillo, the feisty 80-something mother of Arthur's
character.
"Our mother-daughter relationship was one of the greatest comic duos ever, and I will miss her," Arthur said in a statement.
When she auditioned, Getty was appearing on stage in Hollywood as the
carping Jewish mother in Harvey Fierstein's play "Torch Song Trilogy."
In her early 60s, she flunked her "Golden Girls" test twice because it
was believed she didn't look old enough to play 80.
"I could understand that," she told an interviewer a year after the show debuted. "I walk fast, I move fast, I talk fast."
She came prepared for the third audition, however, wearing dowdy
clothes and telling an NBC makeup artist, "To you this is just a job.
To me it's my entire career down the toilet unless you make me look
80." The artist did, Getty got the job and won two Emmys.
"The
only comfort at this moment is that although Estelle has moved on,
Sophia will always be with us," White said in an e-mail to The
Associated Press after Getty's death was announced.
"The Golden
Girls" culminated a long struggle for success during which Getty worked
low-paying office jobs to help support her family while she tried to
make it as a stage actress.
"I knew I could be seduced by success in another field, so I'd say, 'Don't promote me, please,"' she recalled.
She also appeared in small parts in a handful of films and TV movies
during that time, including "Tootsie," "Deadly Force" and "Victims for
Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story."
After her success in "The
Golden Girls," other roles came her way. She played Cher's mother in
"Mask," Sylvester Stallone's in "Stop or My Mom Will Shoot" and Barry
Manilow's in the TV film "Copacabana." Other credits included
"Mannequin" and "Stuart Little" (as the voice of Grandma Estelle).
"The Golden Girls," which ran from 1985 to 1992, was an immediate hit,
and Sophia, who began as a minor character, soon evolved into a major
one.
Audiences particularly loved the verbal zingers Getty would
hurl at the other three. When McClanahan's libidinous character Blanche
once complained that her life was an open book, Sophia shot back, "Your
life's an open blouse."
Getty had gained a knack for one-liners
in her late teens when she did standup comedy at a Catskills hotel.
Female comedians were rare in those days, however, and she bombed.
Undeterred, she continued to pursue a career in entertainment, and
while her parents were encouraging, her father also insisted that she
learn office skills so she would have something to fall back on.
Born Estelle Scher to Polish immigrants in New York, Getty fell in love with theater when she saw a vaudeville show at age 4.
She married New York businessman Arthur Gettleman (the source of her
stage name) in 1947, and they had two sons, Carl and Barry. The
marriage prevailed despite her long absences on the road and in "The
Golden Girls."
Getty was evasive about her height, acknowledging only that she was "under 5 feet and under 100 pounds."
In addition to her son Carl, Getty is survived by son Barry Gettleman,
of Miami; a brother, David Scher of London; and a sister, Rosilyn
Howard of Las Vegas.
From CNN.com ]]>
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