| Phyllis Diller  AKA Phyllis Ada Driver
Born: 17-Jul-1917
Birthplace: Lima, OH
Gender: Female
Religion: Atheist
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Comic, Actor Nationality: United States
Executive summary: The original female stand-up comic Phyllis Diller wanted to be a concert pianist, and studied at Chicago's Sherwood Music Conservatory. But fate intervened: she fell in love, got married, raised a family, and in 1955 she was a frumpy 37-year-old housewife who wanted to do stand-up comedy. She worked as a newspaper columnist and a publicist -- an odd combination of careers that may have given her an edge when she tried out at San Francisco's famous Purple Onion night club. They gave her a two-week gig, but her ghastly laugh and self-deprecating humor made her a hit, and her act was held over for almost two years.
Diller cut her first comedy album in 1959, then made her motion picture debut in a small role as a nightclub star in the Warren Beatty-Natalie Wood romantic melodrama Splendor in the Grass. In 1963, she guested on What's My Line?, and after that she showed up on several of Bob Hope's TV specials, and three of Hope's movies, most memorably as his maid in Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number (1966). She played a bankrupted millionaire in the late-'60s sit-com, The Pruitts of Southampton.
Diller had a pacemaker installed in 1999. She has announced her retirement at least three times, and in 2002 she again announced she had done her last stand-up gig. She is still available for film work, though, and she has a recurring role on The Bold and the Beautiful.
She doesn't like dirty jokes, and doesn't appreciate the urban legend that she's Susan Lucci's mother (there is no relation).
Father: Perry Driver
Mother: Frances Driver
Husband: Sherwood Anderson Diller (m. 4-Nov-1939; div. 1965)
Son: Perry
Son: Peter
Daughter: Sally
Daughter: Stephanie
Daughter: Suzanne
Husband: Warde Donovan (m. 1965; div. 1975)
University: Bluffton College, Bluffton, OH
Friars Club
Hollywood Walk of Fame 7001 Hollywood Blvd (television)
St. Louis Walk of Fame
Kentucky Colonel
Breast Reduction Surgery
Rhinoplasty
Wedding: David Gest and Liza Minnelli (2002)
Risk Factors: Pacemaker
TELEVISION
The Hollywood Squares
The Bold and the Beautiful Gladys Pope
Titus Grandma
Blossom Mrs. Peterson
The Gong Show
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Who Killed the Electric Car? (23-Jan-2006) Herself
The Aristocrats (Jan-2005) Herself
Motocross Kids (31-Jan-2004)
The Last Place on Earth (1-Jan-2002)
Kiss My Act (23-Apr-2001) Herself
A Bug's Life (14-Nov-1998) [VOICE]
The Silence of the Hams (13-Jul-1994)
Happily Ever After (28-May-1993) [VOICE]
The Boneyard (12-Jun-1991)
The Nutcracker Prince (21-Nov-1990) [VOICE]
Pucker Up and Bark Like a Dog (1990)
Did You Hear the One About the Traveling Saleslady? (14-Jul-1968)
The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell (8-May-1968)
Eight on the Lam (4-Apr-1967)
Mad Monster Party? (8-Mar-1967) [VOICE]
Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1-Jun-1966)
The Fat Spy (11-May-1966)
Splendor in the Grass (10-Oct-1961)
Author of books:
Phyllis Diller Tells All About Fang (1963)
Phyllis Diller's Housekeeping Hints (1966)
Phyllis Diller's Marriage Manual (1967)
The Joys of Aging & How to Avoid Them (1981)
Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse (2005, memoir)
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