Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is an American actress, comedienne, singer, and writer. Her groundbreaking comedy variety show The Carol Burnett Show, which originally aired on CBS, was one of the first to be hosted by a woman.
Carol's rags-to-riches story started out in San Antonio, Texas, Her parents both suffered from acute alcoholism which led to her being left in the care of a beloved grandmother, who shuttled the two of them off to Hollywood, California, where they lived in a boarding house and shared a great passion for the Golden Age of movies. The plaintive, loose-limbed, highly sensitive Carol survived her wallflower insecurities by grabbing attention as a cut-up at Hollywood High School.
A natural talent, she attended the University of California and switched majors from journalism to theater. Scouting out comedy parts on TV and in the theater, she first had them rolling in the aisles in the mid-1950s performing a lovelorn novelty song called "I Made a Fool of Myself Over John Foster Dulles" (then Secretary of State) in a nightclub act. This led to night-time variety show appearances with Jack Paar and Ed Sullivan and where the career ball really started rolling.
Carol's first big TV breaks came at age 22 and 23 as a foil to a ventriloquist's dummy on the already-established The Paul Winchell Show (1950) in 1955, and as Buddy Hackett's gawky girlfriend on the short-lived sitcom Stanley (1956). She also developed an affinity for game shows and appeared as a regular on one of TV earliest, Stump the Stars in 1958. While TV would bring Carol fans by the millions, it was Broadway that set her on the road to stardom. She began as the woebegone Princess Winnifred in the 1959 Broadway musical "Once Upon a Mattress" which earned her first Tony Award nomination.
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| Carol with Julie Andrews |
As a result of her acclaimed performance, she became a regular performer on the primetime variety program The Garry Moore Show in 1959. She won her first Emmy as a result of her work, but left in 1962. Her second Emmy came for her 1962 television special with Julie Andrews, Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall. She then had a series of guest starring roles, including on The Twilight Zone, The Lucy Show (she and Lucille Ball were close friends), Get Smart and Gomer Pyle: USMC. Then, she became bigger than anyone had imagined.
Ms. Ball was so convinced of Carol's talent that she offered Carol her own Desilu-produced sitcom, but Burnett had her heart set on fronting a variety show. With her own team of second bananas, including character crony Harvey Korman, handsome foil Lyle Waggoner, and lookalike "kid sister" type Vicki Lawrence, the The Carol Burnett Show (1967) became an instant sensation, and earned 22 Emmy Awards during its 11-year run. In between, Carol branched out with supporting turns in the films Pete 'n' Tillie (1972), The Front Page (1974) and Robert Altman's A Wedding (1978).
Her program, whose last episode aired in March of 1978, was the last truly successful major network variety show to date. Burnett famously ended every show by tugging on her left ear. Burnett has said that she developed it as a way, during her early television appearances in New York, to signal to the grandmother who raised her—who was still back in Los Angeles—that she was doing alright.. After ending the show on a high note, Burnett went on to make a short series of movies and then a long string of television appearances. She mostly famously played Miss Hannigan in the big screen version of Annie (opposite now long-time friend Bernadette Peterson), and was nominated for an Emmy for her work as an anti-Vietnam War activist in the 1979 television movie Friendly Fire.
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| Carol Burnett Show cast |
In the 1980s, she appeared in one episode of Fame, playing a school lunchlady alongside her daughter, Carrie, in 1987; in two episodes of Magnum, P.I.; in several TV movies; and, of course, as Eunice on Mama's Family alongside Vicki Lawrence. In the 1990s, she won an Emmy for her guest role on Mad About You as Theresa Stemple, Jamie Buchman's (Helen Hunt) mother. She played herself on an episode of Evening Shade, appeared on Touched By An Angel and The Larry Sanders Show, and was nominated for a Tony for her role in Moon Over Buffalo.
In the aughts, she appeared on Desperate Housewives, was nominated for an Emmy for her appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims' Unit, played Sue Sylvester's (Jane Lynch) mom on Glee, Victoria Chase's (Wendy Malick) mom in Hot in Cleveland, and Steve McGarrett's (Alex O'Laughlin) mom on Hawaii Five O.
Today, at the age of 90, Carol has been seen less frequently but still continues to make appearances, especially on TV. Most recently she has guested on the shows "Glee,""Hot in Cleveland" and the revivals of "Hawaii Five-0" and "Mad About You." As always she signs off a live appearance with her signature ear tug, reminding us all, between the wisecracks and the songs, how glad and lucky we all are to still have some of "this time together".
(Edited from IMDb, N.B.C Insider & Wikipedia)