Estelle Getty

In 2002, it was revealed to the media that she is also suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Actress Claire Trevor, who was born in 1910, went to school with her, and claimed that she was a year older than Trevor. In 2000, she stopped making public appearances after she revealed that she has Parkinson's disease. There has been much speculation as to Goddard's age. 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. Goddard settled in Switzerland, where she eventually died. In her will, she left $20 million to New York University. In it, she played the wise-cracking old Italian mother of Dorothy, who was the show's main protagonist, played by Bea Arthur. They remained married until his death in 1970.

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. In 1958 Goddard married Erich Maria Remarque. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1943 for So Proudly We Hail!, but her career faded in the 1950s, and she eventually moved to Europe. She starred in The Great Dictator (with Chaplin), made three comedies with Bob Hope: The Cat And The Canary, The Ghost Breakers, and Nothing But The Truth, three Cecil B. DeMille epics, NorthWest Mounted Police, Reap the Wild Wind and Unconquered, and The Diary of a Chambermaid (with Burgess Meredith, whom she eventually married). He cast her in Modern Times, but it wasn't until they separated, and she got a starring role in The Women, that she became a star (although she had been considered for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind).

They married in 1936 and divorced in 1942. In 1932, she met Charlie Chaplin, and they became a couple shortly afterwards. In 1931 she went to Hollywood, where she appeared in several films, in small roles. She married Broadway writer Edgar James at 16, but divorced him four years later.

She became a fashion model when a child, and debuted with Florenz Ziegfeld at the age of 13. Goddard was born in Whitestone Landing, New York. Paulette Goddard (born Pauline Marion Levy) (June 3, 1911 (although at least one document has 1905) - April 23, 1990) was an American actress.