Actress Estelle Getty of Golden Girls fame has died.
Getty played Sophia Petrillo in the sitcom, which ran from 1985 to 1992. She won an Emmy and a Golden Globe award for her sassy portrayal of Dorothy Zbornak’s mother.
She passed away in her Los Angeles home this morning, three days shy of her 85th birthday, according to the Associated Press.
The Golden Girls built a large gay following over the years, thanks to its mix of humour and frank discussion of topics that many prime-time sitcoms avoided, such as sex, AIDS and coming out.
On Getty’s official website, her caregiver Paul Chapdelaine posted the following message:
“Estelle was a fighter,” he wrote. “She always stood up for the underdogs, fought for equality for all, and always pictured a world filled with “love and laughter” — her most favourite catch phrase.”
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