Carol Burnett | |
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 Burnett in 2014 | |
| Born | Carol Creighton Burnett (1933-04-26)April 26, 1933 (age 92) San Antonio, Texas, U.S. |
| Education | University of California, Los Angeles |
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| Years active | 1955–present |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3, includingCarrie Hamilton andErin Hamilton |
| Notable work | The Carol Burnett Show Miss Agatha Hannigan inAnnie Eunice Harper Higgins onMama's Family See alsofull list |
| Comedy career | |
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Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is an American comedian, actress, singer and writer. Burnett has played dramatic and comedic roles on stage and screen. She has receivednumerous awards and accolades, including sevenGolden Globe Awards, aGrammy Award, sevenPrimetime Emmy Awards, twelvePeople's Choice Awards, twoPeabody Awards and aTony Award. Burnett has been honored withaStar on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1975, thePresidential Medal of Freedom in 2005, theMark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2013, and theScreen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2015.[1][2]
Burnett was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, until her family moved to Hollywood, living a block away from Hollywood Boulevard.[3] She attendedHollywood High School and eventually studied theater and musical comedy atUCLA. Later, she performed in nightclubs in New York City and had a breakout success on Broadway in 1959 inOnce Upon a Mattress, for which she received aTony Award nomination. She soon made her television debut, regularly appearing onThe Garry Moore Show for the next three years, and won her firstEmmy Award in 1962.
Eventually, Burnett moved back to Los Angeles and began an 11-year run as star of theCBS variety-sketch comedy seriesThe Carol Burnett Show from 1967 to 1978. She is the first woman to host a comedy-variety series.[4][5] With itsvaudeville roots,The Carol Burnett Show was a variety show that combinedcomedy sketches with song and dance. The comedy sketches includedfilm parodies and character pieces. Burnett created many memorable characters during the show's run, and both she and the show won numerous Emmy andGolden Globe Awards.
Burnett's film roles includePete 'n' Tillie (1972),The Front Page (1974),A Wedding (1978),The Four Seasons (1981),Annie (1982),Noises Off (1992), andHorton Hears a Who! (2008). On television, she won anEmmy Award for her guest role inMad About You and appeared in multiple specials withJulie Andrews. She was Tony-nominated for her role inMoon Over Buffalo (1995). Recently she has acted inBetter Call Saul (2022),Palm Royale (2024), andHacks (2025). She recorded her memoirIn Such Good Company (2016) for which she won aGrammy Award.[6][7]
In 2019, the Golden Globes created theCarol Burnett Award for career achievement in television, giving Burnett the first award.[8] She was honored with anNBC specialCarol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love celebrating her 90th birthday.
Carol Creighton Burnett was born on April 26, 1933, at Nix Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, the daughter of Ina Louise (née Creighton), a publicity writer for movie studios, and Joseph Thomas Burnett, a movie theater manager.[10][11][12][13][14][15] Her maternal grandparents were William Henry Creighton (1873–1918) and Mabel Eudora "Mae" Jones (1885–1967).[16] Her parents divorced in the late 1930s. Subsequently, both parents independently moved to Hollywood and Burnett moved with her grandmother to a one-room apartment near her mother. They lived in an impoverished area of Hollywood, California,[17] in aboarding house with Burnett's younger half-sister Chrissie.[citation needed]
When Burnett was in second grade, she briefly invented an imaginary twin sister named Karen, withShirley Temple-like dimples. She later recalled that, motivated to further the pretense, she "fooled the other boarders in the rooming house where we lived by frantically switching clothes and dashing in and out of the house by the fire escape and the front door. Then I became exhausted and Karen mysteriously vanished."[18] When Burnett was nine, she taught herself how to do the "Tarzan yell", which she realized years later was a good vocal exercise for volume,[19] and it became a fan favorite. Burnett's first experiences with singing were with her family. Her grandmother was a trained musician who could play the piano (although they did not have one at the time), and her mother played the ukulele, so they sometimes sang popular songs in harmony together around the kitchen table.[20] Her grandmother frequently took Burnett and her sister to the movies. They would take a few rolls of toilet paper home from the theater.[21] The movies she saw in her youth influenced the sketch content inThe Carol Burnett Show.[22]
Burnett worked as an usherette at the Warner Brothers Theater (now theHollywood Pacific Theatre). When the cinema screenedAlfred Hitchcock'sStrangers on a Train (1951), having already seen and enjoyed the film, she advised two patrons arriving during the last five minutes of a showing to wait until the beginning of the next showing to avoid spoiling the ending for them, but the couple insisted on being seated. The manager observed Burnett not letting the couple in and fired her, stripping theepaulettes from her uniform on the spot.[23] Years later in the 1970s after achieving TV stardom, when theHollywood Chamber of Commerce offered her a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame, they asked her where she wanted it. She replied "Right in front of where the old Warner Brothers Theater was, at Hollywood and Wilcox", which is where it was placed,[13][24] at 6439 Hollywood Blvd.[25]
After graduating fromHollywood High School in 1951, Burnett received an anonymous envelope containing $50 for one year's tuition atUCLA, where she initially planned on studying journalism.[19][26] During her first year of college, she switched her focus to theater arts and English, with the goal of becoming a playwright. She found she had to take an acting course to enter the playwright program. On the subject, she later reflected: "I wasn't really ready to do the acting thing, but I had no choice."[27] During her first performance, she got a sudden impulse to speak her lines in a new way. "Don't ask me why, but when we were in front of the audience, I suddenly decided I was going to stretch out all my words and my first line came out 'I'm baaaaaaaack!'"[27] The audience response moved her deeply:
They laughed and it felt great. All of a sudden, after so much coldness and emptiness in my life, I knew the sensation of all that warmth wrapping around me. I had always been a quiet, shy, sad sort of girl and then everything changed for me. You spend the rest of your life hoping you'll hear a laugh that great again.[27]
During this time, she performed in several university productions, garnering recognition for her comedic and musical abilities. Her mother disapproved of her acting ambitions:
She wanted me to be a writer. She said you can always write, no matter what you look like. When I was growing up she told me to be a little lady, and a couple of times I got a whack for crossing my eyes or making funny faces. Of course, she never, I never, dreamed I would ever perform.[18]
The young Burnett, always insecure about her looks, responded many years later to her mother's advice of "You can always write, no matter what you look like" by noting "God, that hurt!" in her memoirOne More Time (1986).
During her junior year at UCLA in 1954, a professor invited Burnett and some other students to perform at a party in place of their class final that had been canceled (which required a performance in front of an audience). Afterwards, a man and his wife approached her while Burnett was stuffing cookies in her purse to take home to her grandmother.[28] Instead of reprimanding her, the man complimented her performance and asked about her future plans. When he learned that she wanted to travel to New York in order to try her luck in musical comedy but could not afford the trip, he offered her and her boyfriend (Don Saroyan) each, on the spot, a $1,000 (equivalent to $11,709 in 2024) interest-free loan; the man, who was a millionaire fromLa Jolla, California, wasn't affiliated with show business and had earned his wealth from theshipbuilding industry.[26] His conditions were simply that the loans were to be repaid within five years, his name was never to be revealed, and if she achieved success, she would help other aspiring talents to pursue their artistic dreams. Burnett took him up on his offer, and she and Saroyan left college and moved to New York to pursue acting careers. That same year, her father died of causes related to his alcoholism.[29]
Burnett spent her first year in New York working as a hat-check girl and trying to land acting jobs. She and other girls living at theRehearsal Club (a boarding house for women seriously pursuing acting careers) put onThe Rehearsal Club Revue on March 3, 1955. They mailed invitations to agents, who showed up along with stars likeCeleste Holm andMarlene Dietrich. Such attendance opened doors for several of the girls.[citation needed]
Burnett was cast in a minor role onThePaul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Show in 1955. She played the girlfriend of a ventriloquist's dummy on the popular children's program. This role led to her starring role oppositeBuddy Hackett in the short-lived sitcomStanley from 1956 to 1957.[citation needed]
AfterStanley, Burnett found herself unemployed for a short time. A few months later she bounced back, becoming highly popular as a performer on the New York circuit of cabarets and night clubs, most notably for a hit parody number called "I Made a Fool of Myself OverJohn Foster Dulles" (Dulles wasSecretary of State at the time). In 1957, she performed this number on bothThe Tonight Show andThe Ed Sullivan Show. Dulles was asked about her onMeet the Press and joked, "I never discuss matters of the heart in public."[30]Around this time she also worked as a regular on one of television's earliest game shows,Pantomime Quiz. On January 10, 1958, just as she was achieving her first small successes, her mother died. In October 1960, Burnett debuted at New York City'sBlue Angel Supper Club, where she was discovered by scouts forThe Jack Paar Show andThe Ed Sullivan Show.[31]
Burnett's first true taste of success came with her appearance on Broadway in the 1959 musicalOnce Upon a Mattress, for which she was nominated for aTony Award; in the same year, she paid back her mysterious benefactor "to the day" after agreeing to her non-obligatoryunsecured loan of $1,000.[26] The same year, she became a regular player onThe Garry Moore Show, a job that lasted until 1962. She won an Emmy Award[32] that year for her "Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Musical Program or Series" on the show. She portrayed a number of characters, most memorably the put-upon cleaning woman. The character later became her signature alter-ego. With her success on theMoore Show, Burnett finally rose to headliner status and appeared in the specialJulie and Carol at Carnegie Hall (1962), co-starring with her friendJulie Andrews. The show was produced byBob Banner, directed byJoe Hamilton and written byMike Nichols and Ken Welch.[33]Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Program Achievement in the Field of Music, and Burnett won an Emmy for her performance.[34] She also guest-starred on a number of shows during this time, includingThe Twilight Zone episode "Cavender Is Coming". In July 1963 Burnett starred as Calamity Jane in the Dallas State Fair Musicals production ofCalamity Jane[35] and had her television special debut in 1963 when CBS aired that production on November 12, 1963.[36]
In 1964, Burnett starred in the Broadway musicalFade Out – Fade In but was forced to withdraw after sustaining a neck injury in a taxi accident. She returned to the show later but withdrew again to participate in a variety show,The Entertainers, oppositeCaterina Valente andBob Newhart. The producers ofFade Out – Fade In sued the actress for breach of contract after her absences from the popular show caused its failure, but the suit was later dropped.The Entertainers ran for only one season.[37] Around the same time, Burnett became good friends withJim Nabors, who was enjoying great success with his seriesGomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. As a result of their close friendship, she played a recurring role on Nabors' show as a tough corporal and later as agunnery sergeant (starting with the episode"Corporal Carol"). Later, Nabors would be the first guest on her variety show each season. She considered him to be her good-luck charm.[38]
In 1959,Lucille Ball became a friend and mentor to Burnett. After having guested on Burnett's highly successful CBS-TV specialCarol + 2 (1966) and having the younger performer reciprocate by appearing onThe Lucy Show (1966–1967), it was rumored that Ball offered Burnett a chance to star on her own sitcom. In truth, Burnett was offered (but declined)Here's Agnes by CBS executives.[39] The two women remained close friends until Ball's death in 1989. Ball sent flowers every year on Burnett's birthday. When Burnett awoke on the day of her 56th birthday in 1989, she discovered via the morning news that Ball had died. Later that afternoon, flowers arrived at Burnett's house with a note reading, "Happy Birthday, Kid. Love, Lucy."[40]
In 1963 she made her feature film debut in comedyWho's Been Sleeping in My Bed? starring oppositeDean Martin andElizabeth Montgomery. Burnett said of her role in the film, "I should have been given the award for “Worst Performance Ever Given in Movies by an Actress.” I was confused, bored and I missed the [live] audience. Nothing was spontaneous."[41] During this time she acted in the CBS variety showThe Entertainers alongsideBob Newhart and in an episode of theMel Brooks andBuck Henry created spy comedy seriesGet Smart in 1966.
In 1967, after CBS offered BurnettHere's Agnes, she exercised a stipulation in her ten-year contract with CBS that said she had five years from the dateThe Garry Moore Show ended to "push the button" on hosting thirty one-hour episodes of a music/comedy variety show.[39][42] As a result, the hour-longCarol Burnett Show was born and debuted in September 1967, eventually garnering 23Emmy Awards and winning or being nominated for multiple Emmy andGolden Globe Awards every season it was on the air. Its ensemble cast includedTim Conway (who was a guest player until the ninth season),[43]Harvey Korman,Lyle Waggoner and the teenagedVicki Lawrence, whom Burnett discovered and mentored. The network initially did not want her to do a variety show because it believed only men could be successful at variety, but her contract required that it give her one season of whatever kind of show she wanted to make.[39][44] She chose to carry on the tradition of past variety show successes. During this time Burnett was the first celebrity to appear on the children's seriesSesame Street, appearing on that series' first episode on November 10, 1969.[45] She also made occasional returns to the stage in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1974, she appeared atthe Muny Theatre inSt. Louis, Missouri, inI Do! I Do! withRock Hudson.
A true variety show,The Carol Burnett Show struck a chord with viewers. Among other subjects, it parodied films (Went with the Wind! forGone with the Wind), television (As the Stomach Turns for the soap operaAs the World Turns) and commercials. There were also frequent musical numbers. Burnett and her team struck gold with the original sketch "The Family", which eventually was spun off into the television showMama's Family, starringVicki Lawrence. She opened most shows with an impromptu question-and-answer session with the audience, lasting a few minutes, during which she often demonstrated her ability to humorously ad lib. On numerous occasions, she obliged when asked to perform her trademark[46]Tarzan yell. She ended each show by tugging on her left ear, which was a message to her grandmother. This was done to let her know that she was doing well and that she loved her. During the show's run, her grandmother died. On anIntimate Portrait episode about Burnett, she tearfully recalled her grandmother's last moments: "She said to my husband Joe from her hospital bed 'Joe, you see that spider up there?' There was no spider, but Joe said he did anyhow. She said 'Every few minutes a big spider jumps on that little spider and they go at it like rabbits!!' And then she died. There's laughter in everything!"[47] Burnett continued the tradition of tugging her ear.
The show ceased production in 1978. Four post-script episodes were produced and aired onABC during the summer of 1979 under the titleCarol Burnett & Company. The productions used essentially the same format and, with the exception of Harvey Korman and Lyle Waggoner, the same supporting cast. Beginning in 1977, the comedy sketches of her series were edited into half-hour episodes for syndication entitledCarol Burnett and Friends, which for many years proved to be extremely popular in syndication. In the digital age, the series began airing onMeTV in January 2015.[citation needed] Burnett starred in a few films while her variety show was running, includingPete 'n' Tillie (1972) andThe Front Page (1974). She was nominated for an Emmy in 1974 for her role in the drama6 Rms Riv Vu. The show's enduring popularity surprised many when a 2001 retrospective containing outtakes and discussions with the cast, and a tribute toBob Mackie, who designed all of the costumes that appeared on the show and enhanced outfits with comedic touches, drew in 30 million viewers, topping the Emmy Awards as well as all but the final game of that year'sWorld Series.[29] Her Grammy-winning memoirIn Such Good Company is about the show, and Burnett tells about how it was developed, with anecdotes about improvisations, the cast, crew, and guests.[citation needed]
After her show ended, she assumed a number of roles that departed from comedy. She appeared in several dramatic roles, most notably in the television movieFriendly Fire. She appeared as Beatrice O'Reilly in the filmLife of The Party: The Story of Beatrice, a story about a woman fighting her alcoholism.[48] Her other film work includesRobert Altman's comedy-dramaA Wedding (1978),Alan Alda's romantic comedyThe Four Seasons (1981),John Huston's musical filmAnnie (1982), andPeter Bogdanovich's comedyNoises Off (1992). She took the supporting role of Carlotta Campion in the 1985 concert performance ofStephen Sondheim'sFollies. In 1995, after an absence of 30 years, she was back on Broadway inMoon Over Buffalo, for which she was nominated for aTony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Four years later, she appeared in the Broadway revuePutting It Together.
In the 1980s and 1990s, she made several attempts at starting a new variety program. She also appeared briefly onThe Carol Burnett Show's "The Family" sketches' spinoff,Mama's Family, as her stormy character,Eunice Higgins. She played the matriarch in thecult comedy miniseriesFresno, which parodied the primetime soap operaFalcon Crest. In 1987 she starred in a variety sketch special,Carol, Carl, Whoopi and Robin alongsideCarl Reiner,Whoopi Goldberg, andRobin Williams. That same year she starred in the TV moviePlaza Suite withDabney Coleman andHal Holbrook. She reunited withJulie Andrews in the ABC specialJulie & Carol: Together Again which they performed at thePantages Theatre in Hollywood. She returned to television with the comedy seriesCarol & Company from 1990 to 1991. She guest starred as herself inThe Larry Sanders Show in 1992 and in the sitcomMad About You, playing Theresa Stemple, the mother of main character Jamie Buchman (Helen Hunt), for which she won thePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.
She made frequent appearances as a panelist on the game showPassword, an association she maintained until the early 1980s (Mark Goodson awarded her his Silver Password All-Stars Award for best celebrity player; she is also credited with coming up with the titlePassword Plus, when it was originally titledPassword '79). Burnett had long been a fan of the soap operaAll My Children and realized a dream whenAgnes Nixon created the role of Verla Grubbs for her in 1983. Burnett played the long-lost daughter of Langley Wallingford (Louis Edmonds), causing trouble for her stepmother Phoebe Tyler-Wallingford (Ruth Warrick). She made occasional appearances on the soap opera in each decade thereafter. She hosted a 25th-anniversary special about the show in 1995 and made a briefcameo appearance as Verla Grubbs on the January 5, 2005, episode which celebrated the show's 35th anniversary. She reprised her role as Grubbs in September 2011 as part of the series' finale. She also starred in television films such asSeasons of the Heart (1994).
Burnett's first voice role was inThe Trumpet of the Swan in 2001. In 2008, she had her second role as an animated character in the filmHorton Hears a Who! In 2012, she had another voice role as the character Hara in the US Disney-dubbed version ofThe Secret World of Arrietty. In 2019, she voiced a talking chair, named Chairol Burnett, inToy Story 4.Burnett similarly returned to film in 2005 to star in a different role as Queen Aggravain in the movie version ofOnce Upon a Mattress. She guest-starred in season two episodes ofDesperate Housewives as Bree's stepmother, Elanor Mason. In 2009, she made a guest appearance on theLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit, for which she was nominated for theEmmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. In November 2010, she guest-starred onan episode ofGlee as the mother of cheerleading coachSue Sylvester.[49] In 2014, Burnett joined two-time Tony Award Winner, Brian Dennehy, on Broadway in A. R. Gurney'sLove Letters. She appeared on the reboot ofHawaii Five-0 as Steve McGarrett's Aunt Debbie. Her appearances, traditionally on Thanksgiving-themed episodes, were featured from 2013 until the character died of cancer in the January 15, 2016, episode.[50][51]
Burnett has mostly stayed away from the spotlight, yet she still earns honorary awards for her groundbreaking work in comedy. For instance in 2013, she received theMark Twain Prize for American Humor at theKennedy Center. Those who were there to honor Burnett included her longtime friends and collaboratorsJulie Andrews,Vicki Lawrence andTim Conway, as well asTina Fey,Amy Poehler,Maya Rudolph,Rashida Jones andMartin Short.[52] In 2017,CBS airedThe Carol Burnett Show: 50th Anniversary Special. The event featured Burnett, original cast membersVicki Lawrence andLyle Waggoner, costume designerBob Mackie and special guestsJim Carrey,Kristin Chenoweth,Stephen Colbert,Harry Connick Jr.,Bill Hader,Jay Leno,Jane Lynch,Bernadette Peters,Maya Rudolph andMartin Short.[53] Burnett spoke about the adversity she endured, saying "They said it was a man's game—Sid Caesar,Dean Martin,Milton Berle—because it hadn't been done. But that doesn't mean it couldn't be done."[53]
In 2019, theGolden Globes created an award in Burnett's name, theCarol Burnett Award, for career achievement in television. Burnett was also announced as the first recipient of the award. TheHollywood Foreign Press said in a statement, "For more than 50 years, comedy trailblazer Carol Burnett has been breaking barriers while making us laugh".[54]Steve Carell presented the award to Burnett.
In June 2022, Burnett guest starred in thesecond half of thesixth and final season of American drama seriesBetter Call Saul, a spin-off, prequel, and sequel toBreaking Bad. Burnett was announced to be portraying a character named "Marion" on June 27, 2022, byAMC.[55] Of how she got the role Burnett stated, "I was a big fan ofBreaking Bad and I knewVince Gilligan...When they startedBetter Call Saul, I got hooked on that and he said, 'you know, maybe I'll write something for you for Saul.' I said, I don't care if it's one sentence. I'll be there. Because I just love their writing. I spent two and a half months inNew Mexico doing that and it was just a delight."[56] Upon Burnett missing out on an Emmy nomination for her role, Daniel Feinberg ofThe Hollywood Reporter praised Burnett, lamenting the outcome and describing her performance "as a subtle symphony of world-weary nuance."[57]
On April 26, 2023, Burnett was honored for her music, film, television, and theater roles by her friends and fellow actors and singers on her 90th birthday in theNBC specialCarol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love, which was filmed at the Avalon Hollywood Theatre.[58] Numerous stars came out to pay tribute to Burnett includingJulie Andrews,Cher,Ellen DeGeneres,Lily Tomlin,Amy Poehler, andKristin Wiig. The special won the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special (pre-recorded) at the75th Creative Emmy Arts Emmy Awards. As an executive producer of the special, Burnett accepted the Emmy on behalf of the special's team.[59] Burnett also presented theEmmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series toQuinta Brunson forAbbott Elementary at the75th Primetime Emmy Awards. Upon accepting the Emmy from Burnett, Brunson started to choke up saying, "I don’t even know why I’m so emotional. I think, like, the Carol Burnett of it all".[60]
In March 2024, Burnett co-starred alongsideKristen Wiig,Allison Janney, andLaura Dern in theApple TV+ comedy seriesPalm Royale.[61] Her performance earned praise from critics, with Tom Gliatto ofPeople highlighting Burnett as the series' "strongest performance", adding: "Burnett plays Norma with an unforgiving toughness — even when she’s comatose — and, by some miracle, she projects the slapstick kick of her oldCBScomedy show."[62] Judy Berman ofTime wrote "the legendary Carol Burnett [plays] the funniest convalescent you'll ever meet."[63] Burnett said that whilePalm Royale was "probably" her last acting appearance, she was pursuing other projects as a writer, producer, or presenter.[64]
In 2025, she played herself in theMax comedy seriesHacks season four episode entitled, "I Love L.A.". In the episode Burnett offers some critical advice to Deborah (played byJean Smart) who's overcome by a sudden bout of anxiety. Smart said of Burnett, "It was such a treat to have her. There's nobody like her in terms of comedy and just being an incredibly cool human being.... If I can be like her or Betty White when I'm in my 90s, I'll be a very, very happy lady."[65]
Burnett has received 23Primetime Emmy Award nominations with 6 wins for her work inThe Garry Moore Show,Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall,The Carol Burnett Show,Mad About You, andPalm Royale. In 2024 at age 91, she became the oldest nominee for aPrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, for her work inPalm Royale.[66]
She also received 18Golden Globe Award nominations, winning 7 Awards, for her work onThe Carol Burnett Show. She also received 3Tony Awards and 3Grammy Awards nominations, winning one of each.[67][68]
Burnett also received various honors including 2Peabody Awards, aScreen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award and a Star on theHollywood Walk of Fame.[69][70][13][24] In 2003, she was honored with theKennedy Center Honor.[71] In 2005, she received thePresidential Medal of Freedom, awarded to her by PresidentGeorge W. Bush. In 2013, she received theMark Twain Prize for American Humor. In 2019 she became the first recipient of theCarol Burnett Lifetime Achievement Award for Television, which was named in her honor.[72]
On her 90th birthday she was honored with anNBC variety special entitled,Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love where various collaborators and performers paid tribute to her. This includedJulie Andrews,Vicki Lawrence,Lily Tomlin,Steve Carell,Amy Poehler,Ellen DeGeneres,Bob Odenkirk, andCher among many others.
Burnett married her college sweetheart Don Saroyan on December 15, 1955. They divorced in 1962.[73]
On May 4, 1963, Burnett married television producerJoe Hamilton, a divorced father of eight and brother of actressKipp Hamilton[74] who had produced her 1962 Carnegie Hall concert. He later producedThe Carol Burnett Show, among other projects.[75] The couple had three daughters:
In early 1965 she had a miscarriage while in her ninth week of pregnancy.[79]
Burnett and Hamilton's marriage ended in divorce in 1984. The challenge of coping with Carrie's drug problems was mentioned as part of the reason for the separation, but the couple took the opportunity to inform other parents about handling such problems and raised money for the clinic in which Carrie was treated.[80] In 1988, Burnett and Carrie took a trip to Moscow to help introduce the firstAlcoholics Anonymous branch in theSoviet Union.[29][81] Joe Hamilton died of cancer in 1991.[75] Also in the 1980s, Burnett participated in a publicity campaign forMedicAlert, of which she is symbolically theone millionth member with the one millionth bracelet.[82]
On November 24, 2001, Burnett married drummer Brian Miller, who is 23 years her junior.[29][83]
Burnett has enjoyed close friendships withLucille Ball,Beverly Sills,Jim Nabors (who became the godfather to her daughter Jody),[38]Julie Andrews andBetty White. She is the acting mentor toVicki Lawrence. They share a close friendship, as noted by Lawrence in a testimonial speech during her appearance at Burnett's 2013 Mark Twain Award in Washington, D.C. (recorded and broadcast on PBS Television).[84]
In August 2020, Burnett and her husband petitioned for guardianship of Burnett's teenage grandson. Burnett was already "educational rights holder", holding the legal right to make decisions about her grandson Dylan's schooling.[85] Burnett and Miller subsequently held temporary guardianship of the child from September 2020 to November 2021, at which point Dylan's case worker assumed the role.[86]
In keeping with her promise to the anonymous benefactor who assisted her in 1954, she has contributed to scholarship programs at UCLA and the University of Hawaii to help people in financial need.[87] On November 6, 2025, UCLA announced that Burnett had " endowed a scholarship at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (TFT). The scholarship will support high-potential undergraduate students in the school’s Ray Bolger Musical Theater Program."[88] At the same time, she donated more than 140 industry awards and honors and ephemera, which will be displayed on a rotating basis in the lobby of UCLA's Freud Playhouse.[89]
Recording appearances as a singer:[90]
Solo/duet albums
Other recordings
Memoirs
Burnett and her oldest daughter, Carrie Hamilton, co-wroteHollywood Arms (2002), a play based on Burnett's bestselling memoir,One More Time (1986). The show was developed at the 1998 Sundance Theatre Lab andThe Goodman Theatre before arriving on Broadway, directed byHarold Prince.[108][109]Sara Niemietz andDonna Lynne Champlin shared the role of Helen (the character based on Burnett), whileMichele Pawk played Louise, Helen's mother, andLinda Lavin played Helen's grandmother. For her performance, Pawk received the 2003Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play.[110] The show received a staging at New York'sMerkin Concert Hall in 2015.[111]
Burnett has written and recorded three memoirs, each voice recording receiving a nomination forGrammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.In Such Good Company won the Grammy for Best Spoken Word at the 59th Grammy Awards.[112]
Books
In 1976, thetabloid newspaperThe National Enquirer published an article alleging that Burnett had been drunk and boisterous in public at a restaurant with U.S. Secretary of StateHenry Kissinger in attendance. Soon afterwards, they published a retraction stating that "We understand these events did not occur and we are sorry for any embarrassment our report may have caused Miss Burnett". Burnett sued for libel, and after years of persistent litigation, won a judgment against theEnquirer in 1981. Though the initial jury award of $1.6 million was reduced to $200,000 after a series of appeals, and the final settlement was out of court, the event was widely viewed as a historic victory for libel victims oftabloid journalism.[115][116][117][118][119][120][121]
In 2007, Burnett and Whacko, Inc. brought a suit against20th Century Fox demanding at least $2 million in damages after an animated likeness of Burnett appeared in the 2006 episode "Peterotica" of the animated sitcomFamily Guy. In the episode, the characters discuss the cleanliness of a porn shop,Glenn Quagmire stating that it is so clean because Burnett works there as a janitor. Burnett is then shown as hercharwoman character mopping the floor, while a modified version ofThe Carol Burnett Show theme tune plays. The lawsuit alleged copyright infringement, violation of publicity rights and misappropriation of Burnett's name and likeness. In addition to damages, Burnett and her company demanded that Fox remove all references to her, the theme and the character. The studio refused.[122][123] The court ruled in favor of the defendant because the bit was a parody, which is protected by theFirst Amendment, particularly byFair Use doctrine.[124]
Carol Burnett is honored at The Kennedy Center 16th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. on October 20, 2013. from left to right, Brian Miller (Carol's husband) Carol Burnett Zachary Carlson, and Christine Sanchez.
Christine Burnett, Jim Nabors, Carol Burnett and Joe Hamilton
Jim Nabors and Christine Burnett
Burnett, 88, and her spouse, Brian Miller, had been Dylan's temporary guardians since Sept. 1, 2020.
The episode at issue put a cartoon version of Carol Burnett/the Charwoman in an awkward, ridiculous, crude, and absurd situation in order to lampoon and parody her as a public figure. Accordingly, the Court finds this factor weighs in favor of fair use.
