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 25 July 1923 - 22 July 2008 "I've played mothers to heroes and mothers to zeroes. 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" ~ Estelle Getty ~ |
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 She was a real mother of a mom...on stage, on film and on TV. A favorite firecracker on 80s and 90s television, tiny character player Estelle Getty became known for her carping, meddlesome moms -- complete with bemused, cynical looks, irreverent digs and dead-pan Henny Youngman-like one-liners. Blunt and down-to-earth off-stage as she was on-, she scored big points with both the young and the old...and all those who fell in between. The middle-class masses and society's underdogs deemed Estelle one of their own. The star who didn't play the star card also taught an earnest lesson to the millions of actor wannabes that it was never too late to get into the big leagues, pursue your dream and come out a winner. After nearly five decades of stage work, she achieved "overnight" stardom at age 62.Ill health forced her retirement in 2000 after only a decade and a half of celebrity. Yet even something as sinister as Lewy body dementia, a degenerative brain disease, couldn't take away her indomitable spirit and feistiness. The disease, which slowly clouds then erases the memory banks, should have claimed her a couple of years after its detection, but with typical spunk, she proved the doctor's wrong and lived nearly eight years from its onset, dying peacefully in her Hollywood home on July 22, 2008.She was born Estelle Scher on July 25, 1923, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, the daughter of Charles and Sarah Scher, Polish-Jewish immigrants who worked in the glass business. Starry-eyed as a very young child when her father first took her to see a vaudeville show at the New York Academy of Music, Estelle already had a mindset about her future. She almost immediately started taking singing, dancing and acting lessons and, following her graduation from Seward Park High School, starting building up experience up in the Yiddish theater. She even attempted the stand-up comedy stage on the Catskills "borscht belt" circuit in upstate New York. But it was a time of rampant sexism. Women comics were a rarity and seldom successful... and she wasn't.Her young life took an abrupt, post-WWII turn when she married New York businessman Arthur Gettleman at age 24 in December of 1947 (she went on to use a derivative of her married last name for the stage). Not your typical domesticated wife by any stretch of the imagination, Estelle nevertheless raised two children, sons Barry and Carl, and worked as a secretary for various companies over time. Determined as ever to be an actress, she found moderate compensation performing in community theatre plays. A.dept at playing abrasive, insinuating types, she had an innate gift for comedy and stole many scenes in such light-hearted plays as "Arsenic and Old Lace," "Blithe Spirit," "6 Rms Riv Vu," "Light Up the Sky" and "Lovers and Other Strangers". On the flip side, Estelle demonstrated surprising dramatic stamina in such classics as "All My Sons," "The Glass Menaqerie" and "Death of a Salesman."Following decades of obscurity, it was her strong bond with the actor/playwright Harvey Fierstein that turned the tide. Forging a deep friendship in the late 70s after appearing in small New York theaters together, and after considerable prodding by Estelle, Harvey wrote a part for his diminutive friend in the ground-breaking, autobiographical "Torch Song Trilogy". Playing Harvey's recalcitrant mother, the show eventually made it to Broadway and Estelle's big debut was a resounding success. Winning the Helen Hayes Award for her performance, she played the feisty foil to Fierstein's drag queen character for five years.While on tour with the play in Los Angeles, Estelle secured an audition for and won the role of viper-tongued Sicilian mama Sophia Petrillo on "The Golden Girls" (1985). She nearly lost out on the part when it was thought she came off too young to play Beatrice Arthur's mother (in truth, Estelle was 14 months YOUNGER than Bea). Given another go-around, and this time donning a grey wig, age makeup and frumpy apparel, Estelle fully convinced the powers-that-be that she WAS Sophia and the rest is history. The role was a breath of fresh air during an era of strong political correctness. A seven-time consecutive Emmy Award nominee for "Best Supporting Actress Award," she took home the trophy in 1988. In both 1991 and 1992 Estelle won the American Comedy Award for "Best Supporting Actress" in a series. The Sophia character was so popular she even went on to play the impish octogenarian in several other shows, including two "Golden Girls" spin-offs -- the short-lived "The Golden Palace" (1992) and "Empty Nest".Estelle went on to mother other stars on the big screen as well, including Cher in Mask (1985) and Sylvester Stallone in Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992), the latter in which she received second billing. The one maternal film role she wanted more than anything did not come her way. When Torch Song Trilogy (1988) was made into a film, actor Fierstein needed star power surrounding him. Anne Bancroft replaced Estelle in the part, but the movie itself seemed to lose much of its impact in its transition.At the peak of her TV fame, Estelle wrote a 1988 autobiography entitled "If I Knew Then, What I Know Now... So What?" with Steve Delsohn. The diminutive dynamo (4'10") with a big heart was an outspoken activist for gay rights and regularly involved herself in AIDS causes, part of it propelled by a nephew who was diagnosed and later succumbed to the disease. She also became a spokesperson for Alternative Living for the Aging, a nonprofit organization that locates cooperative housing for senior citizens.In 2000, Getty stopped making public appearances after her health and mind began to deteriorate. One of her last sightings was in the L.A. audience of "The Vagina Monologues," which starred "Golden Girls" co-star Rue McClanahan. Misdiagnosed as having both Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, it was later learned he was suffering from advanced dementia.
| Estelle Getty Information:
| Full Name: Estelle Scher
| | Eye color: Brown | | Height:4' 10½" (1.49 m) | | Nickname(s): Stella, Ettle, Slats | | Notable feature(s): | | Education: Seward Park High School, Manhattan, NY | Family:
Father: Charles Scher
Mother: Sarah
Sister: Roz
Brother: David
Husband: Arthur Gettleman (m. 21-Dec-1947, d. 2004, two sons)
Son: Carl Gettleman
Son: Barry Gettleman | | Religious affiliations: Jewish | | Personal interests/hobbies: | | Charities/Causes: | | Other: | | |
Tay0915posted 160 days ago
