Phyllis Diller Loving Life at Age 89
PUSSS...@aol.com
Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- At the age of 89, Phyllis Diller is saying good
night but not goodbye.
Diller, the subject of a new DVD that celebrates her life and documents
her final standup performance in 2002, says she simply got too old to
keep traveling from city to city. But, hey, if you've got a movie role
in mind, give her a call.
"Look, if it's a little old lady, I get the role," she says, breaking
into that famous Diller laugh, the one that sounds something like AHHH!
AHHH! AHHH AHHH!
"I've just done a couple movies where I died and they loved it. Because
without my wig I look dead! AHHH! AHHH! AHHH AHHH!"
Still, she has had to turn down some roles because they were too big
and required more work than she could handle.
"I have energy, but I don't have lasting energy," says Diller, who had
a pacemaker installed after a near-fatal heart attack in 1999. "I could
do maybe two hours, but beyond that I can't. And you have to know your
limitations."
Funny thing is, Diller never seemed to accept any limitations when,
against the odds, she became one of the most famous comedians of her
time. Her lighthearted routines about married suburban life as a living
hell were making her husband, "Fang," a household name when Roseanne
Barr was barely out of diapers.
"The very first female comedian that I ever heard of," Bonnie Hunt says
in the affectionate new documentary "Goodnight, We Love You."
"There weren't any," Diller replies when asked to name the other female
comics working the standup circuit when she broke in at San Francisco's
Purple Onion in 1956.
"One thing that helped me a lot is that there weren't even any male
stand-ups then. They had all become famous and had their own shows on
television," she continued. "And all the new comics coming up were
working double. ... There was Allen and Rossi and Martin and Lewis and
- Who is the angry guy? George Carlin. - Even he was working with a
partner then. That kind of gave me a little niche for what I did."
Standup comedy was, she says now, something she was born to do,
although only her first husband, Sherwood Diller, seemed to know it at
the time. He found his wife so funny that he nagged her for two years
to quit her job as an advertising copywriter and become a comic.
"We had five kids at the time. I don't how he thought we'd handle
that," she says seriously.
Then, breaking into the Diller persona the world knows, she adds
merrily: "In fact, that's what I kept saying for two years. `We've got
these kids here.' He said, `Send 'em home.' I said, `We can't. They're
ours.' AHHH, AHHH, AHHH AHHH."
She finally took the plunge at age 38, appearing in small clubs in Ohio
and Illinois and, to her delight, getting encouragement from many of
the leading male comics of the day. One of them, Don Rickles, appears
in the documentary to poke good-natured fun at her.
Along the way, she became wealthy, moved to a mansion in Brentwood and
put together an impressive collection of antique cars, including a 1927
Mercedes Excaliber Phaeton. She's since sold all the cars but one,
having become too old to drive them.
She held onto the mansion, though, and on a recent day she picks up the
phone there to talk at length about the new film and life in general.
The youngest of her children, Perry Diller, is 55 now, and he appears
briefly in the documentary with her.
"He really takes care of me," she says effusively.
"I have lost some children," Diller adds softly. "But we don't talk
about that."
As to the secret of her longevity, she adds: "Be happy and smile and
laugh and get enough sleep and drink your eight glasses of water a day.
And be honest and truthful. And save your money. You know the best way
to double your money? Fold it and put it in your pocket."
On the Web: http://www.goodnightweloveyou.com
Gregory Morrow
PUSSS...@aol.com wrote:
I LOVE Phyllis...in fact when I was a kid I used to imitate her and my
friends called me "Phyllis"...
Okay, kids, here is a question:
How did the rumour get started that SUSAN LUCCI is her daughter...???
--
Best
Greg
Sweeeet Wizdom
Col. Angus (Retired) wrote:
<<I've always loved Phyllis Diller. Glad she's still alive. Her movies
with Bob Hope were/are funny as hell!!! >>
Me too. She was fabulous in everything she did. I remember her short
lived TV series. I was only a kid when it was on but it was
hysterically funny. I couldn't believe it when it was cancelled.
Jon Nadelberg
Was that the one where she was supposed to be really rich, but was
actually broke?