![]() ![]() Her first professional show was a success and the two-week booking stretched out to 89 consecutive weeks. ![]() Maya Angelou, who was already performing at the club, wrote that Diller “would not change her name because when she became successful she wanted everyone to know it was, indeed, her herself”. Up until then, she had only tried out her jokes for fellow PTA members at nearby Edison Elementary School. With the encouragement of her husband, Diller made her debut as a stand-up comedian at age 37 in the basement of the San Francisco North Beach club, The Purple Onion, on March 7, 1955. Diller also worked as a copywriter at KSFO radio in San Francisco and a vocalist for a music-review TV show called Pop Club, hosted by Don Sherwood. In November of that year, she filmed several 15-minute segments for the Bay Area television series Phyllis Dillis, the Homely Friendmaker-dressed in a housecoat to offer absurd "advice" to homemakers. Career 1950s Īfter moving to Alameda, California, Diller began working in broadcasting in 1952 at KROW radio in Oakland, California. Diller did not finish school and was primarily a homemaker, taking care of their five children (a sixth child died in infancy). ![]() She met Sherwood Diller at Bluffton and they married in 1939. Diller studied piano for three years at the Sherwood Music Conservatory of Columbia College Chicago but decided against a music career and transferred to Bluffton College where she studied literature, history, psychology, and philosophy. Although she wasn't a class clown, calling herself a "quiet and dedicated" student, she enjoyed making people laugh once school was out. She attended Lima's Central High School and discovered she had the gift of humor early on. The exposure to death at a young age led her to an early appreciation for life and she later realized that her comedy was a form of therapy. Her father and mother were older than most when she was born (55 and 36, respectively) and Diller attended several funerals while growing up. She was raised Methodist but later became an atheist. She had German and Irish ancestry (the surname "Driver" had been changed from "Treiber" several generations earlier). Her voice-acting roles included the monster's wife in Mad Monster Party, the Queen in A Bug's Life, Granny Neutron in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, and Thelma Griffin in Family Guy.ĭiller was born Phyllis Ada Driver in Lima, Ohio on July 17, 1917, the only child of Perry Marcus Driver, an insurance agent, and Frances Ada (née Romshe). Some of her credits include Night Gallery, The Muppet Show, The Love Boat, Cybill, and Boston Legal, plus 11 seasons of The Bold and the Beautiful. She appeared in many television series, featuring in numerous cameos as well as her own short-lived sitcom and variety show. ĭiller contributed to more than 40 films, beginning with 1961's Splendor in the Grass. She was also one of the first celebrities to openly champion plastic surgery, for which she was recognized by the cosmetic surgery industry. She had a large gay following and is considered a gay icon. Phyllis Ada Diller (née Driver J– August 20, 2012) was an American stand-up comedian, actress, author, musician, and visual artist, best known for her eccentric stage persona, self-deprecating humor, wild hair and clothes, and exaggerated, cackling laugh.ĭiller was one of the first female comics to become a household name in the U.S., credited as an influence by Joan Rivers, Roseanne Barr, and Ellen DeGeneres, among others. ![]()
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