Estelle Getty

In 2002, it was revealed to the media that she is also suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Helen Hayes died on March 17, 1993 and was interred in the Oak Hill Cemetery, Nyack, New York. In 2000, she stopped making public appearances after she revealed that she has Parkinson's disease. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6220 Hollywood Blvd. One of the most ironic things about casting Getty in this role was that she is actually two months younger than Bea Arthur: on Golden Girls, Getty was heavily made-up to seem significantly older. Hayes wrote three memoirs: A Gift of Joy, On Reflection and My Life in Three Acts. In it, she played the wise-cracking old Italian mother of Dorothy, who was the show's main protagonist, played by Bea Arthur. She followed that up with several roles in Disney films such as Herbie Rides Again, One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing and Candleshoe.

Estelle Getty (born Estelle Scher on July 25, 1923) is an American actress best known for her role as Sophia Petrillo on the popular 1980s sitcom, The Golden Girls. She starred in My Son John and Anastasia, and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1970 for Airport. She returned to Hollywood in the 1950s, and her film star began to rise. Eventually, a theater was named in her honor. Hayes and MacArthur eventually returned to Broadway, and she starred for three years in Virginia Regina.

But she never became a fan favorite. She followed that with starring roles in Arrowsmith, A Farewell to Arms, The White Sister, What Every Woman Knows and Vanessa: Her Love Story. Her sound film debut was The Sin of Madelon Claudet, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. By 10, she had made a short film called Jean and the Calico Doll, but she only moved to Hollywood when her husband, playwright Charles MacArthur, signed a Hollywood deal.

Born Helen Hayes Brown in Washington, DC, she began a stage career at an early age. She was eventually to garner the nickname "First Lady of the American Theater". Helen Hayes (October 10, 1900 - March 17, 1993) was an American actress whose successful and award-winning career spanned almost 70 years.