Remembering Estelle Getty

Estelle Getty, best known as the wise-cracking mother on “The Golden Girls” died today , just two days short of her 85th birthday. Getty’s story is an interesting one. She was born in 1923, and wanted to make it as an actress. Getty struggled trying to get roles and working office jobs to make ends meet.In 1985 she auditioned for the role of Bea Arthur’s mother in the just-being-cast tv series “The Golden Girls.” Everyone knew that if Estelle got the role, it would sorely test her acting skills since Bea Arthur was actually a year older than her. Estelle was brought back to audtion three different times since the producers weren’t sure that Estelle was convincing enough as an 80 year old. Eventually, she was awarded the role, and the rest is, as they say, history. “The Golden Girls” ran for seven years and Estelle was perfect as the fiesty oldest of the quartet.Her popularity in “The Golden Girls,” led to other roles, most notably as mothers to Sylvester Stallone [“Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot!”], Cher [“Mask”] and even Barry Manilow in the tv movie “Copacabana.” Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family, friends and fans.