Estelle Getty

Estelle Getty, born Estelle Scher on July 25, 1923, in New York City, was an American actress and comedian who built a career spanning decades in theater, television, and film before her death on July 22, 2008. She was born to Charles Scher and Sarah Scher, Jewish immigrants from Poland, at the family's apartment at 257 East 2nd Street on the Lower East Side, where the family also operated a glass installation business. She grew up alongside a sister, Rosilyn, and a brother, Samuel. As a child she was called Etty, a nickname that originated from her sister's difficulty pronouncing her given name. Weekly Friday night outings with her father to the Academy of Music on 14th Street, where the family watched films and live vaudeville performances, sparked her desire to pursue acting. She graduated from Seward Park High School and, despite her father's skepticism about her prospects, continued to pursue performance while working as a secretary to support herself financially during auditions.

Getty spent years working in the New York theater circuit while simultaneously holding employment and raising two sons, Carl and Barry, with her husband Arthur Gettleman, whom she married on December 21, 1947. Her stage name derived from her husband's surname. The couple lived in the Bronx after their marriage before relocating to Oakland Gardens, Queens, where they resided in Bell Park Gardens, a cooperative community built for Jewish veterans of World War II. Arthur Gettleman worked alongside his father-in-law in the glass installation trade during this period.

Getty's Broadway breakthrough came in 1982, when she was cast as Mrs. Beckoff in Torch Song Trilogy, a role that playwright Harvey Fierstein had written with her specifically in mind. She was nearing sixty years old at the time. Her performance earned her a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play, and she continued in the production through 1984, reprising the role across both Broadway and off-Broadway stagings. The role proved pivotal beyond the stage: in 1985, her work in Torch Song Trilogy directly influenced Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions to cast her as Sophia Petrillo on NBC's The Golden Girls.

To portray Sophia, a woman in her eighties, Getty relied on wigs, heavy makeup, and costuming to age her appearance, despite being, in reality, one year younger than her television daughter Bea Arthur, who played Dorothy Zbornak. The Golden Girls ran from 1985 to 1992, with six of its seven seasons ranking in the Nielsen ratings top ten. For her work on the series, Getty won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1988 and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Series Musical or Comedy. She reprised the role of Sophia Petrillo in the spin-off The Golden Palace during its single season from 1992 to 1993, and the character also appeared in the television series Empty Nest, Nurses, and Blossom during overlapping years.

Her film credits included Tootsie in 1982, Mask in 1985, in which she played the grandmother of Roy L. Dennis, Mannequin in 1987, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot in 1992, and Stuart Little in 1999, which served as her final film role. Her television work beyond The Golden Girls and its related productions included appearances on Fantasy Island, Cagney and Lacey, Newhart, Touched by an Angel, Mad About You, and The Nanny. During her years on The Golden Girls, Getty also authored an autobiography, If I Knew Then, What I Know Now... So What?, written with Steve Delsohn and published by Contemporary Books in 1988. She released an exercise video for senior citizens in 1993.

Getty was known among friends, including Harvey Fierstein and Rosie O'Donnell, for her involvement in HIV/AIDS activism. She cared for her nephew Steven Scher, who died of AIDS-related illness in 1992, and also lost her Torch Song Trilogy co-star Court Miller to the disease in 1986. Arthur Gettleman died on September 24, 2004, at the age of 85, having remained married to Getty until his death. Getty retired from acting in 2001 due to declining health. She had begun showing signs of dementia during the filming of The Golden Girls, struggling to recall lines despite more than three decades of theater experience, and in later seasons of the show required cue cards. She also suffered from osteoporosis, and a diagnosis initially considered to be Parkinson's disease was ultimately revised to dementia with Lewy bodies. Getty died at her home in Los Angeles on July 22, 2008, at the age of 84, and was buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, her headstone inscribed with the words "With Love and Laughter" and marked with a Star of David.