By April MacIntyre Jul 23, 2008, 19:58 GMT
Anyone of a certain age who grew up with the "Golden Girls" on television is mourning the news that the feisty loveable Estelle Getty has died.
Getty was cast as Beatrice Arthur's tact-less, free speaking mother on the TV hit "The Golden Girls," which ran for seven seasons, from 1985 to 1992.
She died just days shy of her 85th birthday at her Los Angeles home, her son Carl Gettleman said in a press statement.
According to news reports, she succumbed to Lewy Body Dementia, a disease with symptoms that mimic Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
Born Estelle Scher on July 25, 1923, Getty put aside acing to become a "housewife in Bayshore, Queens," as the New York Times put it in a past 1982 article.
Getty won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her work as "Golden Girls" Sophia Petrillo.
Bea Arthur released a statement: "Our mother-daughter relationship was one of the greatest comic duos ever." Indeed.
In 1982, Getty earned a Drama Desk nomination for Torch Song Trilogy, the Harvey Fierstein play. Getty played Fierstein's in-denial mother. Getty always noted she played the mother to "everyone but Attila the Hun," including Cher (Mask) and Sylvester Stallone (Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot).
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