Phyllis Diller

Phyllis Diller is considered on of the pioneers of female stand-up comedy. The stage character she created was a wild-haired, oddly dressed housewife who made jokes about a husband named "Fang". Diller appeared on the Jack Paar Show and as a contestant on Groucho Marx's quiz show You Bet Your Life in the mid-1950's. Her career took off after selling out 87 straight weeks at San Francisco's legendary nightclub The Purple Onion. 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!". She appeared in more than a dozen, generally low-budget movies and also starred in two short-lived television series, The Pruitts of Southampton and The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show. Diller credits much of her success to the late fellow Ohion Bob Hope, in large part because he included her in his pictures and Vietnam USO shows. She is an accomplished pianist as well as a painter. Diller has been married three times; she divorced twice and was widowed once. She has five children from her first marriage.