It breaks my heart to even be writing the following sentence, but here it is: The Golden Girls will be a little less golden from now on, as the show matriarch, Estelle Getty, passed away today. Getty played Sofia Petrillo, or "Ma", the fiercely hysterical mother of Dorothy Zbornak, or "pussycat". Whether she's losing the Pope's ring, or doing her amazing Sonny Bono impression, or doing Picasso, you could always count on Getty to nail the joke, the barbs flying out of her mouth at lightning speed. She was a 7 time Emmy nominee, and walked away with the award in 1988 (You can see her acceptance speech here. She beat Monuh and Jacquee!) The end of her incredible life was frought with disease and dementia, and today, she left us at the age of 84 years old. Though, thankfully, she always managed to stay out of Shady Pines. She left us with many gems on TGG, including this:

"Let me tell you girls the three most important things I learned about life: number one, hold fast to your friends; number two, there's no such thing as security; and number three, don't go see "Ishtar." Woof."

Read more at: http://www.bestweekever.tv/2008/07/22/picture-it-sicily-1912-a-tribute-to-estelle-getty/.