Passing of a Dear Face in Acting...

Estelle Getty of 'Golden Girls' dies at age 84

Unless you watched the Golden Girls, you would not understand the significance of the show. This is a show that I watch every single day of my life. I Tivo the show because I cannot be home to watch it when it comes on.

As Sophia, Estelle Getty embodied someone who I wish I could have had in my life. She was full of life and humor that came across in such an impactful way that I encorporate quotes from the show in my every day life. She was such a great actress and the world is going to miss her dearly.

Here is the article from Yahoo.

LOS ANGELES - Estelle Getty, the diminutive actress who spent 40 years struggling for success before landing a role of a lifetime in 1985 as the sarcastic octogenarian Sophia on TV's "The Golden Girls," has died. She was 84.

Getty, who suffered from advanced dementia, died at about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday at her Hollywood Boulevard home, said her son, Carl Gettleman of Santa Monica.

"She was loved throughout the world in six continents, and if they loved sitcoms in Antarctica she would have been loved on seven continents," her son said. "She was one of the most talented comedic actresses who ever lived."

"The Golden Girls," featuring four female retirees sharing a house in Miami, grew out of NBC programming chief Brandon Tartikoff's belief that television was ignoring its older viewers.
Three of its stars had already appeared in previous series: Bea Arthur in "Maude," Betty White in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and Rue McClanahan in "Mama's Family." The last character to be cast was Sophia Petrillo, the feisty 80-something mother of Arthur's character.