Estelle Getty Biography

Fast Facts

• Was inspired to become an actress when her parents took her to see a Vaudevillian production at the New York Academy of Music when she was four years old
• Landed the role of Harvey Fierstein's character's meddlesome mother in the Broadway production of Torch Song Trilogy (1981); received a Drama Desk Award nomination
• Best-known for her role as Sophia Petrillo, mother to Bea Arthur's character, on The Golden Girls; Arthur was actually two-and-a-half months older than Getty
• Known for her activism in AIDS fund-raising and gay rights
• Retired from acting and discontinued public appearances in 2000 after announcing she was suffering from Parkinson's Disease; was later diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia