LOS ANGELES (AP) -
Phyllis Diller, the housewife turned humorist
who aimed some of her sharpest barbs at herself, punctuating her jokes
with her trademark cackle, died Monday morning in Los Angeles at age 95.
"She died peacefully in her sleep with a smile on her face," her longtime manager, Milton Suchin, told The Associated Press.
Diller suffered a near-fatal heart attack in 1999. The cause of her death has not been released.
She was a staple of
nightclubs and television from the 1950s - when female comics were rare
indeed - until her retirement in 2002. Diller built her stand-up act
around the persona of the corner-cutting housewife ("I bury a lot of my
ironing in the back yard") with bizarre looks, a wardrobe to match (by
"Omar of Omaha") and a husband named "Fang."
Wrote Time magazine in
1961: "Onstage comes something that, by its own description, looks like a
sackful of doorknobs. With hair dyed by Alcoa, pipe-cleaner limbs and
knees just missing one another when the feet are wide apart, this is not
Princess Volupine. It is Phyllis Diller, the poor man's Auntie Mame,
only successful female among the New Wave comedians and one of the few
women funny and tough enough to belt out a 'standup' act of one-line
gags."
"I was one of those
life-of-the-party types," Diller told The Associated Press in 1965.
"You'll find them in every bridge club, at every country club. People
invited me to parties only because they knew I would supply some laughs.
They still do."
She didn't get into comedy
until she was nearly 40, after her first husband, Sherwood Diller,
prodded her for two years to give up a successful career as an
advertising and radio writer. Through it all, she was also a busy
mother.
"We had five kids at the time. I don't how he thought we'd handle that," she told the AP in 2006.
A Chicago Tribune
columnist, describing her appearance at a nightspot there in 1958, noted
she was from San Francisco, hailed her as "the weirdest, wildest yet" -
and made sure to mention her five youngsters.
Her husband managed her
career until the couple's 25-year marriage fell apart in the 1960s.
Shortly after her divorce she married entertainer Warde Donovan, but
they separated within months.
Through both marriages and other relationships, the foibles of "Fang" remained an integral part of her act.
"Fang is permanent in the act, of course," she once said. "Don't confuse him with my real husbands. They're temporary."
She also appeared in movies, including "Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number" and "Eight on the Lam" with Bob Hope.
In 1966-67, she was the
star of an ABC sitcom about a society family trying to stave off
bankruptcy, "The Pruitts of Southampton." Gypsy Rose Lee played a nosy
neighbor. In 1968, she was host of a short-lived variety series, "The
Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show."
But standup comedy was her
first love, and when she broke into the business in 1956 it was a field
she had largely to herself because female comics weren't widely accepted
then.
Although she could be
serious during interviews, sooner or later a joke would pop out, often
as not followed by that outrageous "AH-HHAAAAAAAAAAAA-HA-HA-HA!" laugh.
"It's my real laugh," she once said. "It's in the family. When I was a kid my father called me the laughing hyena."
Her looks were a frequent
topic, and she did everything she could to accentuate them - negatively.
She wore outrageous fright wigs and deliberately shopped for stage
shoes that made her legs look as skinny as possible.
"The older I get, the funnier I get," she said in 1961. "Think what I'll save in not having my face lifted."
She felt different about
plastic surgery later, though, and her face, and other body parts,
underwent a remarkable transformation. Efforts to be beautiful became a
mainstay of her act.
Commenting in 1995 about
the repainting of the Hollywood sign, she cracked, "It took 300 gallons,
almost as much as I put on every morning." She said her home "used to
be haunted, but the ghosts haven't been back since the night I tried on
all my wigs."
She recovered from a 1999
heart attack with the help of a pacemaker, but finally retired in 2002,
saying advancing age was making it too difficult for her to spend
several weeks a year on the road.
"I have energy, but I don't have lasting energy," she told The Associated Press in 2006. "You have to know your limitations."
After retiring from
standup, Diller continued to take occasional small parts in movies and
TV shows ("Family Guy") and pursued painting as a serious hobby. She
published her autobiography, "Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse," in
2005. The 2006 film "Goodnight, We Love You" documented her career.
Her other books included "Phyllis Diller's Housekeeping Hints" and "Phyllis Diller's Marriage Manual."
When she turned 90 in July
2007, she fractured a bone in her back and was forced to cancel a
planned birthday appearance on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno." But it
didn't stop her from wisecracking: "I still take the pill 'cause I don't
want any more grandchildren."
Born Phyllis Driver in
Lima, Ohio, she married Sherwood Diller right out of school (Bluffton
College) and was a housewife for several years before getting outside
work.
She was working as an
advertising writer for a radio station when a comedy turn at San
Francisco's Purple Onion nightclub launched her toward stardom.
She made her network TV
debut as a contestant on Groucho Marx's game show, "You Bet Your Life."
(Diller, asked if she was married: "Yes, I've worn a wedding ring for 18
years." Marx: "Really? Well, two more payments and it'll be all
yours.")
She credited the self-help
book, "The Magic of Believing" by Claude M. Bristol, with giving her the
courage to enter the business. For decades she would recommend it to
aspiring entertainers, even buying it for them sometimes.
"Don't get me wrong,
though," she said in a 1982 interview that threatened to turn serious.
"I'm a comic. I don't deal with problems when I'm working."
"I want people to laugh."
