American comedienne on stage, in films and on TV. An outstanding performer, Burnett has won many Emmys and other awards. She tried it all, TV, theater, movies, being funny, being serious, singing, dancing, doing shtick- and turned out to be astonishingly good at all of it.
The daughter of alcoholic parents who separated, she was raised primarily by her grandmother, Mabel Eudora White. She and “Nanny” left San Antonio for Hollywood when she was seven, taking a one-room apartment down the hall from her mother. Burnett recalls Nanny with great affection as a character and a protective shield. She had been married at least six times and at 81, was dating a 40-year-old jazz musician. Movies became Carol’s escape and alternate reality as she dreamed within herself, a quiet child. A Hollywood hometown girl, the redheaded, leggy comedienne went to Hollywood High and UCLA.
Her dad died in 1954 and her mom in 1958; Burnett became the primary caretaker of her 12-year-old sister Christine from 1956. Christine later said, “She always seemed to have a great inner strength and discipline. Her grades were good because she applied herself….. Fate may have stepped in here and there, but she was ready for opportunity.”
In college, she headed toward journalism and cartooning, that is, until she was bitten by the stage-bug. When Burnett took a college role on stage and heard the first laugh, her path was set. She acted, she sang, she tried comedy, and for the first time in her life, had a measure of popularity. It was heady stuff after being a wallpaper nerd. With every bit of approval, her confidence grew.
The doors opened when she was given a thousand-dollars to go to New York, on the stipulation that she would pay it back, keep the donor anonymous and help others who were starting out. She reached New York in August 1954, working as a hatcheck girl while organizing a show. On opening night, 3 March 1955, Burnett came onstage in a house dress and curlers to sing and skewer “Monotonous,” a sexy Eartha Kitt number. She got three bows and a lot of bravos.
She began collaborating with Ken Welch, who would become her longtime writer. They first met in the mid-’50s when Burnett had so little money that she signed a promissory note to him for $10. In 1957, Welch came up with the song “I Lost My Heart to John Foster Dulles.” Carol performed the song in her act at the Blue Angel nightclub, on the Ed Sullivan and Jack Paar shows and became the TV sensation of the year.
Burnett had guested on “The Garry Moore Show and one morning the producers called her to fill in on short notice. When the live show aired, everyone realized that something big was happening. Burnett was taking the audience by storm, they couldn’t get enough of her. Garry said, “Cut anything you want but don’t cut a minute away from Carol.” Burnett soon became a regular, at the same time as appearing on stage in “Once Upon a Mattress.” TV Guide named her the favorite female performer in 1961 and again in 1962 when she won the first of six Emmy Awards.
The “Carol Burnett Show” made its debut on 11 September 1967, bringing into the lexicon her singing charwoman, dimwitted secretary Mrs. Wiggins and raging Eunice’s dysfunctional family. She also played a young married woman who took in her younger sister, sending Vicki Lawrence off to stardom, who looked more like Carol than her own real-life sister. Mostly she pillaged the movies she loved. “Born to be Bad” became “Raised to be Rotten,” and “Gone With the Wind” emerged as “Went With the Wind,” providing Burnett with a now legendary walk down the stairs in a dress made of draperies, complete with curtain rods. None of the old movies were safe from her relentless hilarity and she got to be all the magical characters she had watched on the screen while growing up – with a little something extra.
The Carol Burnett Show became the longest running show on the air when it hit 11 years. It closed in March 1978 after reaping a total of 22 Emmys.
In 1976, Burnett sued the National Enquirer for a false portrayal of her behavior in a Washington restaurant that implied that she had been drinking. She won a $1.6 million judgment, which was later reduced and settled out of court. After legal fees had been paid, she put the remainder into scholarships for ethics in journalism.
She moved into drama in 1979 with “Friendly Fire,” though her first impression had been that they had sent the script to the wrong person. Other serious roles followed, in such films as “Pete ‘n’ Tillie,” “The Front Page,” “Annie,” “A Wedding,” and “Noises Off.”
Burnett married Don Saroyan in 1955; the relationship lasted seven years. She was married for a second time to Joe Hamilton in 1963; they had three daughters. They worked hard to provide their girls with a stable and essentially traditional home life, but kids turn out as who they are. Her daughter Erin, married with baby Zach, (who is adored by his grandmother), has divorced her husband and has come out publicly as a lesbian. All the girls are in show biz; Erin sings, Carrie recently concluded a run in the Boston production of “Rent,” and Jody is more interested in management. Carrie, now 34, had a drinking and drug period when she was a teen that took family tough love and support to get through. The Hamilton’s divorced in 1984, and Burnett has not remarried. She says she’d like to have a serious relationship but is “not putting an ad in the paper.” Her lifestyle is not entirely standard issue; she has moved 12 times in the past 14 years, building three places from scratch.
A gracious hostess, she shows the same lively interest in people off-camera that she does when in the lime-light. In her 60s she is as slim and lithe as a girl, receiving guests in her condo atop a luxury Westwood high-rise. She refers easily to dear friends she’s made over the years, Julie Andrews and Beverly Sills, Tim Conway and Harvey Korman. Many of the people she’s worked with have become part of her extended family, and they return her loyalty and devotion. Conway remarked on how generous she was as a performer, giving away great punch lines, and her friend Frank Gehry, the architect, said, “She extends generosity in her look, humor, everything.”
In 1997, Burnett won an Emmy for her recurring role as Jamie Buchman’s outspoken mom, Theresa, in “Mad About You.” The show’s star, Helen Hunt, introduced Burnett to a screaming audience as “the goddess of comedy.”
Burnett published her autobiography, “One More Time,” 1986. It was a tough time for her and the book helped her to sort out priorities and maintain sanity. She and daughter Carrie hope to turn the book into a play next summer at Utah’s Sundance Institute. Burnett loves the stage, and is examining other options, but she has also learned that “no” can be a complete sentence. On 23 November 2001, she married a third time, to orchestra administrator Brian Miller.
Her daughter Carrie was diagnosed with cancer in 2001 and died on 20 January 2002 at age 38.
Link to Wikipedia biography