Tiny Estelle Getty, young star of the Yiddish theater and famous for her years of work on
Golden Girls, the greatest sitcom of all time, died today after an exceedingly long and remarkably misdiagnosed illness. She was nominated seven times for an Emmy for
Golden Girls—the same number as
Alec Baldwin's total Emmy noms—and only won once. In 1988, she beat
Jackee Harry of
227 and
Rhea Perlman of
Cheers, as well as the delicious
Katherine Helmond of
Who's the Boss. She was married for more than 50 years, although she and her husband mostly lived on opposite coasts. Between
Golden Girls, appearing in
Torch Song Trilogy, and caring for her nephew with AIDS, she was a treasure to the gays, and if they were in charge of any flags at all, they would fly them at half mast this whole week.