Phyllis Diller
Phyllis Diller
America's first successful and best-loved female stand-up comic
Comic, film, television and stage actress, author, recording artist, spokesperson, gourmet cook, entrepreneur, concert pianist, philanthropist, humanitarian and unquestionably, one of the most beloved people in show business, Phyllis Diller is a woman loved and admired by millions.
As one of the world's pioneering stand-up comics, she has headlined in virtually every major supper club in the U.S. and scores around the world. She has appeared in more than two dozen movies, scores of television specials and shows, recorded 5 major comedy albums, written five best-selling books and found time to help thousands throughout the world.
A late bloomer, she started her career at the age of 37. At the time, she was a working housewife and mother of five children employed at radio station KSFO, San Francisco, as a publicist, newspaper writer and columnist.
Urged by her husband, Sherwood Diller, she prepared a night club act and was booked into San Francisco’s Purple Onion. She slithered around the piano, lampooned current celebrities, brandished a cigarette holder and made fun of high fashion and life in general. Her first appearance took place on March 7, 1955.
She followed this debut by a tour, polishing her act and developing the housewife and daily routines that has made her the high priestess of the ridiculous. She played the Blue Angel in New York and appeared on the Jack Paar Show. From that point her career rocketed. In a scant five years she made it to Carnegie Hall.
Phyllis Diller has starred in three television series, countless specials, and has made guest appearances on hundreds of top-rated shows including three segments of NBC’s Blossom during the 1993-94 season. "I love TV," she says. "It’s not my fault if the tubes blow out when I laugh."
Her movie career began with a brief but memorable role as Texas Guinan, the fabulous nitery owner of the Roaring Twenties, in Elia Kazan’s Splendor in the Grass. Since then, she's been in more than 20 films, including a dramatic role in Elmer Rice's prize-winning satire, The Adding Machine (1969), filmed in London. In the 90's, she completed roles in Silence of the Hams, (portraying a 90 year old secretary), Happily Ever After as the voice of Mother Nature, Wisecracks, a feature length documentary on women in comedy and Pixar's A Bug's Life as the Queen of an ant colony.
Her other voice-over productions include King of the Hill, Animaniacs, Scooby Doo, The Wild Thornberries, Cow and Chicken, Hey Arnold! and The Nutcracker Prince.
She co-starred with Bob Hope in three films: Boys! Did I Get A Wrong Number, Eight on the Lam, and The Private Navy of Sergeant O’Farrell. A long time friend, Hope was one of her biggest boosters. She accompanied him on one of his Christmas jaunts to Vietnam. Hope told reporters the wars would have been over in three days if Phyllis had cooked for the enemy. She also appeared on 22 of his TV specials. She calls him "my idol."
Phyllis has drawn capacity crowds to virtually every major supper club and concert hall coast to coast; from Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas to the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan. Internationally famous she made frequent appearances in Canada, England, Bermuda, Monte Carlo, and Australia.
The highlight of her stage career was her portrayal of Dolly Gallagher Levi in the Broadway production of Hello Dolly! She returned to the stage in 1988 playing the feisty Mother Superior in Nunsense in San Francisco.
From 1972 to 1982, she appeared as piano soloist with over 100 symphony orchestras in the US and Canada. Audiences have acclaimed her interpretation of such works as Beethoven’s Concerto # 1 and various works of Bach. Her piano virtuoso name was Dame Illya Dillya.
She has written four best selling books for Doubleday: Phyllis Diller's Housekeeping Hints, Phyllis Diller's Marriage Manual, The Complete Mother, and The Joys of Aging and How To Avoid Them. These books, and several comedy albums crystallize the famous Diller wit – the housewife’s lament about her hair, her clothes, her housekeeping ability, kids, pets, neighbors – the gamut of American suburban life. A poem she wrote entitled "My Prayer" has been set to music by Alvin Mills.
"My Prayer"
On this happy day
I am thankful
for my blessings
And I pray
From renewed belief
In myself
And others
And HOPE
this bond of LOVE
will expand
To envelop
The entire Universe.
In the course of her career, Phyllis Diller has won many rewards in recognition of her talent and her patriotic and philanthropic activities. She is a former honorary mayor of Brentwood, California, and received Ph.D. degrees in Human Letters from National Christian University in Dallas and from her Alma Mater, Bluffton College in Ohio, as well as a Doctorate from Kent State.
In March, 1990 she was named Celebrity Businesswoman of the Year by the National Association of Women Business Owners. In 1991, she broke the 74-year attendance record at the St. Louis Muny Opera where she appeared as the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz. In 1992, she received the Lifetime Achievement at the televised Annual Comedy Awards. She was given the 1993 Lifetime Humor Award by the National Humor Institute.
She is the recipient of an award from the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery for "the tremendous breakthrough in acceptance for our field, when she was the first person to have the courage to proclaim her surgery and show her results publicly."
Other honors include the Golden Apple from the Hollywood Women’s Press Club as most cooperative actress; the USO Liberty Bell Award "for demonstrating concern for the welfare and morale of our armed forces"; and in 1981 she received the AMC Cancer Institute Humanitarian Award and was inducted into the Ohio Woman’s Hall of Fame for her contribution as entertainer, author and actress. She was featured on Ralph Edward’s This Is Your Life in 1971 and has her own star on Hollywood Blvd.
She retired her groundbreaking stand-up comedy act in Las Vegas in May of 2002. Her final performance is the subject of Gregg Barson's 2004 documentary, Goodnight, We Love You.
Phyllis Diller is also a celebrated painter, working in "acrylic, water and spit" (she says). She holds an exhibition in her home several times a year. Take a look at some of her original paintings.
Diller at Ninety-Two -- The New Yorker: January 11, 2010
Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse (2005, memoir)