Carol Burnett

Season 2, Episode 18

Slapstick comedian Carol Burnett was born April 26, 1935 in San Antonio, Texas and was raised by her loving grandmother, whom Carol credits as the force behind her entrance into show business. She attended UCLA where she majored in Theater and English.

She was a frequent guest on the early television variety shows of Steve Allen, Ed Sullivan and Jack Paar. Her first brush with stardom came when she starred in the 1959 off-Broadway musical Once Upon a Mattress, for which she received her first Tony nomination.

She returned to television in the early 1960s and earned an Emmy award as a regular on The Garry Moore Show. A second Emmy award came in 1962 for a special with Julie Andrews at Carnegie Hall.

In 1967, she launched her own variety show, The Carol Burnett Show, on CBS. The show included the top-notch supporting talent of Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner and Tim Conway and included on-going comedy skits, musical numbers and celebrity guests. For eleven years, the show was consistently at the top of the ratings and cemented Burnett's reputation as the Queen of TV Comedy. The show won over 20 Emmy awards.

In 1982, she starred as Miss Hannigan in the screen adaptation of the musical Annie. In 1996, she returned to Broadway and received her second Tony nomination for Best Actress for her performance in Moon Over Buffalo. In 1997, she starred in the documentary Moon Over Broadway, a no-holds barred look at the adventure of producing a Broadway hit from casting through endless rehearsals to the excitement of the opening night.

Her film credits include Pete N' Tillie (1972), A Wedding (1978), The Four Seasons (1981), Noises Off (1992), Seasons of the Heart (1994) and Get Bruce! (1999).