Posted on 07/22/2008 10:46:40 AM PDT by jmc813
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. 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.
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One of the few prime times shows that I could watch when they aired and not be embarassed when the syndicated reruns were on during the dinner hour.
bttt
I didn’t realize that this was posted already, so I posted another thread.
RIP Estelle. Sophia was my favorite character on Golden Girls.
Now that peasant girl was me, and that painter was.... Pablo Picasso!
this is the way, we wash the gun....
Golden Girls was one of my widowed Dad’s favorite shows.Any mention I hear of it brings a smile and some sadness to me.
In related news, Blanche is up to 5,000 notches on her bed post.
You had to love how the Sophia character would always diss the Blanche character for being such a slut!
I was never that fond of the show but my daughter loved to watch reruns when she was a preteen. Maybe Tartikoff had the target audience all wrong!
RIP- she will be missed. She brought big-time laughter to the American people.
That was so wrong. RIP.
bttt
RIP Estelle
I have a friend who looks very much like Estelle. Tiny lady who even walks like Sophia did on the show. Loved that show.
That was my take on it too, she was a good actress but the show had way too many lib type themes and if I'm not mistaken, Bea Arthur was a genuine moonbat liberal.
Not only was it a liberal show, the sex theme throughout each episode certainly turned my elderly parents off. They refused to watch it.
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