estelle getty r.i.p.

do you recognise her? although she acted in many other tv shows and movies, estelle getty, who died today at the age of 84, will always be remembered as sophia, the feisty sicilian mother of dorothy in 'the golden girls'. the associated press obituary notes:

"When she auditioned, Getty was appearing on stage in Hollywood as the carping Jewish mother in Harvey Fierstein's play "Torch Song Trilogy." In her early 60s, she flunked her "Golden Girls" test twice because it was believed she didn't look old enough to play 80. "I could understand that," she told an interviewer a year after the show debuted. "I walk fast, I move fast, I talk fast." She came prepared for the third audition, however, wearing dowdy clothes and telling an NBC makeup artist, "To you this is just a job. To me it's my entire career down the toilet unless you make me look 80." The artist did, Getty got the job and won two Emmys."

the rest of the article is here.
here is her wiki page
and here is her official website
a 1995 interview with getty
telegraph obit

i loved watching that programme, and i loved watching it with my whole family. we all laughed. it also taught me that older women, women even older than my mother (!), were human and had lives.

although the first reports say that estelle getty died from natural causes, she was also suffering from advanced dementia. may she rest in peace.