AP, reporting on Estell Getty's death writes in a beautiful way saying that "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 (July 25, 1923 – July 22, 2008) was an Emmy- and Golden Globe Award-winning actress (theatre and screen). In her later years, she retired from acting and was battling Lewy Body dementia.

Estelle Getty was born Estelle Scher in New York City, New York, the daughter of Sarah and Charles Scher, who worked in the glass business. Getty got her start in the Yiddish theater, and her most important early role was playing Harvey Fierstein's mother on Broadway in the play Torch Song Trilogy. However, she is best known for her role as Sophia Petrillo on the popular 1980s sitcom, The Golden Girls. In it, she played the wise-cracking old Sicilian mother of Dorothy Zbornak, who was the show's main protagonist, played by Beatrice Arthur. Getty was actually one year younger than Arthur.

She wrote her autobiography, with Steve Delsohn, titled If I Knew Then, What I Know Now. . . So What? (Contemporary Books, 1988).[2]

Personal life of Estelle Getty

Getty was married to Arthur Gettleman (from whose name she adapted her stage name) from 1946 until his death in 2004. Getty had two grown sons: Carl Gettleman, who lives in California, and Barry Gettleman, who lives in Florida.

In 1991, Getty helped her nephew, Steven Scher (age 29), who was in the final stages of AIDS and near death. With Steve's parents living in England and his friends no longer able to care for him in Greensboro, North Carolina, Estelle had Steve flown out to California where she admitted him to hospice care. Steve died in January 1992. An extensive account of her act of charity was published in STAR Magazine.[citation needed]

In 2000, she stopped making public appearances after revealing that she had Parkinson's Disease and osteoporosis. In 2002, it was revealed to the media that she was also suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. It was later discovered that she actually had Lewy Body Dementia, and both the Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diagnoses were incorrect. In 2003, there was a Golden Girls reunion hosted on the Lifetime television network, but Getty did not appear in it due to her failing health.

On July 22, 2008 at approximately 5:30 PDT, Estelle Getty died in her Hollywood Boulevard home in Los Angeles, three days before her 85th birthday.

Source: By Wikipedia