Biography for
Joan Rivers More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

8 June 1933, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Birth Name

Joan Alexandra Molinsky

Nickname

Queen of the Barbed One-liners

Height

5' 2" (1.57 m)

Spouse

Edgar Rosenberg	(15 July 1965 - 14 August 1987) (his death) 1 child
James Sanger	(1955 - ?) (annulled)

Trade Mark

Makes jokes about plastic surgery

Loud, raspy voice with New York accent

Trivia

Mother of Melissa Rivers.

Graduated from Barnard College.

Educated at Connecticut College for Women.

Educated at Barnard College in New York City; studied English and anthropology; B.A. (1954).

After graduating from college and before getting into show business, she was briefly a shoe buyer for Lord & Taylor, a department store in New York City.

Collects Faberge eggs.

Said the most difficult celebrity she ever interviewed was Tommy Lee Jones, whom she thought was rude.

Is the national spokesperson for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Hosted daily talk show on WOR-AM radio in New York City from 1997 until 2002, syndicated to about 50 stations.

About 1982, she was appointed the first permanent guest hostess on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (1962). She infuriated Johnny Carson when she left to host her own show, "The Late Show" (1986) on rival Fox network. Johnny Carson never spoke to her again.

She won an Daytime Emmy in 1990 for best talk show host and was nominated for a Tony Award for the play "Donna Marr and her escorts" in 1994. She was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording in 1985.

Was one of the final guests to appear on "The Wayne Brady Show" (2002).

Attended Adelphi Academy before going to college.

Was nominated for Broadway's 1994 Tony Award as Best Actress (Play) for portraying the title character, Sally Marr, in "Sally Marr...and Her Escorts."

Is a vegetarian.

Started performing as a stand-up comedienne using the stage name Pepper January.

She is a Phi Beta Kappa key holder from Barnard College, where she studied anthropology.

She had her first cosmetic surgery procedure (an eye-lift) in 1965 at age 32.

She had her nose thinned in 1983.

The majority of her plastic surgery was performed by Santa Monica surgeon Steven Hoefflin (who also performed plastic surgery on Michael Jackson's nose). She also receives Botox and collagen injections every four months from New York City dermatologist Patricia Wexler.

She is an advocate of plastic surgery for older women saying that if a woman can afford it, it is worth it for her self-esteem

Early in her career she performed as half of the comedy team of "Joanie and Bill". "Bill" was former actor William Perry (1936-2006) who was the nephew of actress Toby Wing.

An accomplished author, she has written several candid autobiographies, including "Enter Talking" and "Still Talking". Author of self-help books, including "Bouncing Back: I've Survived Everything ... and I Mean Everything ... and You Can Too!" and "Don't Count the Candles: Just Keep the Fire Lit!". Author of several comedy books, including "Having a Baby Can Be a Scream" and "The Life and Hard Times of Heidi Abromowitz".

Her father was a doctor.

Is of Russian-Jewish heritage.

Early in her career, she was a writer for "Candid Camera" (1953).

Grandmother of Edgar Cooper Endicott.

Her publicist is Judy Katz.

Is a Republican.

Personal Quotes

Can we talk?! - trademark

(Her idea of a perfect childbirth experience) "Knock me out with the first pain, and wake me up when the hairdresser arrives."

If you're not a wreck in this business, you're not around.

Once I was having lunch in a fancy restaurant with Lily Tomlin and Richard Pryor. We were all struggling comics together and the day we had lunch, any one of us could have picked up the check. That's when I knew I'd made it.

"Camilla Parker-Bowles is an earthy, funny woman. You can swear in front of her".

[In "Parkinson" (1971), when entering] I am a dyke! And I'm DAMN proud of it!

I want them to know I don't think I'm wonderful, or better than they are. Part of comedy is saying: 'I am you and you are me, and we're all feeling the same thing.'

I'm in nobody's circle, I've always been an outsider. I don't have those wonderful dinners with Woody, I've never been asked by Jay. And it makes you sad, because I think it would be wonderful to sit and talk about things that very few people understand. But I'm very competitive, and I'm sure they feel that. I'm jealous of that little slut Paris Hilton. Why? I'm very competitive. And I think that's what has kept me going. I'm not gracious.

The only thing that's saving me is my age. Because I don't care. I've been up, I've been down. I've been fired, I've been hired. I've been broke. What are you gonna to do me? Not like me? I don't give a damn.

There is not one female comic who was beautiful as a little girl.

On young female comics: "They all come up to me and say, 'Without you, I couldn't be here, the barriers you broke down.' I say, 'Get the f*** away from me. I still could take every one of you with one hand behind my back. Outta here. Talk like that at my funeral, but not till then."

One of the reasons I am so happy [as of June 29, 2008] - there's lots happening again. Four times in my life, I woke up and the diary was empty. That's the worst feeling in the world. My Broadway show and my talk show were canceled on the same Friday. And I went that night to see Barbra Streisand, whom I'd started with, perform for 20,000 people at Madison Square Garden. That was a very bad night. Now I'm doing a pilot, I have two books coming, I have my play, I'm in a series that they've shot and they hope will be successful, I'm doing stand-up and I've got my jewelry company. At this age, to be wanted - you are fighting every single step of the way.

I was just interviewed for a documentary [Making Trouble (2007)] on my least favourite subject - women comedians and how we've all been kept out. These two women came to my house, very serious, and asked, 'How long did it take for you to get into the room?' I said, 'Let me tell you something: if Adolf Hitler had four good jokes, he'd be in the room.' It has to do with funny. Then they talked about how women help each other. I said, 'I hate to tell you, but if it was between Sarah Silverman and me for a job? I'll kill her and she'll kill me. There's no sisterhood in comedy.'

There is not one female comic who was beautiful as a little girl. Tell me one funny woman who was ever beautiful. Gwyneth Paltrow_, stop, please, stop, I can't stand it.' Angelina Jolie? Men don't want you funny. It's all about coping when you're not being the pretty girl, and you're not being the first one asked to dance, and the bottle spins and lands on you and Stuart Wein doesn't want to kiss you."

One of the earliest jokes I did about my husband was that I was the one who really caused Edgar's suicide, because, while we were making love, I took the bag off my head.

My husband wanted to be cremated. I told him I'd scatter his ashes at [the department store] Neiman Marcus - that way, I'd visit him every day.

I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio.

In 2008, on working the red carpet for the E! Channel: "You get someone like Russell Crowe, and you want to say to the camera, he is a piece of - get ready to bleep this - f***ing shit." (Rivers was immediately pulled from the UK chat show "Loose Women" (1999) - they had no bleep.) "These idiots came running onto the set, ripped me off my seat and dragged me off, saying, 'Let's go, let's go, let's go.' When the audience saw my empty chair, I worried that, because of my age, they might think I'd wet it because my diaper leaked. People always ask me, 'What haven't you done, Miss Rivers? You've done this and that, been nominated for an Emmy and a Tony. You've hosted shows, you've acted, done stand-up, lost your husband to suicide, been bankrupted by a business partner [who made off with $37m in the 1990s] - what haven't you done?' Well, until today, I'd never been kicked off live television. Assholes."

[Interview with Andrew Scott, June 10, 2010.] I've never been in the 'in' group. I've never been considered. But that's what keeps me punching, if that makes sense. I'm still in the 'I'll show you' mentality.

[on the passing of Elaine Kaufman] Elaine's was a place you went to let everyone know you were in town. It was first stop LA/NY. You knew your name was above the title when Elaine sat with you. I also loved that the prices changed constantly.

[on reality shows] When was the last time you went to a dinner party where three women got up and slapped each other? Everybody's punching and slapping. This is not reality. We got a second season because everybody that has a parent, a mother, anyone can relate to what really happens between adult children and parents.

Having my daughter I screamed for twenty-three hours straight. And that was just during conception.

Boy George is all England needs. Another queen who can't dress.

Salary

"The Late Show" (1986)

$5,000,000/year

Where Are They Now

(June 2002) Performing stand-up, prior to hopeful Broadway run, at club Fez in Manhattan.

(June 2004) On June 30, 2004, Joan announced that she and her daughter, Melissa Rivers, were leaving E! Entertainment to fashion-bash red-carpet-wise over at the TV Guide Channel. They had been with E! since 1996.

(October 2004) Currently in the UK with her new show, "The Joan Rivers Position" (2004).

(May 2007) Maintains a residence in Litchfield County, Connecticut adjacent to the former Bill Blass estate.