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Carol Burnett
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Carol Burnett's parents were alcoholics, and her earliest memories are of their screaming, drunken fights. Her father abandoned the family when she was eight, and she and her mother moved in with Burnett's loving but eccentric maternal grandmother, a hypochondriac subject to "hissy fits." Burnett's mother soon faded from the family into the bottle, leaving Burnett to be raised by her grandmother. They became very close, and Burnett's famous "ear-tug" gesture, offered at the end of all her live performances and on her famous TV series, began as a silent signal to her grandmother, meaning "Everything is OK."
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From All Movie Guide: American entertainer Carol Burnett and her sister were both raised by their loving grandmother. It has long been a matter of public record that Burnett credits her grandmother for encouraging her to utilize her comic and musical talents to the fullest. Working her way through UCLA, she majored in English and Theater arts, gradually developing the poise and self-confidence to tackle an entertainment career. After nightclub work, Burnett was spotlighted on the variety programs of Steve Allen, Ed Sullivan, and Jack Paar, bringing down the house on Paar's program with the specialty ballad "I Made a Fool of Myself over John Foster Dulles." In 1956, Burnett co-starred with Buddy Hackett in the live TV sitcom Stanley, which unfortunately was scheduled opposite the indestructible Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. A near-star several times over, Burnett finally grabbed the brass ring with her bravura performance in the 1959 off-Broadway musical Once Upon a Mattress, which led to a three-season stint as a regular on The Garry Moore Show.
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Carol Burnett made her first television appearance in early 1950s with a short stint on a children’s television show. She became a regular on the Garry Moore Show in 1959 and was ... featured on occasional CBS-TV specials over the years. Already a popular performer, she got her own comedy-variety show, The Carol Burnett Show, in 1967. The show featured usually opened with a question and answer session with the audience and the silliness ensued—broad comedy skits and sketches with Burnett using her expressive face to great humorous ends. The show ran for eleven seasons, leaving the air in 1978. Burnett later returned to television with the comedy series Carol & Company in 1990 and The Carol Burnett Show in 1991—neither effort lasted long. Most recently Carol Burnett has made a guest appearance on the hit television series Desperate Housewives in 2006.
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The Carol Burnett Show hit the small screen in 1967—and instantly breathed new life into the prime-time variety show genre. As the first hour-long comedy-variety show to be hosted by a woman, the success of The Carol Burnett Show and its remarkable eleven-year run was unprecedented. With a wonderful cast, including Harvey Korman, Lyle Waggoner, Vicki Lawrence, and Tim Conway; the brilliant costume designer Bob Mackie; Hamilton as the executive producer; and a team of talented writers, the show won twenty-four Emmy Awards. Each weekly installment featured elaborate musical numbers, movie spoofs, and a plethora of guest celebrities, while Burnett created a trunkful of memorable characters—to name but a few, the charwoman, the disgruntled middle-aged daughter Eunice, and Starlett O’Hara in Went With the Wind.
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Carol Burnett was born in San Antonio, Texas to Jodie and Louise Burnett. Both of her parents, particularly her father, suffered from alcoholism, and at a young age she was left with her grandmother. Burnett moved to Hollywood, California with her grandmother where she graduated from Hollywood High School and then attended University of California, Los Angeles, eventually working her way up through bit parts on TV.
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C[O]median, actress, singer, dancer, and TV, musical theater and movie star Carol Burnett was born on April 26, 1933, in San Antonio. She attended college at the University of California in Los Angeles.
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Carol Burnett