Comedienne Phyllis Diller dead at 95

[shawn703]

Source: WBTV

LOS ANGELES (RNN) - Phyllis Diller, the legendary comedienne who debunked the pristine image of the American housewife and broke down gender barriers in the world of standup, has died, according to CBS News.

She was 95 years old.

Phyllis Ada Driver was born on July 17, 1917, to parents Perry and Frances of the small town of Lima, OH.

Driver, an accomplished pianist left Chicago's Sherwood Music Conservatory to elope with first husband, Sherwood Anderson Diller, in 1939.


Read more: http://www.wbtv.com/story/17060326/comedienne-phyllis-diller-dead-at-95

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. RIP

[AngryOldDem]

2. Sorry to hear this...

Loved her comedy...especially when she talked about Fang.

RIP, dear lady.

[geardaddy]

3. RIP Phyllis.

[smokey nj]

4. This makes me sad.

[greiner3]

5. Terry Gross just featured Phyllis;

On one of her shows.

Grand ole Woman, both of them!

[msanthrope]

60. I listened to that!! Holy Crap she was funny! nt

[Tx4obama]

6. R.I.P. :(

[Graybeard]

7. Very funny lady. So sorry to hear this.

I can remember seeing her when she was just getting started on the old Steve Allen Tonight Show. That was a long, long, long time ago. And she kept us laughing all the way.

RIP

[bluesbassman]

8. Sad news, one of the greats. Safe passage and RIP Phyllis. n/t

[DeSwiss]

9. RIP - K&R

Some of Phyllis Diller's best:

A bachelor is a guy who never made the same mistake once.

A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.

Aim high, and you won't shoot your foot off.

Always be nice to your children because they are the ones who will choose your rest home.

Any time three New Yorkers get into a cab without an argument, a bank has just been robbed.

Best way to get rid of kitchen odors: Eat out.

Burt Reynolds once asked me out. I was in his room.

Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.

His finest hour lasted a minute and a half.

Housework can't kill you, but why take a chance?

I admit, I have a tremendous sex drive. My boyfriend lives forty miles away.

I asked the waiter, 'Is this milk fresh?' He said, 'Lady, three hours ago it was grass.'

I buried a lot of my ironing in the back yard.

I want my children to have all the things I couldn't afford. Then I want to move in with them.

I'm eighteen years behind in my ironing.

I've been asked to say a couple of words about my husband, Fang. How about short and cheap?

If it weren't for baseball, many kids wouldn't know what a millionaire looked like.

It's a good thing that beauty is only skin deep, or I'd be rotten to the core.

Most children threaten at times to run away from home. This is the only thing that keeps some parents going.

My cooking is so bad my kids thought Thanksgiving was to commemorate Pearl Harbor.

My mother-in-law had a pain beneath her left breast. Turned out to be a trick knee.

My photographs don't do me justice - they just look like me.

My recipe for dealing with anger and frustration: set the kitchen timer for twenty minutes, cry, rant, and rave, and at the sound of the bell, simmer down and go about business as usual.

Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight.

Old age is when the liver spots show through your gloves.

Our dog died from licking our wedding picture.

The only time I ever enjoyed ironing was the day I accidentally got gin in the steam iron.

The real reason your pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing at you.

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing.

The reason women don't play football is because 11 of them would never wear the same outfit in public.

There's a new medical crisis. Doctors are reporting that many men are having allergic reactions to latex condoms. They say they cause severe swelling. So what's the problem?

There's so little money in my bank account, my scenic checks show a ghetto.

Tranquilizers work only if you follow the advice on the bottle - keep away from children.

We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve telling them to sit down and shut up.

What I don't like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day.

Whatever you may look like, marry a man your own age - as your beauty fades, so will his eyesight.

You know you're old if they have discontinued your blood type.

You know you're old if your walker has an airbag.

link


- She was a winner in every way. Safe journey Phyllis .....

[pacalo]

13. She made me laugh until I cried!

One of her early jokes she told on the Ed Sullivan Show that cracked me up:

We had so many roaches in the house, Fang thought I was serving him raisin bread for breakfast.

She was the best!

[jamesatemple]

46. Phyllis never failed to crack me up!

If I remember correctly, she once said, "I'm accident prone. When I was a teenager, I broke my ankle in a glove compartment."

[customerserviceguy]

56. Thanks for posting that

Truly, great words from a great lady! The last of the Sixties comedians who was with us until this decade...

[RoccoR5955]

10. RIP funny lady. n/t

[hlthe2b]

11. Ahh, a real fixture of my childhood...RIP, Ms. Diller

You defined self-deprecating humor.

[magic59]

12. She lived a long life

and enriched our lives with her comedy.

[dipsydoodle]

14. We all gotta go some time but still a shame.

[navarth]

15. She was a very nice lady to work with

I played her show several times when I worked in a show club here in the City of Detroit in the late 70's. She really was an accomplished pianist; the first time she came through, the show incorporated 2 concert grand pianos and she played duets with her conductor, Russ Currie. She always was nice to the band and even gave us gifts at the end of the week. I still have a hat she made for me signed 'love, Phyllis Diller'. It tickled me that she did arts and crafts in her spare time on the road.

What a nice lady she was. Always friendly, she never acted like the sun shined out of her ass like some celebrities I could name. It saddens me to think of her being gone. Rest in peace, Phyllis. You were a sweetheart.

[TahitiNut]

34. Baker's Keyboard Lounge?

I have a difficult time thinking of another top-ranked "show club" hereabouts. The Roostertail?

[navarth]

38. D.B.'s at the Hyatt Regency

I worked there for 3 years, played a lot of shows. Not operational any more. Lived on WSU campus at the time. Love me some North Cass Corridor.

Baker's was the ultimate class of The D. Haven't been there for a while, used to just about live there. House bassist there for quite a few years in the 80's. Thanks for knowing about it! Nowadays I believe Cliff Bell's is the place, although Baker's will always hold a special place in my heart. I understand the Dirty Dog is quite nice too, haven't been there, but a lot of my friends play there.

Worked the Roostertail quite a few times too. Good times.

Good to see you posting, TahitiNut.

[TahitiNut]

49. I lived off-campus at WSU in 66-68 ... on Forrest. (Gone now: DMC)

Petite monde.

[dipsydoodle]

41. Was that when she was a preposition ?

Only kidding.

[spooky3]

45. thanks for sharing this - RIP dear (and groundbreaker) Phyllis.

[nolabear]

16. I didn't think that was possible!

Seriously, some people just seem to be institutions, larger than life beings that will go on forever. I'm glad she had a long and extraordinary life, doing such things as dressing as a man and invading the Friar's Club when they wouldn't admit women, completely buffooning the "little housewife" concept, and being so totally one of the old school comedians.

And I can never, ever hear "Thriller" without thinking of her and singing "It's a Phyllis Diller night..." instead.

RIP to a great dame. And a fond farewell to Fang.

[PD Turk]

17. RIP Phyllis

ROFL at this one

There's a new medical crisis. Doctors are reporting that many men are having allergic reactions to latex condoms. They say they cause severe swelling. So what's the problem?

[Vidar]

18. RIP Phyllis

[AtomicKitten]

19. Thanks for laughs, Phyllis. You were a pioneer for women comics.

[JitterbugPerfume]

20. she was without a doubt

one of the funniest people of the late 20th century. Rest in Peace Phyllis, and know that you were well loved.

[Tx4obama]

21. ...

[calimary]

22. Did anyone know what a talented pianist she was?

I interviewed her in her home back when I was still working. She played a couple of tunes on this gorgeous antique harpsichord she owned. She was really good. SO talented. SO versatile. And thoroughly charming, welcoming, hospitable. Didn't take herself a bit seriously. She bore the scars of being a not-so-pretty girl - but MAN did she make 'em laugh.

And she was the first of her kind in showbiz. Every female comedian for the last 50 - 60 years owes her, bigtime. She was godmother to them all.

[navarth]

39. see #15 and #26. nt

[calimary]

42. I didn't see your earlier post here before I wrote mine.

It was a surprise to me. A pleasant surprise. I got a private performance that day! Just she and me! AND I got to see into her walk-in closet. Was THAT fun or what? LOVED her from the first. She taught me that a girl didn't always have to be pretty to be a success.

[navarth]

59. How wonderful

I'm glad there are people out there that know the real story of Phyllis. Good on ya.

[calimary]

61. And I remember the Bob Hope Christmas tour departure when he passed her over

for more bimbos. Granted, it's entirely understandable to add lots of pretty long-legged bimbos to a tour that seeks to entertain our mostly-male troops far from home. They SHOULD get to see pretty things from home. But it seemed such a shame that there wasn't even one extra seat on that big transport plane for her. And she was pretty unhappy about it. I was working at the time and I covered the tour's departure from Van Nuys Airport that December. And she came to be part of the send-off. Yeah, okay, perhaps by that time she was considered by some in his entourage to be old and passe. But not SO much, I thought. Not so much that she couldn't have gone with them again as she had in so many years past. She was never there for her looks. She was always there for her LAUGHS.

Only later did I come to realize just how damned versatile she was. Wonderful, caring, compassionate, and passionate about her art - WAY beyond just the comedic arts. She was kind of a Renaissance woman. And my heart always gets captured by the not-so-pretty ones who have to work harder to make it in this superficial world, where how you look carries so much more weight. She, on the other hand, was very in-yer-face about her looks. She was no sex symbol or glamour-girl, so she played that WAY UP to the point of farce, and made it part of her act, part of her persona, part of her signature.

I remember when Camryn Manheim won her Emmy for "The Practice," and in her acceptance speech she held up her statuette almost in defiance, and declared "this is for all the fat girls!" And I fell in love with her at that moment. Phyllis Diller did that for all the "not-so-pretty or sexy girls." And I loved her for THAT.

[LibertyLover]

23. I loved Phyllis Diller

Years ago, more than either Ms. Diller or I care to contemplate, I asked for and received a book she had written with Bob Hope entitled Housekeeping Hints. One of the quotes, which I purloined was: All I learned at my mother's knee was what a wrinkled knee looked like. A very funny woman with a heart the size of a mountain.

[DavidL]

24. WOW, I so loved her, and she was probably over 65

when I got to love her.

[MADem]

25. I loved that woman!!!!!!! LOVED HER!!!!!

[moobu2]

26. This is a video clip of Phyllis Diller on the Liberace show in 1969.

RIP Phyllis

[Politicalboi]

27. She was my favorite when I was a kid

That laugh she had, and I loved the Mad Monster Party with her in it.

[earthside]

28. What a career.

I never thought she was all that funny.

But my grandparents just loved her and thought she was the funniest thing ever.

So, just for that I have kind of fond memories of Diller ... 95 years old, that's a pretty good run!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

29. She was so funny!

RIP, Phyllis.

[CountAllVotes]

30. 95 years old; died in her sleep

RIP Phyllis! You made a lot of people laugh!!!

[hamsterjill]

31. I enjoyed her comedy!

Sorry to hear of her passing.

[LeftofObama]

32. RIP Phyllis!

Seems like a lot of the greats are dying this year.

[bayareaboy]

33. In the 50s when she was doing stand up in San Francisco ...

She also worked on TV in town doing the Don Sherwood program. She was always refereed to as I think as the broad from Alameda.

I really think she was the first women Stand-up comedian, I saw. She really brought a lot of women in to the craft.

[valerief]

35. I LOVE Phyllis. I thought she'd outlive us all. I have her pics as wallpaper and even

have a couple of framed pictures of her. She's inspirational.

RIP, Phyllis.

[Historic NY]

36. Thanks for the laughs Phyllis

you were the original wild & crazy guy..

[DonRedwood]

37. she did a lot for the women's movement...just by being who she was

that public broadcasting show on comedians talked about phyllis... she changed how things were done in the whole comic/talkshow circuit.

i loved me some phyllis diller!

[Faygo Kid]

43. +1

[azurnoir]

40. RIP Phyllis

hopefully she's doing a show at the "Gates"

[alfredo]

44. Watch out Fang, she is on her way.

[Mean Gene]

47. RIP. We're gonna miss you. nt

[onecent]

48. Rest in Peace sweetie!!!!

You reminded me of my mother....what a great one you were.

[SoapBox]

50. I feel so bad...

Just heard about this about an hour ago, on my way home from the airport.

RIP Phyllis...I'll never forget "Boy, Did I Get A Wrong Number" and "Did You Hear the One About the Traveling Saleslady?"

[Drunken Irishman]

51. Aww...Peter Griffin lost his mom. :(

[myrna minx]

52. Rest in peace.

[orpupilofnature57]

53. Cool lady

[Omaha Steve]

54. Her show in the 60's was hilarious

Her husband died. She found out her rich family was broke and in debt to the IRS.

K&R!

[Auggie]

58. "The Pruitts of Southampton" -- I remember it

[Arctic Dave]

55. RIP. She was one funny, crazy lady.

[DainBramaged]

57. Abe Vigoda is still alive!

http://www.abevigoda.com/


Rest in Peace great lady, rest in peace