P
hyllis Diller (July 17, 1917 – Au-
gust 20, 2012) was an American ac- tress and comedienne. She created a stage persona of a wild-haired and eccentrically dressed housewife who made self-deprecating jokes about her age and appearance, her ter- rible cooking, and a husband named “Fang”, while pretending to smoke from a long cigarette holder. Diller’s signature was her unusual laugh.
Early life Diller was born Phyllis Ada Driver in Lima, Ohio, the daughter of Fran- ces Ada (née Romshe; January 12, 1881 – January 26, 1949) and Perry Marcus Driver (June 13, 1862 – Au- gust 12, 1948), an insurance agent. She had German and Irish ances- try (the surname “Driver” had been changed from “Treiber” several gen- erations earlier). Her mother was about twenty years younger than her father.Diller was raised a Methodist. Diller attended Lima’s Central High School, then studied piano for three years at the Sherwood Music Conser- vatory of Columbia College Chicago before transferring to Bluffton Col- lege, where she met fellow “Lima-ite” and classmate Hugh Downs.
Diller was a housewife, mother, and advertising copywriter. During World War II, Diller lived in Ypsi- lanti, Michigan, while her husband worked at the historic Willow Run Bomber Plant. In the mid-1950s, she made appearances on Te Jack Paar Show and was a contestant on Groucho Marx’s quiz show You Bet Your Life.
Although she made her career in comedy, Diller had studied the piano for many years. She decided against a career in music after hearing her teachers and mentors play with much more skill than she thought that she would be able to achieve. She still played in her private life, however, and owned a custom-made harpsi- chord.
Diller, a longtime resident of the Brentwood area of Los Angeles, Cali- fornia, credited much of her success to Bob Hope, in large part because he included her in many of his films and his Vietnam USO shows. She was an accomplished pianist as well as a painter.
Diller was married and divorced twice. She also dated Earl “Madman” Muntz, a pioneer in oddball TV and radio ads.
She had six children from her mar- riage to her first husband, Sherwood Anderson Diller. Her first child was Peter (born 1940; died 1998 of can- cer). Her second child Sally, born in 1944, has suffered from schizophre- nia most of her life. Her third child, a son, born in 1945, lived for only two weeks in an incubator. A daughter, Suzanne, was born in 1946, followed by another daughter Stephanie (born 1948 died 2002 of a stroke) and a son Perry (b. 1950).
Diller’s second husband was actor Warde Donovan (born Warde Ta- tum), whom she married on 7 Octo- ber 1965 and divorced the following year; they apparently re-married and
divorced for a second time in 1974.
She was the partner of Robert P. Hastings from 1985 until his death in 1996.
Her youngest son Perry, now 62, oversaw her affairs until her death.
Diller was not the mother of actress Susan Lucci, nor TV personality Dorothy Lucey, despite urban leg- ends to that effect, frequently passed through viral emails under trivia headings such as “Did You Know...?” Te husband frequently mentioned in her act, “Fang”, was entirely fic- tional, and not based on any of her actual husbands.
Health problems Diller suffered medical problems, in- cluding a heart attack in 1999. After a hospital stay she was fitted with a pacemaker and released. A bad fall resulted in her being hospitalized for neurological tests and pacemaker re- placement in 2005. She subsequently retired from stand-up comedy ap- pearances.
On July 11, 2007, USA Today re- ported that she had fractured her back and had to cancel a Tonight Show appearance, during which she had planned to celebrate her 90th birthday. On January 4, 2011, she appeared on CNN’s Anderson Coo- per 360° as part of a panel of come- dians. She died, with a smile on her face, in her Brentwood, Los Angeles, California home at the age of 95 on August 20, 2012.
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