Trivia

In 1991, as was later reported in Star magazine, Getty helped her 29-year-old nephew Steven Scher, who was suffering from the final stages of AIDS. Because his parents lived in England and his friends were no longer able to care for him in Greensboro, North Carolina, Getty took it upon herself to have him flown to California and admitted to hospice care. He died in January 1992.

Retired in 2000 after revealing she had health issues. In the mid 1990s, she was misdiagnosed with Parkinson's disease. By the end of the 1990s, she was misdiagnosed again, this time with Alzheimer's disease. Later, she was correctly diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia, which has similar symptoms to both Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.

Getty played mother to Bea Arthur on The Golden Girls (1985), however, Bea was actually 15½ months older than Estelle.

She played the same character (Sophia Spirelli Petrillo-Weinstock) on five different television series: The Golden Palace (1992), The Golden Girls (1985), Nurses (1991), Empty Nest (1988), and Blossom (1990).

She died from Lewy body dementia at her home in Hollywood, only three days before her 85th birthday. She was survived by her two sons and two grandchildren.

In November 2004, during a brief televised reunion of The Golden Girls (1985), co-stars Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Bea Arthur reported that Estelle was suffering from severe dementia.

Getty's career actually began when she was much younger on the Borscht Belt circuit and Yiddish stage, but she gave it up to raise a family. She returned to acting much later and became a success on Broadway as Harvey Fierstein's meddling mom in "Torch Song Trilogy". It was the L.A. tour of this show that led to her being cast in The Golden Girls (1985), and at age 62, she became an "overnight" television star.

She was nicknamed "Slats" by her The Golden Girls (1985) co-stars because of her short height and light weight.

She had a strong fear of death and was uncomfortable whenever The Golden Girls (1985)'s writers brought up the subject or made jokes about it.

Following her death, she was interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

Was the only one of the four 'Golden Girls', who appeared in a film nominated for a Best Picture Oscar; Tootsie (1982).

Her parents, Sarah (Lacher) and Charles Scher, were Polish Jewish immigrants. She had two siblings, a brother, David, and a sister, Rosilyn.

She had two sons with her husband, Arthur: Carl Gettleman and Barry Gettleman.

Attended and graduated from Seward Park High School in New York City.

Getty and her husband lived separately for some time from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, as Getty moved to California to work on The Golden Girls (1985), and Arthur Gettleman had no desire to leave New York, and continued to work in the family's glass business.