RIP Phyllis Diller

Phyllis Diller at her 70th birthday party on July 16, 1987 at Giancarlo restaurant on 3rd Ave near 78 Street in New York. Diller clowns with unidentified man in uniform at her party. (AP Photo/ David Bookstaver)

Humorist Phyllis Diller died Monday in Los Angeles at the age of 95, according to the Associated Press.

The AP reports:

Her longtime manager, Milton Suchin, says Diller died Monday morning in her sleep. She had survived a near-fatal heart attack in 1999.

Diller was a staple of nightclubs and television from the 1950s until her retirement in 2002. She was famous for her distinctive laugh and portrayed herself as a bizarre housewife with a husband named “Fang.” …
Diller was nearly 40 when she began performing, with five children and a successful career as an advertising copywriter. At the time, women were a rarity in the world of stand-up comedy.

Those in their 30s or thereabouts might best remember Diller as a guest-star on “The New Scooby-Doo Movies” in the early 1970s.

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