Today would have been Estelle Getty's 100th birthday!

Amazing gaze. She could melt many a man.

Happy birthday Sophia!

Any relation to J. Paul?

She looked like Myrna Loy

I would never have guessed she was so beautiful. I would have guessed cute, but she is sultry.

Some tribute, OP....that's a photo of Myrna Loy you silly ditz!

This is Estelle, not Myrna Loy.

[quote] She could melt many a man.

Men liked my ‘Getty up’

[quote]How could you bitches forget?

Because we're older than she would be if she were alive.

Something deep inside me said, “that’s Myrna!”

Someone dig up a youthful pic of Estelle. I can’t at the moment. TIA.

I'm sorry!!!! 😥😥😥😥

Google tells me this is Estelle in 1948, but, Google has lied to me before.

Was she ever a working actress? I had never heard of her before Torch Song in the early 80s.

That’s Myrna Spaghetti

[quote]Someone dig up a youthful pic of Estelle. I can’t at the moment. TIA.

I was hoping someone would reply to this with a photo of Claudette Colbert.

Unfortunately Estelle was already experiencing dementia symptoms during the last couple of years of Golden Girls. If she were still somehow alive today she would be a total vegetable.

I think OP was having a little fun with the Myrna pic...its a joke because of the online posts everywhere cluelesly showing ML pics and saying they are of EG when she was young, because they don't know any better.

Mostly off broadway and Yiddish theater r13 and part time. When her kids were grown and her and her husband grew apart she started to purse acting more.

In this day an age, I don’t know if a character actor/actress who started acting a little later could make it today. I’m thinking Estelle, Anne Haney, Kathryn Joosten and Marla Gibbs.

[quote]Unfortunately Estelle was already experiencing dementia symptoms during the last couple of years of Golden Girls.

People always say this, yet she went on to "The Golden Palace" and after that was a regular on "Empty Nest." If she had dementia, they wouldn't have hired her.

That’s not Estelle Getty; it’s Myrna Loy.

She was a terrible actress in TGG, wooden, one dimensional. She was so bad it was like it was her first school play. I never understood the hype or the love.

R13 she didn't start acting professionally til mid-life but she was involved in local am-dram for years.

R12 he's much hotter than Sal Petrillo, that's for sure!

R21 she was fine for the role which mainly just required her to add quips or tell Sicily stories. She could be good in more challenging scenes but she tended to be hit and miss. Apparently she was better in the dress rehearsals and suffered nerves during the live taping.

I used to think Estelle was the weakest of the three acting-wise and was never too fond of the character. However, lately I've come to realize that she has awesome comedic timing and delivery. I think the problme was less about Estelle's abilities and more that the character was not always written very well and as the seasons went on they compromised the integrity of Sophia by making her cruel. I would imagine that Estelle, unlike the other three who had all been in the business for years and carried some professional clout, would have been the least inclined to complain about how her character was being written. I am certain that Arthur, McClanhan and White all were very attentive to the integrity of their respective characters and would speak up if they were being written too one-dimensionally or 'out of character.' Estelle, from what I understand was always terrified about memorizing lines, even before her memory issues became chronic. Sitcoms have a quick turnover in terms of line memorization (get script Sunday or Monday, must be off-book by Friday) and could be a source of stress for any actor depending on their process. Apparantly Betty was always off-book early in the week and could remember script changes fast. Bea, on the other hand would have the script in her hand until Friday. It seems to me that between her inexperience in the business and her concerns about memorization, Estelle did not put up much of a fuss about how Sophia was written and that probably explains the 'uneveness' of Sophia compared to the other three characters.

With that said, I've really come to appreciate Estelle as an actor and she has some wonderful moments on the show. Also, she and Arthur's mother/daughter chemistry was spot-on, which is why it makes it so unfortunate that in later seasons they would have Sophia saying such cruel things to Dorothy. It was so inconsisten with the relationship that had been established and the genuine affection and warmth that the two actresses conveyed.

Plus, Estelle was a vocal Republican, privately. She did the Democratic shtick flawlessly for the part of Sophie.

That's Myrna Loy, you dolt.

I just watched "An Illegitimate Concern", a wonderful episode. Estelle as Sonny Bono