Golden Girls star Getty dies

Actress Estelle Getty, best known for her Emmy-winning role on US sitcom The Golden Girls, has died aged 84.The actress won fame as the wise-cracking octogenarian Sophia Petrillo on the hit show, but had been suffering from dementia and died on Tuesday morning at her Hollywood Boulevard home, three days short of her 85th birthday.Born Estelle Scher to Polish immigrant parents in New York City, Getty wanted to be an entertainer from an early age and got her start as a comic before acting in regional theatre and off-Broadway productions.At 23, she married Arthur Gettleman, who inspired her stage name.Despite a long struggle for success, she eventually won a breakthrough role in a production of Torch Song Trilogy that brought her to the attention of Hollywood and she landed parts in Tootsie and Deadly Force.She was cast as the oldest of four elderly women living together in a shared home on NBC's Golden Girls even though she was slightly younger than her screen daughter, played by Bea Arthur.She even failed two auditions because producers thought she did not look old enough to play an 80-year-old, but Getty won two Emmys for her role on the show.After the sitcom, she played a number of memorable films roles, including a part as Sylvester Stallone's mother in Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.In 2004, she was unable to join a Golden Girls reunion due to her failing health and her husband passed away the same year.She is survived by her two sons Barry and Carl, who said in a statement: "She was loved throughout the world in six continents and if they loved sitcoms in Antarctica she would have been loved on seven continents."

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ITN | July 23, 2008

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