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The following biography
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Wikipedia.org
“The
Free Encyclopedia.”
Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26,
1933) was one of the most successful female comedians on American
television, thanks largely to her variety show that ran on CBS from 1967
through 1978.
Burnett was born in San Antonio, Texas to
two alcoholic parents, who left her with her grandmother. Carol moved to
Hollywood, California with her grandmother where she graduated from
Hollywood High School and the University of California, Los Angeles and
worked her way up through bit parts on TV. Carol Burnett came to
prominence in the mid-1950s singing a novelty love song, "I Made a Fool
of Myself Over John Foster Dulles". About this time, she also appeared
in a one-season NBC sitcom, Stanley, with Buddy Hackett. She achieved
success on Broadway in the 1959 musical Once Upon a Mattress. In the
same year she appeared on the Garry Moore television variety show as a
regular until 1962, most memorably with her portrayal of a cleaning
woman. With her success on this variety show she finally came to
headliner status and appeared in the 1962 special Julie and Carol at
Carnegie Hall, also starring fellow singer/actress Julie Andrews.
* * * *
Before getting her variety
show, Burnett also appeared as a panelist on the game show Password — an
association she maintained until the early 1980s.
The hour-long The Carol
Burnett Show was a huge success, garnering 22 Emmy Awards and continuing
to have success in syndicated reruns. Its ensemble cast included Tim
Conway, Harvey Korman, Lyle Waggoner, and Vicki Lawrence, who was cast
partly because she looked like a younger Burnett.
Burnett drew attention in
1981, when she sued the National Enquirer for libel after the tabloid
newspaper described her alleged public drunkenness. The case is a
landmark in the study of libel cases involving celebrities, although the
unprecedented $1.6 million verdict was reduced on appeal, and the case
was eventually settled out of court.
Her film work includes The
Four Seasons, Annie, and Noises Off.
Burnett returned to TV in
the mid-1990s as a supporting character on the sitcom Mad About You when
she played Theresa Stemple, the mother of main character Jamie Buchman,
played by Helen Hunt.
Personal tragedy struck
Burnett in 2002 when her daughter, actress Carrie Hamilton, died of lung
cancer at the age of 38. Hamilton had a problem with drugs as a teenager
but overcame it with her mother's help. She and her mother often spoke
out against drug abuse. Carrie Hamilton was a talented actress in her
own right and she and her mother appeared together in the television
film Hostage.
Burnett was a recipient of
Kennedy Center Honors for 2003.
Burnett has been a long
time fan of the soap opera All My Children. She realized a dream when
Agnes Nixon created the role of Verla Grubbs for her. Burnett suddenly
found herself playing the long-lost daughter of Langly Wallingford
(Louis Edmonds), and raising hell for her stepmother Phoebe
Tyler-Wallingford (Ruth Warrick). She hosted a 25th anniversary special
about the show in 1995 and made a brief cameo as Verla on the January 5,
2005 episode celebrating the 35th anniversary of the program. Due to
scheduling conflicts, the scene was shot on the Los Angeles set of
General Hospital instead of the New York set where All My Children is
taped.
* * * *
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URL of Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Burnett
Date Article Copied:
August 7, 2005
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