In most 1980s newspapers, Estelle Getty was credited as an "overnight success." While Getty seemed older and experienced with her role as Sophia on The Golden Girls, the series, which quickly made her famous, was her first major television role.

She was just as golden offscreen as her character was onscreen. 

While it seemed like she was an overnight success, in a 1986 interview with the Green Bay Press-Gazette, she explained that she had been acting for quite some time before this role, mostly in smaller parts in places viewers would have to look a little harder to find.

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"Yeah, give or take 50 years," Getty said. "I have been acting as far back as I can remember. My life has always been in the theater."

According to the interview, her big break didn’t come right away. It came a few years before The Golden Girls, when Harvey Fierstein found a role for her as his mother in Torch Song Trilogy. The show won a Tony Award, and Getty finally started getting recognized.

"No one in my family had even been in the theater, so I was what you called a 'sport,'" Getty said. "No one could figure out why I was what I was. My talent probably came from my father, who was a great raconteur. He was probably an actor and didn’t even know it."

Her character, Sophia, was a feisty, outspoken mother to Bea Arthur’s character. Sophia was the type to say the quiet part out loud, or the things people want to say but are too polite to voice.

"Sophia’s outspoken, but I see her as a very caring, loving person," Getty added. "She makes a lot of comments, but she loves her daughter and friends."

Perhaps her favorite part of acting wasn’t the acting itself but the friendships she made along the way. While the series’ catchphrase is "Thank you for being a friend," she had her closest Golden Girls friends to thank for supporting her on the journey. 

"I want people to know that the four of us get along great on the set," Getty said. "People find it hard to believe that four women can get along. I don’t know that the show would be as good as it is if there was any conflict."