Phyllis Diller 1917-2012

I’m not sure when I first saw Phyllis Diller, but it was most likely during the early 1970s. She was memorable, with that long cigarette holder, tacky dress, wild hair and what became her signature laugh. While she lived to be 95, passing away today in her sleep, she’ll be longed remembered for a style that was revolutionary when she started. 

She started her career when she was 37, becoming the first woman stand-up. While very beautiful, she dolled herself down for the persona of a put-upon, dowdy housewife who could not cook and had a husband named Fang. She rose to prominence after a chance meeting with Bob Hope in 1959. Over their long association, she guest-starred in 23 of his specials and did 3 movies with him. Also, during the 1960s she appeared on multiple shows, including What’s My Line and Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-in and multiple guest appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. She appeared in the Drew Carey show as well as providing her distinctive voice for such animated shows as Hey, Arnold,  The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Family Guy. 

Diller provided 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 avoided blue comedy, 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.

Tributes to her came in as word of her passing was announced:

Joan Rivers posted "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.  If she had started today, Phyllis could have stood there in Dior and Harry Winston and become the major star that she was. I adored her!"

Roseanne Barr tweeted that Diller was "a revolutionary woman who inspired me. Last time I saw Ms. Diller she'd a stroke & when her assistant told her she could no longer drink gin, I immediately took her out 4 martinis.”

She last appeared on TV is 2007, showing up on Boston Legal and doing The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

I will always remember that laugh and her self-deprecating humor, something I've always liked. She tried to make herself look ugly, but she was a beautiful woman who had a talent to make people laugh. It was, and still is, a rare talent.

She is survived by 3 of her 6 children.