"entitled ""Dumped,"" in which her favorite nephew Jim dumps Barbara (Kristy McNichol). According to the episode, ""Mary Has A Little Lamb,"" Dorothy's childhood nickname was ""Moose."" Outside ""The Golden Girls"", Dorothy appears in the ""Empty Nest"" episode ""Dumped"" and the two-part ""Golden Palace"" episode ""Seems Like Old Times"". Elaine Stritch was reportedly considered for the role of Dorothy Zbornak while ""The Golden Girls"" was in development, under the assumption that Arthur (the series was originally conceived with ""a Bea Arthur type"" in mind) would not consider returning to a regular television series. As Stritch related in her show ""Elaine Stritch"
"starred Dustin Hoffman. Her other film credits included roles in ""Fast Forward"" (1985), ""Batteries Not Included"" (1987), ""Splash, Too"" (1988), ""She-Devil"" (1989), ""Opportunity Knocks"" (1990), ""What About Bob?"" (1991), """". (1994), ""Krippendorf's Tribe"" (1998), ""The Odd Couple II"" (1998) and ""Fail Safe"" (2000). Belack played the lead role in the short-lived television sitcom called ""Baker's Dozen"" as ""Florence Baker"", the no-nonsense captain of an undercover anti-crime unit of the NYPD. The show lasted a month on CBS. She guest starred on an episode of ""The Golden Girls"" in 1985 as Dorothy Zbornak's sister, Gloria. From 1990 to 2001, she played"
"January 19, 1980, which paired the star in a musical comedy revue with Rock Hudson, Melba Moore and Wayland Flowers and Madame. Arthur returned to television in the short-lived 1983 sitcom ""Amanda's"" (an adaptation of the British series ""Fawlty Towers""). Unfortunately, the show was a not a hit with audiences and only 10 of the 13 filmed episodes actually aired. In 1985, Arthur was cast in ""The Golden Girls"", in which she played Dorothy Zbornak, a divorced substitute teacher living in a Miami house owned by widow Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan). Her other roommates included widow Rose Nylund (Betty White)"
"Zuzanna Szadkowski Zuzanna Szadkowski (; born October 22, 1978) is a Polish-American actress, known for her role as Dorota Kishlovsky on the CW teen drama series ""Gossip Girl"". Szadkowski also appeared on ""The Sopranos"", """", and ""Guiding Light"". She made her New York Stage debut in Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron's ""Love, Loss, and What I Wore"" in which she appeared in a record-breaking five all-star casts. Szadkowski attended Barnard College of Columbia University in New York City and went on to earn an MFA in acting from the Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University. She has worked"
"as Lanie Stieglitz. On April 26, 2007, she began guest appearances on the NBC sitcom ""30 Rock"" as Colleen, the fearsome mother of Alec Baldwin's lead character, Jack Donaghy. Her later roles included Judge Grace Lema on ""Oz"" (1998); and Martha Albright (mother of Jane Curtin's character) on two episodes of ""3rd Rock From the Sun"" (1997, 2001), alongside her Broadway co-star George Grizzard, who played George Albright. Stritch was reportedly considered for the role of Dorothy Zbornak on ""The Golden Girls"" but, as she related in her show ""Elaine Stritch at Liberty"", she ""blew her audition"". The role was"
"Estelle Getty Estelle Getty (née Scher; also known as Estelle Gettleman; July 25, 1923 – July 22, 2008) was an American actress and comedian, who appeared in film, television, and theatre. She was best known for her role as Sophia Petrillo on ""The Golden Girls"" from 1985 to 1992, which won her an Emmy and a Golden Globe, on ""The Golden Palace"" from 1992 to 1993, and on ""Empty Nest"" from 1993 to 1995. In her later years, after retiring from acting, she battled Lewy body dementia. Estelle Getty was born Estelle Scher on July 25, 1923 to Sarah and"
"to police officer and actor Rudy Diaz, Abbott committed suicide in Los Angeles on December 15, 1968, a day before her 48th birthday. Abbott is buried in Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California. Dorothy Abbott Dorothy Abbott (December 16, 1920 – December 15, 1968) was an American actress. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Abbott appeared in many films between the 1940s and 1960s as an extra. In Las Vegas she was a showgirl at the Flamingo Hotel and was known as ""the girl with the golden arm"". She also appeared in guest roles on ""The Ford Television Theatre"", ""Leave"
"Dorothy Abbott Dorothy Abbott (December 16, 1920 – December 15, 1968) was an American actress. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Abbott appeared in many films between the 1940s and 1960s as an extra. In Las Vegas she was a showgirl at the Flamingo Hotel and was known as ""the girl with the golden arm"". She also appeared in guest roles on ""The Ford Television Theatre"", ""Leave It to Beaver"", and ""Dragnet"" as Sergeant Joe Friday's girlfriend Ann Baker. When she could not find work as an actress, she modeled and sold real estate. Depressed about the end of her marriage"
"and Dorothy's Sicilian mother, Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty). Getty was actually a year younger than Arthur in real life. The series was a hit, and remained a top-ten ratings fixture for six of its seven seasons. Her performance led to several Emmy nominations over the course of the series and an Emmy win in 1988. Arthur decided to leave the show after seven years, and in 1992 the show was moved from NBC to CBS and retooled as ""The Golden Palace"" in which the other three actresses reprised their roles, with Cheech Marin as their new foil. Arthur made a"
"was.). In that episode and three others which took place in Dorothy's young adulthood, Dorothy Zbornak was portrayed by a tall, dark-haired actress named Lynnie Greene. In the episode ""Clinton Avenue Memoirs,"" Dorothy was shown as a young child (played by Jandi Swanson) jealous of the attention that her parents were giving to her baby brother Phil, until her father tells her that he loves her very much. She was a ""bookworm"", and an over-achiever in high school. Yet, she suffered from low self-esteem, in part because one previous boyfriend was emotionally abusive, while another one supposedly stood her up"
"well because their relationship never progressed past the physical stage. Her high-school teacher, Mr. Malcolm Gordon (James T. Callahan), whom she'd had a crush on, came back into her life many years later, only to plagiarize and take credit for an article that she had written. Stan's brother, Ted Zbornak (McLean Stevenson), told her that he had had a crush on her since they were young. They then ""spent the night"" together, nearly destroying her friendship with Blanche, who had gone out with Ted earlier that night. Later, Ted asked Dorothy to baby-sit the children of a stewardess that he"
"very dedicated and strong-willed teacher, earning the nickname ""Attila The Sub,"" which she loved. In one episode, she would not let her lazy student, a star athlete, play football in the school game, even after the school threatened and intimidated her. The student went ahead and played football anyway and broke his leg, and she visited him in the hospital to read him ""A Tale of Two Cities"". After her divorce from Stanley Zbornak, in which she kept her married surname, Dorothy Zbornak moved into a house in Miami, Florida, with widows Blanche Devereaux (owner / co-owner [all the girls"
"Street Blues"". After the pilot, the character of Coco was eliminated from the series. The part of Sophia Petrillo was the first of the four roles to be cast. Estelle Getty auditioned and won the role of the feisty mother of character Dorothy Zbornak. This was due, in part, to the rave reviews she garnered in her Off-Broadway role reprisal for the 1984 Los Angeles run of ""Torch Song Trilogy"". Afterwards, Getty had returned to New York but gained permission from her manager to return to California in early 1985. Getty figured it would be her last chance to find"
"and Heidi"". The same year, she was cast as Dorota Kishlovsky, the Polish maid of Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), in the CW series ""Gossip Girl"". On April 20, 2009, The CW launched the ""Gossip Girl"" spin-off web series ""Chasing Dorota"", consisting of six episodes. In 2012, Szadkowski appeared in three episodes of the soap opera ""Guiding Light"". She also appeared in the 2011 short film ""The Pilot Season Survival Guide"" and in the 2012 independent film ""Where Is Joel Baum?"". Zuzanna Szadkowski Zuzanna Szadkowski (; born October 22, 1978) is a Polish-American actress, known for her role as Dorota Kishlovsky"
"of the ""101 Best Written TV Series of All Time"". The show had an ensemble cast. It revolves around four older single women (three widows and one divorcée) sharing a house in Miami, Florida. The owner of the house is a widow named Blanche Devereaux (McClanahan), who was joined by fellow widow Rose Nylund (White) and divorcée Dorothy Zbornak (Arthur), after they both responded to an ad on the bulletin board of a local grocery store a year before the start of the series. In the pilot episode, the three were joined by Dorothy's 80-year-old mother, Sophia Petrillo (Getty), after"
"Beautiful Girls (film) Beautiful Girls is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Ted Demme from a screenplay written by Scott Rosenberg, starring Matt Dillon, Lauren Holly, Timothy Hutton, Rosie O'Donnell, Martha Plimpton, Natalie Portman, Michael Rapaport, Mira Sorvino and Uma Thurman. Willie Conway goes home for his high school class reunion in Knights Ridge, Massachusetts. He is at a crossroads in his life and cannot decide if he should marry his girlfriend. He cannot decide if he should quit his music and take a job as a salesman. Over the course of the film, he spends time with"
"Bea Arthur Beatrice Arthur (born Bernice Frankel; May 13, 1922 – April 25, 2009) was an American actress, comedian, singer, Marine, and animal rights activist. Arthur began her career on stage in 1947 and made her Broadway debut in ""The Threepenny Opera"" in 1954. She won the 1966 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for playing Vera Charles in ""Mame"". She went on to play Maude Findlay on the 1970s sitcoms ""All in the Family"" (1971–72) and ""Maude"" (1972–78), and Dorothy Zbornak on the 1980s sitcom ""The Golden Girls"" (1985–92), winning Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress"
"Stand By"". In 1984, she made an appearance as Mrs. Broderick, the mother of a teenaged drug addict on the last season of ""Happy Days"". In 1987, she played the title character's mother in the short-lived Fox series ""The New Adventures of Beans Baxter"". In 1988, she appeared in a ""Newhart"" episode (""Courtin' Disaster"") and appeared (in a 1989 episode) on ""The Golden Girls"" as the newest wife of Dorothy Zbornak's ex-husband, Stan. In 1990, she played Bridget, a Beverly Hills clothing-store manager, in the film ""Pretty Woman"". Donahue played Gladys, the mother of Chris Peterson (Chris Elliott), in all"
"– ""Inland Empire""<br> 3. Judi Dench – ""Notes on a Scandal"" 1. Mark Wahlberg – ""The Departed""<br> 2. Jackie Earle Haley – ""Little Children""<br> 3. Alan Arkin – ""Little Miss Sunshine"" 1. Meryl Streep – ""The Devil Wears Prada"" and ""A Prairie Home Companion""<br> 2. Jennifer Hudson – ""Dreamgirls""<br> 3. Shareeka Epps – ""Half Nelson"" 1. Peter Morgan – ""The Queen""<br> 2. William Monahan – ""The Departed""<br> 3. Eric Roth – ""The Good Shepherd"" 1. Emmanuel Lubezki – ""Children of Men""<br> 2. Guillermo Navarro – ""Pan's Labyrinth"" (""El laberinto del fauno"")<br> 3. Zhao Xiaoding – ""Curse of the Golden Flower"""
"Siobhan Fallon Hogan Siobhan Fallon Hogan (born May 13, 1961) is an American actress and comedian. She appeared in films such as ""Men in Black"", ""Forrest Gump"", ""The Negotiator"", ""Holes"", ""Daddy Day Care"" and ""Going in Style"". Fallon was born in Syracuse, New York, United States, the daughter of Jane (née Eagan) and William J. Fallon, an attorney. She was raised Catholic. She graduated from Le Moyne College in 1983. She made her television debut in an episode of ""The Golden Girls"" in 1990. She appeared in 20 episodes on ""Saturday Night Live"" from 1991 to 1992. She also appeared"
"Dorothy Hall (actress) Dorothy Hall (December 3, 1906 – February 2, 1953) was an American film actress in the late 1920s and early 1930s. She began her career as an actress on Broadway and transitioned fully into film acting in the late 1920s. She had small roles in films such as ""The Winning Oar"" (1927) and ""The Broadway Drifter"" (1927) and was later featured in the Vitaphone short ""In the Nick of Time"" (1929) and ""The Laughing Lady"" (1929). Her final and best known film role was in Dorothy Arzner's ""Working Girls"" (1931) where she plays Mae Thorpe. Dorothy Hall"
"television or film work. She would return home to New York if she was unsuccessful. Casting director Judith Weiner had seen ""Torch Song Trilogy"" and thought Getty was terrific in it. She was also impressed by Getty's audition for the role of the mother of Stephen Keaton (played by actor Michael Gross) for a guest episode of ""Family Ties"". Although Getty was impressive, the show's producers went with another actress. Getty came to Weiner's mind soon after when it became time to begin casting of ""The Golden Girls."" Getty, who went through a three-hour transformation to become Sophia, wore heavy"
"Melissa McCarthy Melissa Ann McCarthy (born August 26, 1970) is an American actress, writer, producer, comedian, and fashion designer. She is a two-time Primetime Emmy Award winner, from eight nominations. She also received nominations for two Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a BAFTA Award, and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, among other accolades. She began appearing in television and films in the late 1990s, and first gained nationwide recognition for her role as Sookie St. James on the television series ""Gilmore Girls"" (2000–2007). She played Dena on the ABC sitcom ""Samantha Who?"" (2007–2009), before starring"
"""The Golden Girls"". In an episode of that show titled ""Sick and Tired"" (1989), Harris wrote some of her struggles into the storyline where Arthur's character Dorothy was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. It later turned out Harris had an adrenal issue, but she wrote the episode as ""my revenge script for all the people out there who had a disease like that"". Harris formed the production company Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions with Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas. She was honored with the Writers' Guild's Paddy Chayefsky Award in 2005 and inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2011."
"in improvisation. Murtagh died on September 10, 2017 at the age of 96. Kate Murtagh Kate Murtagh (October 29, 1920 – September 10, 2017) was an American actress, and a native of Los Angeles, California. She appeared in films including ""Breakfast at Tiffany's"" (1961),""The Night Strangler"" (1973), ""Dirty O'Neil"" (1974), ""Switchblade Sisters"" (1975), ""Farewell, My Lovely"" (1975), ""The Car"" (1977), ""Doctor Detroit"" (1983) and """" (1992). She has appeared on television in shows including ""Daniel Boone"", ""My Three Sons"", ""The Munsters"", ""I Dream of Jeannie"", ""The Twilight Zone"" and ""Highway to Heaven"". Murtagh is pictured on the front and back"
"younger than Arthur. In 1988, the role earned Getty the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress. During her time on ""The Golden Girls"", Getty, along with Steve Delsohn, co-wrote an autobiography entitled ""If I Knew Then, What I Know Now... So What?"" (Contemporary Books, 1988). She further capitalized on her success by releasing an exercise video for senior citizens in 1993. In 1992, following her seven-season role on ""The Golden Girls"", Getty, with Betty White and Rue McClanahan returned as their characters Sophia Petrillo, Rose Nylund and Blanche Devereaux respectively, in the spin-off series, ""The Golden Palace"". The new show"
"The Golden Palace The Golden Palace is an American sitcom produced as a spin-off continuation of ""The Golden Girls"" that aired on CBS from September 18, 1992, to May 14, 1993, with reruns airing until August 6, 1993. While not as popular as its predecessor, the series produced a total of 24 half-hour episodes spanning over one season. CBS cancelled the program in 1993. ""The Golden Palace"" begins where ""The Golden Girls"" had ended, in the quartet's now-sold Miami house. With Dorothy Zbornak having married and left in the previous series finale, the three remaining roommates (Sophia Petrillo, Rose Nylund,"
"Karolina Wydra Karolina Wydra ( ; born March 5, 1981) is a Polish-American actress and model. She is known for playing Dominika Petrova on the Fox medical drama series ""House"", and vampire Violet Mazurski on the HBO dark fantasy series ""True Blood"". Wydra has starred in the fantasy thriller ""After"" (2012), and the science fiction film ""Europa Report"" (2013). She portrayed Detective Dianne Kubek on ABC's short-lived crime drama series ""Wicked City"". Wydra was born in Opole, Poland with a rare left eye coloboma birth defect in which the iris of the eye does not grow closed during gestation. She"
"the film's ""archest dialogue"", and called her ""a budding knockout, and scene-stealingly good even in an overly showy role."" Beautiful Girls (film) Beautiful Girls is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Ted Demme from a screenplay written by Scott Rosenberg, starring Matt Dillon, Lauren Holly, Timothy Hutton, Rosie O'Donnell, Martha Plimpton, Natalie Portman, Michael Rapaport, Mira Sorvino and Uma Thurman. Willie Conway goes home for his high school class reunion in Knights Ridge, Massachusetts. He is at a crossroads in his life and cannot decide if he should marry his girlfriend. He cannot decide if he should quit"
"Whoopi Goldberg Caryn Elaine Johnson (born November 13, 1955), known professionally as Whoopi Goldberg (), is an American actress, comedian, author, and television host. She has been nominated for 13 Emmy Awards and is one of the few entertainers to have won an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award. She is the second black woman to win an Academy Award for acting. Goldberg's breakthrough role was Celie, a mistreated woman in the Deep South, in the period drama film ""The Color Purple"" (1985), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best"
"and ""The Law & Harry McGraw"" in 1987. From 1993 to 1998, she played the role of Dorothy Jennings on ""Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman"" for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 1993. (However, the Emmy Awards website lists the nomination for 1995.) She was voted one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World by ""People"" magazine in 1994. After completion of the show in 1998, she appeared in ""The Pretender"", ""Chicago Hope"", ""Frasier"" and ""Judging Amy"". From 2001 to 2002, she played the role of the mother"
"Kelly Packard Kelly Chemane Packard (born January 29, 1975) is an American actress and television personality. She is best known for her roles as Tiffany Smith on ""California Dreams"", as well as April Giminski on ""Baywatch"" and co-hosting ""Ripley's Believe It or Not!"". She also co-hosted the late segment of ""GSN Live"" from September 15, 2008 until November 28, 2008. Packard also guest starred in the television series ""The Wonder Years"", ""Blossom"", ""Step by Step"", ""Boy Meets World"", ""USA High"" and ""The Wild Thornberrys"". As a child, she was also a contestant on the Bob Eubanks' daytime version of ""Card"
"role as Dorothy). The show never approached the popularity or acclaim of the original, and ranked 57th in the annual ratings. Reportedly, a second season was approved before being canceled the day before the network announced its 1993-94 schedule. Lifetime, which held the rights to ""The Golden Girls"" at the time, aired reruns of ""The Golden Palace"" in the summer of 2005, and again in December of that year. This was the first time since 1993 that ""The Golden Palace"" was seen on American television. Until April 2006, Lifetime played the series as a virtual season eight, airing the series"