Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Categories: 1923 births | American actors | Cinema actors | People from New York | Television actors
Estelle Getty
Getty as Sophia on The Golden Girls
Estelle Getty (born Estelle Scher on July 25, 1923) is an American actress best known for her role as Sophia Petrillo on the popular 1980s sitcom, The Golden Girls. In it, she played the wise-cracking old Italian mother of Dorothy, who was the show's main protagonist, played by Bea Arthur. One of the most ironic things about casting Getty in this role was that she is actually two months younger than Bea Arthur: on Golden Girls, Getty was heavily made-up to seem significantly older.
In 2000, she stopped making public appearances after she revealed that she has Parkinson's disease. In 2002, it was revealed to the media that she is also suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
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