By Jim Cheng, USA TODAY
2012/8/21
Before Joan Rivers, Roseanne Barr and Ellen DeGeneres, Phyllis Diller crashed the mostly male stand-up comedy circuit to become an icon in the field.
The raucous comedian, known for her wild wigs and cackling laugh, died Monday morning at her Los Angeles home at the age of 95. She had recently been hospitalized with a wrist injury and was recuperating at home, longtime manager Milt Suchin said. She died "peacefully in her sleep … with a smile on her face," he said.
"I'm beyond saddened," Rivers posted soon after on Twitter. "We were friends — Melissa and I had a wonderful time with her at lunch just a month ago. … The only tragedy is that Phyllis Diller was the last from an era that insisted a woman had to look funny in order to be funny."
BLOG: Celebrity reactions
Tweeted DeGeneres: "We lost a comedy legend today. Phyllis Diller was the queen of the one-liners. She was a pioneer."
"A true original has died," Whoopi Goldberg posted. "There was NO one like her, no 1 looked like her, sounded like her."
And Barbra Streisand said: "I adored her. She was a wondrous spirit who was great to me."
Born Phyllis Ada Driver in Lima, Ohio, Diller studied at a Chicago music conservatory for three years before eloping with Sherwood Anderson Diller in 1939 (they divorced in 1965).
She didn't begin her comedy career until she was 37, but the homemaker and mother soon made her mark, beginning in 1955 at San Francisco's Purple Onion nightclub, becoming a mainstay for decades on TV and in nightclubs. By 1961, she had appeared more than 30 times on The Jack Paar Show, late-night precursor of The Tonight Show.
In the heyday of comedy and variety shows, Diller was a guest with all the big names, from Jack Benny and Dean Martin to Red Skelton and Ed Sullivan. But her own 1966 ABC sitcom, The Pruitts of Southampton, later renamed The Phyllis Diller Show, lasted only one season.
In addition to blazing a trail as a woman in comedy, Diller spouted seemingly autobiographical one-liners and anecdotes that paved the way for Rivers' and Barr's riffs on similar themes; Diller told of domestic and marital strife with long-suffering husband "Fang" and, of course, self-deprecating jokes about her outlandish appearance, which was part of her act.
In real life, Diller didn't shy from cosmetic surgery. A 1992 profile in the Orlando Sentinel described her "plastic surgery résumé, which is printed on rainbow-colored paper and, after 22 years of work and 17 procedures done by nine surgeons, is threatening to spill onto a second page. There was 1985, a particularly busy year: She had a brow lift, nose job (the second), under-eye lift, cheek implants, eye-liner tattoo and she had her teeth bonded."
Her devotion to makeovers even brought a special award from the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery. But despite the surgeries, she insisted, "I like myself. I knew I was kidding."
Diller branched out with varying degrees of success to the stage and big screen. She appeared in three movies with her comedy idol, Bob Hope, who also included her on his trips overseas during the Vietnam War to perform for the troops. She appeared in 23 of his TV specials. Throughout her career, she also took on guest-starring roles on TV shows, including The Love Boat; CHiPs; Love, American Style; and, later, Boston Legal.
From 1971 to 1981, Diller performed as a piano soloist with 100 symphony orchestras, as the comic character Dame Illya Dillya. But her musical prowess was no joke. The San Francisco Examiner said, "As demonstrated in Beethoven's piano concerto and several selections by Bach, Miss Diller is also a fine concert pianist with a firm touch."
Diller retired from nightclubs and touring in 2002 at age 84 because of ill health. Her final stand-up gig at the Suncoast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas was chronicled in a 2004 documentary, Goodnight, We Love You.
In recent years, she gave voice to animated characters in films and TV shows, such as A Bug's Life, King of the Hill, Animaniacs, Scooby-Doo, The Wild Thornberries and Family Guy. In 2005, she published a memoir, Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse. And in July 2007, she fractured her back, causing her to cancel an appearance on NBC's Tonight Show With Jay Leno to celebrate her 90th birthday. But she did appear as part of a "Queens of Comedy" panel with Anderson Cooper on CNN in early 2011.
2012/8/21
Before Joan Rivers, Roseanne Barr and Ellen DeGeneres, Phyllis Diller crashed the mostly male stand-up comedy circuit to become an icon in the field.The raucous comedian, known for her wild wigs and cackling laugh, died Monday morning at her Los Angeles home at the age of 95. She had recently been hospitalized with a wrist injury and was recuperating at home, longtime manager Milt Suchin said. She died "peacefully in her sleep … with a smile on her face," he said.
"I'm beyond saddened," Rivers posted soon after on Twitter. "We were friends — Melissa and I had a wonderful time with her at lunch just a month ago. … The only tragedy is that Phyllis Diller was the last from an era that insisted a woman had to look funny in order to be funny."
BLOG: Celebrity reactions
Tweeted DeGeneres: "We lost a comedy legend today. Phyllis Diller was the queen of the one-liners. She was a pioneer."
"A true original has died," Whoopi Goldberg posted. "There was NO one like her, no 1 looked like her, sounded like her."
And Barbra Streisand said: "I adored her. She was a wondrous spirit who was great to me."
Born Phyllis Ada Driver in Lima, Ohio, Diller studied at a Chicago music conservatory for three years before eloping with Sherwood Anderson Diller in 1939 (they divorced in 1965).
She didn't begin her comedy career until she was 37, but the homemaker and mother soon made her mark, beginning in 1955 at San Francisco's Purple Onion nightclub, becoming a mainstay for decades on TV and in nightclubs. By 1961, she had appeared more than 30 times on The Jack Paar Show, late-night precursor of The Tonight Show.
In the heyday of comedy and variety shows, Diller was a guest with all the big names, from Jack Benny and Dean Martin to Red Skelton and Ed Sullivan. But her own 1966 ABC sitcom, The Pruitts of Southampton, later renamed The Phyllis Diller Show, lasted only one season.
In addition to blazing a trail as a woman in comedy, Diller spouted seemingly autobiographical one-liners and anecdotes that paved the way for Rivers' and Barr's riffs on similar themes; Diller told of domestic and marital strife with long-suffering husband "Fang" and, of course, self-deprecating jokes about her outlandish appearance, which was part of her act.In real life, Diller didn't shy from cosmetic surgery. A 1992 profile in the Orlando Sentinel described her "plastic surgery résumé, which is printed on rainbow-colored paper and, after 22 years of work and 17 procedures done by nine surgeons, is threatening to spill onto a second page. There was 1985, a particularly busy year: She had a brow lift, nose job (the second), under-eye lift, cheek implants, eye-liner tattoo and she had her teeth bonded."
Her devotion to makeovers even brought a special award from the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery. But despite the surgeries, she insisted, "I like myself. I knew I was kidding."
Diller branched out with varying degrees of success to the stage and big screen. She appeared in three movies with her comedy idol, Bob Hope, who also included her on his trips overseas during the Vietnam War to perform for the troops. She appeared in 23 of his TV specials. Throughout her career, she also took on guest-starring roles on TV shows, including The Love Boat; CHiPs; Love, American Style; and, later, Boston Legal.
From 1971 to 1981, Diller performed as a piano soloist with 100 symphony orchestras, as the comic character Dame Illya Dillya. But her musical prowess was no joke. The San Francisco Examiner said, "As demonstrated in Beethoven's piano concerto and several selections by Bach, Miss Diller is also a fine concert pianist with a firm touch."
Diller retired from nightclubs and touring in 2002 at age 84 because of ill health. Her final stand-up gig at the Suncoast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas was chronicled in a 2004 documentary, Goodnight, We Love You.In recent years, she gave voice to animated characters in films and TV shows, such as A Bug's Life, King of the Hill, Animaniacs, Scooby-Doo, The Wild Thornberries and Family Guy. In 2005, she published a memoir, Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse. And in July 2007, she fractured her back, causing her to cancel an appearance on NBC's Tonight Show With Jay Leno to celebrate her 90th birthday. But she did appear as part of a "Queens of Comedy" panel with Anderson Cooper on CNN in early 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment