Phyllis Diller

Further, a screenplay about Diller's early years in showbiz is in preproduction and actress Patricia Clarkson is slated to play Diller, for a film due in 2006. She died from a cerebral haemorrhage in Hyannis, Massachusetts. In an appearance on CNN's Larry King Live talk show in December of 2004, Diller announced that an authorized biography of her life is in the works. Her marriage to playwright Elmer Rice ended in divorce. She has since officially retired from standup performance. Her final film role was in Coogan's Bluff in 1968. Most recently, Diller has suffered serious medical problems which culminated in her being pronounced clinically dead for three minutes. She preferred performing on Broadway but returned to Hollywood regularly, appearing in The Great Gatsby (1949), Picnic (1955), Bus Stop (1956), Peyton Place (1957), Butterfield 8 (1960 and The Birdman of Alcatraz (1962).

Diller is a proud grandmother several times over. Her role as Mae in Of Mice and Men (1939) established her as a dramatic actress, and she played supporting roles in films such as Kings Row (1942). She has several children from her marriage to her first husband, on whom "Fang" was based. She returned to the United States and appeared in several stage successes, before making her film debut in 1939. She was divorced twice and widowed once. Field was born in Boston, Massachusetts and began her acting career on the London stage in She Loves Me. Phyllis Diller has been married three times. Betty Field (February 8, 1913 - September 13, 1973) was a American actress.

Diller's efforts have drawn numerous awards and acknowledgments from plastic surgeons and medical organizations. Diller has publicly discussed her plastic surgery, which changed her persona from being deliberately ugly to being chic and attractive for her age. She is an accomplished pianist as well as a painter. Diller, a longtime resident of Brentwood, credits much of her success to the late Bob Hope, and keeps a framed portrait of Hope above her grand piano in the living room of her home.

In 1998, Diller parlayed her unique cackle into the vocals for "The Queen" in Disney/Pixar's animated move, A Bug's Life. Diller also starred in two short-lived television series: The Pruitts of Southampton on ABC in 1966 and the variety show The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show on NBC in 1968. Diller also appeared in more than a dozen, generally low-budget movies, including as herself in the children's animated cult classic from 1968, The Monster Mash, co-starring Boris Karloff. Diller's film appearances include a scene-stealing cameo appearance as a wisecracking lounge act emcee in the 1961 Hollywood production of Splendor in the Grass, starring Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty.

Her main claim to fame is her stand-up comedy act. In her heydey, Diller achieved a record that still stands today in the Guinness Book of World Records for delivering 12 punchlines per minute, which is typical of her often outrageous, stacatto style of comedy. It is here that Diller honed her act. Later in the decade, her career took off after selling out 87 straight weeks at San Francisco's legendary Purple Onion nightclub.

A housewife, mother and advertising copywriter, she first came to public attention as a contestant on Groucho Marx's quiz show You Bet Your Life in the mid-1950s. Phyllis Diller (born July 17, 1917) is an American comedian who created the stage character of a wild-haired, oddly-dressed housewife who was ugly but didn't realize it, and who spent her time cackling and waving a long cigarette holder while making jokes about a husband named "Fang." She is generally considered one of the pioneers of female stand-up comedy.