By now, you’ve probably heard the sad news of Estelle Getty’s passing. Naturally, as a fan of her work on The Golden Girls, I feel like it’s necessary to do a brief retrospective of her life.
Getty was born in 1923 to Polish immigrants. She knocked around the theatre scene for a while, but didn’t gain national recognition until she was in her 60s.
Of course, she was best known for her role as Sophia Petrillo on the always-funny The Golden Girls. Her sharp wit showed and she really made the character her own. Interestingly, Getty had to come back for several auditions before she got the role. Even though she played the oldest character on the show, she was the second youngest of the four stars.
In recent years, she kept a private life, due in part to her battles with Lewy body dementia (originally misdiagnosed as both Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s). She died just three days short of her 85th birthday.
This Friday, Lifetime will air ten episodes of The Golden Girls in a “Best of Sophia” marathon. Guess where I’ll be on Friday?
And now:
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