ESTELLE GETTY - GOLDEN GIRL GETTY DEAD AT 84

GOLDEN GIRL GETTY DEAD AT 84

Estelle Getty, best known for her role as Bea Arthur's mother Sophia on The Golden Girls, died Tuesday in Hollywood at age 84. She was only 60 when she auditioned for the role, and an Associated Press obituary noted that she had originally been turned down by the producers because she didn't look old enough to play a woman in her 80s. She returned for another audition, telling a 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." Real life was not as kind to Getty in her 80s as it was to her character. Her son, Carl Gettleman, told the AP that she had been suffering from advanced dementia.

23/07/2008