Everything about Phyllis Diller totally explained
Phyllis Diller (born
July 17,
1917) is a
Golden Globe-nominated
American comedienne, considered to be one of the pioneers of female
stand-up comedy. She created a stage character persona that was a wild-haired, eccentrically-dressed housewife who made jokes about a fictional husband named "Fang" while smoking from a long cigarette holder. Another distinct characteristic is her cackling laugh, one of the best-recognized in comedy. Diller is given credit for opening the doors for the stand-up comedy field to women such as
Rita Rudner,
Totie Fields,
Joan Rivers,
Lily Tomlin,
Sandra Bernhard,
Joy Behar,
Rosie O'Donnell and
Roseanne Barr.
Biography
Early life
Diller was born on
July 17,
1917, to Perry Marcus Driver and Frances Ada Romshe, in
Lima, Ohio. She attended Lima Central High School, then studied for three years at Sherwood Music Conservatory, Chicago, Illinois. She then transferred to
Bluffton College in Bluffton, Ohio, where she met fellow "Lima-ite" and classmate,
Hugh Downs. They later joked about some of their past antics on some of his television shows.
Diller was a housewife, mother, and
advertising copywriter. In the mid-
1950s, she made appearances on
The Jack Paar Show and was a contestant on
Groucho Marx's quiz show,
You Bet Your Life. Later in the decade, her career took off after sold out
San Francisco's legendary nightclub,
The Purple Onion, for 87 straight weeks. This is where she cultivated her talent and perfected her act. In her heyday, Diller achieved a record twelve laughs per minute, a record that still stands today in the
Guinness Book of World Records.
Although she's made her career in comedy, Diller studied as a serious piano student for many years. She later decided against a career in music after hearing her teachers and mentors play with much more talent than she thought she'd be able to achieve. She still plays in her private life, however, and owns a custom-made harpsichord which she prizes.
Career
Residing in the East Bay city of
Alameda, California, near the Naval Airbase, Diller began her career as a stand up at San Francisco's famed "Purple Onion" club. Her one weekend booking was extended to several months.
Diller's fame was expanded when she co-starred with
Bob Hope in 23 TV specials and three films in the
1960s:
Eight on the Lam,
The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell, and
Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!. All of these films were failures at the box office, but Hope invited Diller to perform with him in
Vietnam in
1966 with his
USO troupe during the height of the conflict in that country.
Diller seemed to be everywhere in pop culture in the
1960s. She appeared regularly as a special guest on many television programs during that decade. For example, she did a stint as one of the
What's My Line? Mystery Guests on the popular Sunday night
CBS-TV program. The blindfolded panel on that evening's broadcast included
Sammy Davis, Jr., and they were able to discern Diller's identity by way of her distinctive laugh in just three guesses. Also, Diller made regular cameo appearances making her trademark brief & pithy wisecracks on Rowan and Martin's
Laugh-In. Self-deprecating to a fault, a typical Diller joke had her running after a garbage truck pulling away from her curb. "Am I too late?" she'd yell. The driver's reply: "No, jump right in!"
Though her main claim to fame is her stand-up comedy act, Diller also has appeared in other films besides the three mentioned above, including a
cameo appearance as
Texas Guinan, the wisecracking nightclub hostess in the
1961 Hollywood production of
Splendor in the Grass. She appeared in more than a dozen, usually low-budget movies, including as The Monster's Mate in the Rankin/Bass animated cult classic
Mad Monster Party (
1967), co-starring
Boris Karloff.
Diller also starred in two brief
television series:
The Pruitts of Southampton on
ABC in
1966 and the
variety show The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show on
NBC in
1968. More recent television appearances for Diller have included a guest spot on the long-running family drama,
7th Heaven, where she hilariously boozed it up while cooking dinner for the household, and
The Drew Carey Show, as Mimi Bobek's grandmother. She posed for
Playboy, but the photos were never run in the magazine. Her voice can be heard on
Scooby Doo as herself,
Jimmy Neutron as Jimmy's grandmother, and on
Family Guy.
She appeared on Broadway in 1969 in the long-running
Hello, Dolly as the last in a succession of replacements for
Carol Channing, following
Ginger Rogers,
Martha Raye,
Betty Grable, and
Pearl Bailey.
Hollywood films have continued to capitalize on Diller's charm and recognizability. In
1998, Diller parlayed her unique cackle into the vocals for the Queen in
Disney/
Pixar's animated movie
A Bug's Life. In
2005, Diller was featured as one of many contemporary comics in a documentary film,
The Aristocrats. Diller, who avoids
working blue, did a version of an old, risqué vaudeville routine in which she describes herself passing out when she first heard the joke, forgetting the actual content of the joke.
On
January 24, 2007, she appeared on
The Tonight Show and performed stand-up, before chatting with
Jay Leno. Leno asked her to come back on her birthday for a celebration, and she said she'd be delighted.
Diller had a cameo appearance in an episode of ABC's
Boston Legal on
April 10,
2007. She appeared as herself, confronting
William Shatner's Denny Crane character, alleging to have had a torrid love affair with him in the past. They seemed to have enjoyed a romantic moment in a
foxhole during
World War II.
Diller is a member of the
Society of Singers, which supports singers in need. In June 2001 at the request of fellow Society member and
producer Scott Sherman, she appeared at
Kansas City and
Philadelphia Pride events in support of
gay pride and rights. The mayor of Philadelphia officially proclaimed
June 8,
2001, as "Phyllis Diller Day" in Philadelphia. Onstage she was presented an official proclamation to a standing ovation. In 2006, San Francisco Mayor
Gavin Newsom proclaimed
February 5,
2006 "Phyllis Diller Day in San Francisco," which she accepted by phone.
She has also recorded at least five comedy LP's, one of which was
Born To Sing, released as Columbia CS 9523.
Although known for decades for waving cigarette holders in her comedy act, Diller is a lifelong nonsmoker, and the cigarette holders were stage props that the nonsmoking comedian had specially constructed as props.
Personal life
Diller, a longtime resident of
Brentwood,
California, credits much of her success to
Bob Hope, in large part because he included her in the pictures and Vietnam USO shows mentioned above. She is an accomplished pianist as well as a painter.
Diller has candidly discussed her
plastic surgery, a series of procedures first undertaken when she was 55, and which changed her persona from being deliberately ugly to somewhat chic for her age. Following the initial procedures, Diller also adopted a more stylish hairdo, and opted for more conservative and flattering make-up and clothing. Diller's efforts have drawn numerous awards and acknowledgments from plastic surgeons and medical organizations. In 1993, she was inducted into the
St. Louis Walk of Fame.
Diller has been married three times, divorced twice, and widowed once. She also dated, and was friends with,
Earl "Madman" Muntz, a pioneer in oddball TV and radio ads. She has five children from her marriage to her first husband, Sherwood Anderson Diller. One of Diller's daughters has suffered from schizophrenia for most of her life. Diller's second husband was Warde Donovan. Diller is a grandmother to four — Paul, Michael, Chris and Cory. In an interview with the
Los Angeles Times in
December 2006, Diller briefly mentioned that one (or possibly more) of her children predeceased her, and that her youngest son Perry, now 55, oversees her affairs today.
Recently, Diller has suffered serious medical problems, including a
heart attack in
1999. After a hospital stay she was fitted with a
pacemaker and released. A bad fall resulted in her being hospitalized for tests on her head and pacemaker in
2005. She has since retired from stand-up comedy appearances. She wrote her
autobiography in 2005, titled
Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse. A direct-to-
DVD version of the project, complete with early live clips of Diller, and interviews with her showbiz colleagues including
Don Rickles, among others, was released in December, 2006. A screenplay about Diller's early years in stand-up, according to
blind items in the trades, is in preproduction with
Patricia Clarkson slated to play the comedienne in a film due to be released in
2007.
On
July 11,
2007, it was reported by
USA Today that she fractured her back and had to cancel a Tonight Show appearance, during which she'd planned to celebrate her 90th birthday.
Quotes
"The reason why women don't play football is because eleven of them would never wear the same outfit in public."
Filmography
TV work
The Pruitts of Southampton (1966-1967)
The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show (1968) (cancelled after 4 months)
(1971)
The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972) (voiced herself)
Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (1973) (guest star)
The Muppet Show (1976) (guest star)
The Gong Show (1976-1980) (regular panelist throughout run)
Circus of the Stars (1977)
Tales From The Darside (1985) (The Trouble With Mary Jane)
(1987)
Alice Through the Looking Glass (1987) (voice)
Full House (1988) (guest star)
Captain Planet and the Planeteers (episode Smog Hog, as Jane Goodare, 1991) (voice)
Blossom (cast member from 1993-1995)
Cybill As herself [1995]
Emily of New Moon [1998] (guest star in 2 episodes)
Hey Arnold! episode "Grandpa's Sister" in 1999 as Mitzi (voice)
Titus (cast member in 2002)
Even Stevens (episode Snow Job in 2002 as Coach Korns)
(2002-2004) (voice)
Hollywood Squares (panelist)
Robot Chicken (voices (including herself), (2005-2006)
Last Comic Standing (judge, 2005)
The Bold and the Beautiful (Played Gladys Pope in more than twenty episodes from 1995-2004)
Family Guy (episodes "Mother Tucker" and "Peter's Two Dads"), as Thelma Griffin
Boston Legal, As Herself, (2007)Further Information
Get more info on 'Phyllis Diller'.
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