http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-getty23-2008jul23,0,6751445.story
*From the Los Angeles Times*
OBITUARY Estelle Getty, 84; 'Golden Girls' actress brought humor, depth to
mother roles The stage veteran received acclaim as the wisecracking Sophia
Petrillo on 'The Golden Girls.' Getty had been battling Lewy body dementia,
her caretaker said.
By Claudia Luther
Special to The Times
July 23, 2008
Estelle Getty, whose acting career bloomed late in life with her
Emmy-winning performance as Sophia Petrillo, the wisecracking mother of Bea
Arthur's character on the popular NBC sitcom "The Golden Girls," died
Tuesday. She was 84.
Getty, who also won notice for her performance on Broadway as Harvey
Fierstein's mother in "Torch Song Trilogy," died at her home in Hollywood,
said her friend and caretaker, Paul Chapdelaine. Getty had been battling
Lewy body dementia for the last eight or nine years, he said.
"The only comfort at this moment is that although Estelle has moved on,
Sophia will always be with us," Betty White, one of Getty's "Golden Girls"
costars, said in a statement.
Getty was a veteran stage actress in New York City when she came to Los
Angeles for the West Coast run of "Torch Song" in 1985, and her managers
urged her to try making it in Hollywood. She told them she'd give it two
months.
Six weeks later, she got the part of Sophia, an elderly mother who was
forced to live with her divorced, middle-aged daughter and her daughter's
two friends in a house in Miami.
Though about the same age as Arthur, Getty put on a wig, makeup and dowdy
clothes and for seven years engaged in hilarious verbal combat with her TV
daughter, Dorothy Zbornak, who towered over the tiny but feisty Sophia.
"Our mother-daughter relationship was one of the greatest comic duos ever,
and I will miss her," Arthur said in a statement.
Freed from normal social constraints by a mild stroke, Sophia got many of
the show's funniest lines, made even more droll by Getty's deadpan delivery.
The intergenerational free-for-all often left Dorothy in stunned silence,
from which she recovered by cooing ominously the name of the retirement home
from which her mother had been rescued: "Shady Pines."
*Dorothy [to Sophia]: *Four women live in this house, the toilet seat never
has to move, and you always manage to make it bang.
*Sophia: *Forgive me, sweetheart, why don't you just get me a litter box to
put beside my nightstand!
**
Getty, a natural comedian famous for her one-liners even in private life,
played Sophia for laughs, but she also brought depth to the character. It
was her idea that Sophia would always carry a purse because, she said, older
women are forced to shed so many possessions in their later years that
everything they own ends up in their purses.
"Nobody puts down their life very easily," she explained in a 1992 interview
with Newsday.
In 1988, the year she won an Emmy for her performance as Sophia, Getty told
The Times that she did not know what made her character so popular, but she
thought it had something to do with her being so small.
"There's something about people identifying with little people, for various
reasons," said the under-5-foot Getty, who sometimes referred to herself as
"a miniature person." She said she also thought the difference in stature
between her and Arthur set up a comic situation, since Sophia seemed always
to be the one telling Dorothy to shut up.
Getty was born Estelle Scher on July 25, 1923, on the Lower East Side of
Manhattan in New York City, the daughter of Polish immigrants.
She fell in love with the stage as a small child when her father took her to
see a movie and five acts of vaudeville.
"I was stunned," she wrote in "If I Knew Then What I Know Now So What?," her
1988 memoir written with Steve Delsohn. "I had found my world."
By age 5, she was studying singing, dancing and dramatics at a settlement
house. She graduated from Seward Park High School and began getting acting
experience in the Borscht Belt in the Catskills in upstate New York.
After her marriage in 1946, she worked as a secretary and continued acting,
eventually moving into motherly roles.
"I've played mothers to heroes and mothers to zeros," she wrote. "I've
played Irish mothers, Jewish mothers, Italian mothers, Southern mothers, New
England mothers, mothers in plays by Neil Simon and Arthur Miller and
Tennessee Williams. I've played mother to everyone but Attila the Hun."
Getty also played Sylvester Stallone's mother in the 1992 film flop "Stop!
Or My Mom Will Shoot," Cher's mother in the 1985 movie "Mask" and Barry
Manilow's mother in the 1985 TV movie "Copacabana."
Being typecast, however, also gave Getty the most important roles of her
career, including "Golden Girls" and "Torch Song Trilogy," in which for five
years she played mother to Fierstein's drag queen in the Broadway production
and on national tours. (Anne Bancroft played Fierstein's mother in the 1988
film version.)
Fierstein had met Getty in the late 1970s when playing in small theaters in
New York and, Fierstein said, she "drove me crazy asking for a part." He
told TV Guide in 1986 that when he got around to casting "Torch Song
Trilogy," "It began to strike me as funny to imagine this teeny little thing
bossing me around."
Reviewing "Torch Song Trilogy" when it opened in November 1983 at the
Huntington Hartford Theatre in Hollywood, former Times theater critic Dan
Sullivan called Getty's performance "tough, funny and wonderfully positive."
Getty had lived in the Los Angeles area since her "Golden Girls" days. Her
husband of 57 years, businessman Arthur Gettleman, died in 2004. She is
survived by her sons, Barry Gettleman and Carl Gettleman; her brother, David
Scher; and her sister, Roslyn Howard.
Am I the only one who sees it??
btw - that's an animatronic mouse which pops out ever so often.
Show us the last thing you bought.
Today I went to Relax the Back store. I have had a tempur-pedic contoured pillow for about 6 years now and its not doing it's job anymore....and lately my neck has been in so much pain because it's not getting any support when I am sleeping. My shoulders are so sore every morning and I am not sleeping very much at all because my neck is so sore and making other parts sore,too....and I have been getting a lot of headaches from the neck pain. So, I figured it was time to look into something new.
I love Relax the Back store and could spend hours in there. With anti-gravity chairs, lots of massage chairs, and a whole bunch of beds where you can lie on to test the mattress (most are memory foam) and to try out different pillows and leg wedges.....they expect you to try everything and stay awhile. I remember a long time ago, we spent a whole afternoon, practically, trying stuff out. And today, lying on the tempur-pedic mattress with a side sleeper pillow and a body pillow......it was so comfy and supportive, I almost drifted off and had a nap!!
Today I invested in a new pillow that is good for side sleepers and is amazingly supportive to my neck. OMG!! Love it! Love it! Love it! And I also got a body pillow which I have been wanting forever. I tried it out in the store and it's just wonderful.
It felt like a bit of a splurge....but, quite honestly, investing in things that help my back isn't really a splurge. Less doctors visits and less pain....is a VERY good thing! :)
Now, I just have to save up to buy one of those amazing tempur-pedic mattresses that are just a DREAM to lie on!
I know. I'm not supposed to be here. However, its been raining all day (up to 2 inches with minor flooding) and we're running out of things to keep ourselves occupied! So, I'll share the good news that upon approval of the church personnel committee, I will officially be the permanent director of the AWE group (praise team). I am very excited! The pastor said he'd even like to send me to some workshops which would be awesome since I really don't have a lot of experience in leading or selecting music for services.
Show us the last thing you bought.
I covered this in an earlier post, but here's my most recent purchase, unless you count groceries. It's got some really weenie carish type tires on it, but it will need new rubber before winter so I'll put some tires on it that look a little better. We drove it to South Dakota this past weekend and it was alot of fun to drive, but it cost a fortune, so I don't think this will be a long drive vehicle too often.
Yep, that's right. I'm 35 today.
Halfway to 40. (That's going to take some getting used to. Not that there's anything wrong with 40, but it's not a number I'm accustomed to associating with my own age....)
I'm being a little bit self-indulgent today. I don't know why, because I've never been that into my birthday before. But why not? I'm only getting older, I guess I should start actually celebrating the fact that I've made it another year without keeling over.
I doubt I'll get any presents, which is fine. I don't really need any. I still might get myself the Bill O'Reilly mug I mentioned yesterday. Brian won't get me anything, I'm sure. Which again is ok. Today they're tiling the bathroom floor & shower, which is enough of a gift for me. (Actually, if anyone were to ask him, he'd probably tell you that this bathroom remodel is my birthday present. This coming from the same guy who once asked me if the crock pot I had my eye on in January would be my birthday present. I'm not kidding. Actually, now that I think about it, I think he told me that the HDTV we got in the spring is my present for my birthday and Christmas and anniversary and Mother's Day and Flag Day and Groundhog Day and....)
My friends Sheila and Kris at work are going to take me out for lunch. Our tradition among the three of us is that we always go out for birthdays. I think we're going to Red Lobster. Oh yeah, and there is no diet today. That's my other present to myself.
It's going to be a pretty routine day. I have to take my phlebotomy (not lobotomy) final, but for the first time since I've been in school I don't really care about it. I truly don't. I also have to take the kids to the dentist since Brian will be busy laying tile. Joey has a baseball game tonight. His team is undefeated with only 3 games to go. There will be no homework tonight. Another present to myself.
Sorry, I'm rambling. I'd thought maybe I'd do a self-reflective kind of post on where I'm at in life and how I feel about those gray hairs that keep showing up, but somehow I don't think that's going to happen today. That's what happens when you have to get up early & study. Time to go get my free birthday Caribou!
A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Emjay
If I've figured correctly it should be about 7 am (ish) where she is and she'll be up getting ready for work. Ready to struggle off to work on her crutches in her smelly cast. No doubt she'll have a bitch and moan about it here later. Some problem with her foot tendons, I don't know, I didn't pay attention. Honestly since she hit 50 it's just been one medical drama after the other.
Or maybe she got the day off and she can lay around and eat chocolate all day. Hopefully someone sent her some cadburys. One of the negatives of living in the USA - no cadburys.
More photos that were coloured by mum.
Happy birthday.
It was raining as I drove to work this morning. As I waited at one set of stop lights, I noticed a young couple standing at the side of the road. Young man was holding a large umbrella over both their heads as they waited for a break in the traffic to cross the road. He finally judged that the time was right and raced off across the road ...and she stayed still.
He ran off through the cars, with the umbrella, and she stood perfectly in her spot as the rain fell upon her. The traffic started again and the lovers were stranded on`either side of the road. He perfectly dry and she looking at him as though his life was about to come to an immediate end, which no doubt it was about to!
I drove on then and did not see their reunion, but no doubt the very first then she said to him was that next time she held the umbrella.
If the had just walked another 30 meters they could have crossed at the lights...safely and together, under their umbrella.
What part of your childhood do you miss the most?
Submitted by Maretta.
Having a flexible, healthy body. I used to be able to wrap my legs around my neck and cross my feet behind my neck. Seriously. As a teenager.
My back injury means I will never be that way again regardless.
My Groups
-
The Golden Girls Updated: 1 hour ago
-
We Love the 80's Updated: 5 hours ago
-
Tattoos & Other Bodyart Updated: Jul 7, 2008
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
