USA: Fans in Hollywood mourn loss of pioneering comedian Phyllis Diller

Record ID: 625691

  • Title: USA: Fans in Hollywood mourn loss of pioneering comedian Phyllis Diller
  • Date: 21st August 2012
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 20, 2012) (REUTERS) FLOWERS BEING DELIVERED TO PHYLLIS DILLER'S STAR ON HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME STAR WITH PAN TO FLOWERS CLOSE UP OF PHYLLIS DILLER NAME ON FLOWERS CARD WITH FLOWERS MEDIA CREWS AT STAR (SOUNDBITE) (English) HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME'S LERON GUBLER SAYING: "Phyllis Diller for more than 50 years was one of the funni
  • Embargoed: 5th September 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Arts,People
  • Reuters ID: LVA155CKBFAWT3IJ5F7PUW9P8PG2
  • Story Text: Fans in Hollywood remembered funny lady Phyllis Diller, stopping by the comedian's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where a bouquet of flowers marked her passing.
    The former housewife whose raucous cackle and jokes about her own looks made her one of America's first female stand-up comedy stars, died in her sleep on Monday (August 20) at age 95.
    Diller was found in her bed at her home in the affluent Brentwood section of Los Angeles by her son, Perry, who had come to visit her, Diller's manager, Milt Suchin said.
    She created an indelible persona with her distinctive braying laugh, a cigarette holder, teased hair, outlandish costumes and a fictional lout of a husband she called Fang.
    "She always talked about Fang and she would have her cigarette holder," said fan Linda Sullivan, a tourist from Massachusetts, who wanted to visit Diller's star after hearing about her death. "She was just good and she was just funny."
    Her act consisted of rapid-fire jokes and one-liners that often spoofed social pretenses by poking fun at herself ("I went bathing nude on the beach the other day; it took me 20 minutes to get arrested") as well as a world of invented characters.
    "I do remember her, I was a little kid when she was doing her comedy," added Jim Freeburn, of Jupiter, Florida. "She was very good at what she did and she was definitely an icon of the business."
    A late-bloomer by show business standards, Diller got her start at age 37, making her debut at San Francisco's Purple Onion in 1955 as she broke into the male-dominated comedy circuit. Her first national exposure came as a contestant on Groucho Marx's TV quiz show "You Bet Your Life."
    Diller gradually adopted the props, zany wardrobe and stage persona that would become her trademark.
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