July 22 (Bloomberg) -- Estelle Getty, the diminutive stage actress who found stardom in her 60s as one of the four female roommates on ``The Golden Girls,'' has died. She was 84.

Getty died today at her home in Los Angeles, according to an announcement on her Web site. 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.

On NBC's ``The Golden Girls,'' Getty played the Sicilian- born, New York-toughened and wise-cracking Sophia Petrillo, who in her twilight years joins the Miami household that her daughter (played by Bea Arthur) already shares with two other women (Betty White and Rue McClanahan).

Getty was younger than both Arthur and White and relied on heavy makeup, and skill, to portray a character who was 20-plus years older than in real life. The other three ``Golden Girls'' survive her. White and Arthur are 86; McClanahan is 74.

The highly rated series ran from 1985 to 1992 and was widely praised for showcasing a demographic -- female retirees -- not typically part of prime-time fare.

``I'm proud to be part of `The Golden Girls'; I think it's a hell of a show,'' Getty wrote in a 1988 memoir. ``Showing four older women who are willing to experiment with life, to voice their opinions, to say, `I'm part of this society and I can do everything you can do,' has done a lot of wonderful things for women my age.''

She wrote that 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. She played the mother of a Jewish drag queen, played by Fierstein.

Emmy Honors

Curious about what that role might lead to, she said she moved to Hollywood and gave her agents two months to find her a part worth playing.

Six weeks later, she wrote, she landed the role of Sophia.

Getty won an Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actress in 1988 and was nominated six other times.

Estelle Scher was born July 25, 1923, in New York's Lower East Side. Her parents, Polish-born Jews, had immigrated to the U.S.

She worked as a secretary for a lawyer and at a paper company while pursuing her acting career, according to a biography on her Web site.

In films, she played the mother of Cher's character in ``Mask'' (1985), and of Sylvester Stallone's character in ``Stop! or My Mom Will Shoot'' (1992).

Getty's husband, Arthur Gettleman, died in 2004. Two sons, Carl and Barry, survive them.

To contact the reporter on this story: Laurence Arnold in Washington at larnold4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 22, 2008 15:08 EDT