Comedian Phyllis Diller died Monday morning at her Los Angeles home.
The 95-year-old was found by her son, Perry.
“She died peacefully in her sleep and with a smile on her face,” her manager, Milton Suchin, told the Associated Press. The cause of her death has not been released.
Diller started a comedy career later in life, at the urging of her first husband Sherwood Diller. She centered her act around jokes about her physical appearance, and experiences with her fictional husband, “Fang.”
She became a pioneer for women in stand-up comedy in the 1950s. Diller made her television debut in 1957 as a contestant on Groucho Marx’s game show “You Bet Your Life.” From 1966-67 she was in “The Phyllis Diller Show.” She also appeared in movies, including “Eight on the Lame” with Bob Hope.
Her husband managed her career until their marriage ended in the 1960s. She went on to marry entertainer Warde Donovan, but the union only lasted a few months.
Diller had a near-fatal heat attack in 1999 and retired from standup in 2002. In 2005 she published an autobiography, “Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse,” and her career was documented in the 2006 film “Goodnight, We Love You.
With Associated Press