Upon hearing the sad news, Bea Arthur said "Our mother-daughter relationship was one of the greatest comic duo's ever, and I will miss her."
Born in New York, NY on July 25, 1923, Estelle didn't start her entertainment career until the early 1970s on Broadway, though as a teen she was already an energetic performer, eager to audition for plays. She got her first big break with the Broadway hit, Torch Song Trilogy, in which she played a Jewish mother whose son is a drag queen. The part had been written especially for her by playwright Harvey Firestein.
When NBC producers caught the show during a national tour of the play, they were so enamored with her that they asked her to audition for a new show called "The Golden Girls." But Estelle was reportedly turned down because she was too young for the role. It wasn't until she returned a few auditions later, wearing make-up aging her 20 years and an oversized dress from a thrift-shop, that she was able to nab the part of 80-year-old Sophia Petrillo.
The sitcom debuted in 1985 and quickly became one of the top 10 most-watched shows in America, earning 57 Emmy nominations and making audiences laugh for seven seasons. Estelle also made several notable film appearances. In 1984, she played Cher's mother in the Peter Bogdanovich film, 'Mask.' She took on a leading role in 1992 as Sylvester Stallone's mother in the action/comedy flick 'Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot!' She also appeared as Grandma Estelle in the 1999 family film 'Stuart Little.' In 2000, she announced that she had Parkinson's disease, and four years later it was revealed that she was also suffering from dementia.
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