Actress Estelle Getty died 22 July 2008. She was suffering from advanced dementia at the time of her death, according to her son, Carl Gettleman. Born Estelle Scher on 25 July 1923 in New York City, she’ll be remembered for playing Bea Arthur’s mother, Sophia Spirelli Petrillo-Weinstock, on the sitcom The Golden Girls, even though Arthur was more than a year older. She was the only one of the four leads who hadn’t previously been on a sitcom (Arthur came from Maude, Rue McClanahan from Mama’s Family, and Betty White from The Mary Tyler Moore Show). Arthur issued a statement saying “Our mother-daughter relationship was one of the greatest comic duos ever, and I will miss her.”
Getty began her career as a comedian on the borscht belt when she as a teenager, but took a break to raise a family. In the 1980s, she was appearing as Harvey Fierstein’s mother in Torch Song Trilogy during its Los Angeles tour when she was cast in The Golden Girls.
Her genre appearances include: Stuart Little (1999), Touched by an Angel (1996), and Mannequin (1987).
Getty married Arthur Gettleman on 21 December 1947, and together they had two children. He died in 2004. In addition to her son Carl, Getty is survived by her other son, Barry, her brother David Scher, and her sister Rosilyn Howard.