Carol Burnett
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.
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.
