Estelle Getty, 84; 'Golden Girl' Actress Won an Emmy Award

Her husband died in 2004. She is survived by their two sons, Barry Gettleman of Miami and Carl Gettleman of Santa Monica, Calif.; a brother; and a sister.

Ms. Getty said she first became interested in performing after her father took her to a student performance at the New York Academy of Music. At 18, she began working as a waitress and stand-up comic at Borscht Belt hotels in Upstate New York.

"In those days it was hard to find material if you were a woman," she told the Chicago Tribune in 1989. "You could make fun of yourself for being fat or your mother-in-law. I used to tell jokes about shopping. I was okay."

During the next several decades, she acted in settlement houses and community theaters. She told the Toronto Star she sometimes worked two jobs to support her stage interests. "And I knew I could be seduced by success in another field," she said in 1986, "so I'd say, 'Don't promote me, please.' I just took enough so I could continue."

She said she twice flunked her "Golden Girls" audition because she appeared too young. Bea Arthur, who played her daughter, was a year older than Ms. Getty.

At the third test, she pulled aside an NBC makeup artist and said: "To you this is just a job. To me it's my entire career down the toilet unless you make me look 80. But I don't want to put any pressure on you."

She won the job.

She reprised her "Golden Girls" character in several television series, including a short-lived sequel, "The Golden Palace" (1992). On screen, her parts included the voice of Grandma Estelle Little in "Stuart Little" (1999).

She wrote a memoir, with help from Steve Delsohn, "If I Knew Then What I Know Now -- So What?" (1988).