Longtime comedic legend Phyllis Diller, died yesterday at her Los Angeles home. She was 95.
Mary Lederhandler/AP Comedienne Phyllis Diller gets a lift from emcee Buddy Hackett prior to the celebrity stag luncheon roast at the New York Friars Club Oct. 9, 1985.
She had been living at home in hospice care. She had a heart attack in 1999 and TMZ reports she recently suffered a serious fall.
Diller was found in her bed by her son, Perry, who had come to visit her, manager Milt Suchin said.
“She had a smile on her face, as you’d expect,” Suchin told Reuters.
Her publicist, Fred Wostbrock, called her “a true pioneer” and “the first lady of stand-up comedy.”
Diller made her reputation as a standup comedienne who costarred in 23 TV specials with Bob Hope and later had her own ABC show.
“I’m beyond saddened by the death of Phyllis Diller,” Joan Rivers said in a statement. “We were friends—Melissa and I had a wonderful time with her at lunch just a month ago. The only tragedy is that she was the last from an era that insisted a woman had to look funny in order to be funny. If she had started today, Phyllis could have stood there in Dior and Harry Winston and become the major star that she was. I adored her.”
