Estelle Getty, born Estelle Scher on the Lower East Side of New York City in 1923, and perhaps best known for her role as Sophia on the Golden Girls, has died. Getty was 84 (she would have been 85 on the 25th) and living in Los Angeles; Bloomberg.com reports that "she had been ill for several years with what doctors eventually diagnosed as Lewy body dementia, a brain disorder that causes cognitive problems as well as the tremors associated with Parkinson's disease." During her early years in New York she attended Seward Park High School, and was a secretary prior to taking the Broadway stage. Reportedly she was "thrilled and content to work in the New York theater and never aspired to television or film until a five-year stint on Broadway in Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy raised her profile."