I know we've actually had Golden Girls threads on the forums before and I've said it there...

But I'll say it again. Estelle Getty was the coolest on that show hands down. 

 ...LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Estelle Getty, the diminutive actress who spent 40 years struggling for success before landing a role of a lifetime in 1985 as the sarcastic octogenarian Sophia on TV's "The Golden Girls," has died. She was 84.

....

"I always told her she should be a standup comic. She was so funny in person," McClanahan recalled. "She would always say, 'Why couldn't we make these characters Jewish? Why am I Sicilian?' "

 

Getty had gained a knack for one-liners in her late teens when she did standup comedy at a Catskills hotel. Female comedians were rare in those days, however, and she bombed.

 ....

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/TV/07/22/estelle.getty.obit/index.html?section=cnn_latest