Biography of Carol Burnett

About the Artist

Few entertainers in any field anywhere have endeared themselves to the American public as overwhelmingly, as sweetly as Carol Burnett. Burnett has played everything from nervous klutz to earth-mother, has sung everything from Tarzan yells to Sondheim anthems, has conquered television, triumphed on stage, written a best-selling memoir, as well as the Broadway hit Hollywood Arms.

Burnett's melancholy charlady is a comedic gem as unforgettable as the best of Chaplin. Her Scarlett O'Hara opposite Harvey Korman's Rhett Butler, her hilarious Norma Desmond, her dim, gum-chewing Miss Wiggins, and her disarmingly straightforward Everywoman before a studio audience are the stuff of television history. "The Carol Burnett Show" won a total of 22 Emmy Awards during its eleven years on CBS, and Burnett herself has hardly stood still since then. She gathered new fans in Robert Altman's picture A Wedding, delighted in Pete 'n Tillie opposite Walter Matthau, and made the most of the juicy role of Miss Hannigan in the film version of Annie. On stage, she created improbably, irresistible chemistry opposite Rock Hudson in I Do! I Do! and later gave one of her most complex comic creations in Moon Over Buffalo. In 1999, she blazed her way through Stephen Sondheim's revue Putting It Together.

Her early years were not easy, but hers is also a true American success story, a classic show biz saga. Carol Burnett was born in Texas but grew up in Hollywood. Her parents died young and Carol lived mostly with her grandmother, Mabel Eudora White, the eccentric and beloved "Nanny" for whom the loving granddaughter would give a little ear-tug at the end of each television broadcast. Most of the time, the family lived on welfare.

But the girl's talent could not be kept a secret, and after graduating from Hollywood High School, Burnett saved enough money for the tuition to UCLA ($42). She started out as a journalism major, soon switched to theater arts and English in order to pursue a career as a playwright, began getting roles in student productions and discovered where she belonged. Burnett moved to New York City in her junior year to become an actress, thanks to a $1,000 gift from a benefactor who asked only three things in return: to remain anonymous, for the young actress to repay the money if possible, and help others if she became a success.

She worked as a hatcheck girl—a memory she would later use to comic advantage—but soon landed a job playing a ventriloquist's dummy in "The Wichell-Mahoney Show" in 1955. One small role led to another, with a stint on Buddy Hackett's "Stanley" in 1956, a variety of cabaret appearances in 1957, and the creation of her first hit: a comic showstopper called "I Made a Fool of Myself Over John Foster Dulles." Burnett performed that parody initially in the New York café circuit, then on "The Tonight Show" hosted by Jack Paar, and on Ed Sullivan's "Toast of the Town." She became just that.

Acclaim came in 1959, with the George Abbott-Mary Rodgers musical Once Upon a Mattress. As the "terribly timid and horribly shy" heroine of this musical version of "The Princess and the Pea," Burnett propelled the show from Off-Broadway cult success to Broadway triumph. The same year, Burnett became a regular on the popular "Gary Moore Show," where she won her first Emmy in 1962. Also that year, she teamed up with her friend Julie Andrews for the special "Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall," winning another Enmy and beginning a tradition of unlikely pairings that continued opposite Andrews again, then Beverly Sills, Placido Domingo, and most recently Frederica Von Stade, backed by John McDaniel and the San Francisco Symphony.

"The Carol Burnett Show" had its debut in 1967, ran through 1978, and continues to delight new generations in syndication to this day. Alongside Burnett were Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway, the most likable bunch of brilliant comics assembled in one cast since the glory days of "I Love Lucy." The show helped define a golden age of television comedy, and the love affair between Burnett and the American public was no casual fling. It was and remains the real thing.

Philip Bosco, her costar in the comedy Moon Over Buffalo, echoed countless actors and directors when he praised Burnett as "the loveliest star one can imagine." Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2003, arts critic Octavio Roca pronounced Burnett "quite simply the funniest woman alive." Like her fellow Kennedy Center Honoree Lucille Ball, Burnett has transcended all her roles and over the last four decades has become an American institution. She is one of the most beloved comediennes of all time, her presence on a stage, as well as on the small or big screen a promise of greatness and warmth. Carol Burnett is an American original.