Blanche:  “I have writer’s block.”
Sophia:    “Try ten days without a bowel movement sometime.”

Sophia:    “Ribs, great…why don’t you just kick the dentures out of my mouth!”

Rose:       “You must be tired after your cab trip.”
Sophia:     “Why?  I RODE the cab!  I didn’t push it!”

Sophia:     “All you ever do is talk about your sexual problems.  Well what about
my sexual problems?”
Dorothy:   “Ma, what is your sexual problem?”
Sophia:     “I’m not getting any!”

Sophia:      “Look, you didn’t ask for my opinion, but I’m old, so I’m giving it
anyway.”

ESTELLE GETTY

SOPHIA PETRILLO, the feisty, scene-stealing matriarch on THE GOLDEN GIRLS died early Tuesday morning at her home in Hollywood, California.  The pint-sized actress with a powerful comedic punch was 84 years old.  For the last decade she had struggled with dementia that kept her from public appearances.

ESTELLE got her start in playing a teacher in the 1978 film TEAM-MATES.  It was a small role, as was her appearance in the 1982 blockbuster TOOTSIE.  Over the years she played other minor parts, mostly as the mother of the major character in a film.

She was CHER’S mother in MASK, BARRY MANILOW’S mother in COPACABANA and SYLVERTER STALLONE’S gun-toting mother in STOP! OR MY MOM WILL SHOOT.

But it was THE GOLDEN GIRLS that made ESTELLE GETTY a star.  She auditioned for the part of an 80-year old mother and nearly didn’t get the job because she looked too young.  She was 61 at the time.  BEA ARTHUR who was to play her daughter was 62.  BETTY WHITE, who also played a generation younger than GETTY on the show, was 63.  But GETTY got the job on her third audition wearing an old wig and tattered clothes, and the rest is history.

THE GOLDEN GIRLS ran 176 episodes, 173 of them with ESTELLE GETTY.  It is still in major syndication on LIFETIME.  It ran from 1985 to 1992 and was the number 1 show in the country in 1985 after the very first episode, beating out THE COSBY SHOW.  During it’s run, ESTELLE GETTY was nominated 7 years in a row for a Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Emmy, winning in 1988.  The show garnered Emmy wins for each of the four actresses.

It took her 45 minutes in make-up to get into the SOPHIA character, which she played on six different network shows-THE GOLDEN PALACE, the spin-off which never really took hold, after BEA ARTHUR left the original cast.  SOPHIA PETRILLO also appeared in EMPTY NEST in 1988, BLOSSOM in 1991, NURSES in 1991 and LADIES MAN in 1999, one of her last gigs as an actress.

One of the many episodes where she really shined was one where the girls had their heads frozen.  They end up coming “back to life” at the kitchen table, body-less, with SOPHIA running around having had a body transplant from a much younger gal.  The girls are livid at SOPHIA in a track suit full of life. "I've got the body of a 25-year old and I'm in luck. The inn thing now is young bodies with old heads."

That life will live on forever, in her marvelous portrayal of SOPHIA PETRILLO, a truly GOLDEN GIRL.