Estelle Getty played the octogenarian mother of Bea Arthur's character on The Golden Girls, despite actually being a year younger than Arthur in real life.

A closer look

Estelle Getty played the octogenarian mother of Bea Arthur's character on The Golden Girls, despite actually being a year younger than Arthur in real life. The makeup department spent hours every day violently aging Getty with heavy cosmetics and wigs, effectively punishing her for having good genetics just so she could mock her TV daughter's love life. It is the ultimate showbiz irony that you can spend decades trying to stay youthful in Hollywood, only to achieve legendary status by pretending to be an elderly woman who constantly threatens people with stories about Sicily. Truly, nothing says television magic like slapping wrinkles on a middle-aged woman so she can roast a senior citizen!