Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and writer. She is best known for her groundbreaking comedy variety show The Carol Burnett Show, which originally aired on CBS. It was one of the first of its kind to be hosted by a woman. She has achieved success on stage, television and film in varying genres including dramatic and comedic roles.
She has also appeared on various talk shows and as a panellist on game shows. She has won numerous awards over her career and written multiple books. Additionally, Carol Burnett co-wrote autobiographies with her deceased daughter Carrie Hamilton.
Carol Burnett : Early Life
The daughter of Joseph Thomas Burnett, a theatre manager, and Ina Louise (née Creighton), a publicity writer for film studios, Carol Creighton Burnett was born on April 26, 1933, in San Antonio, Texas. William Henry Creighton (1873–1918) and Mabel Eudora “Mae” Jones were her maternal grandparents (1885–1967). She was abandoned when she was a little child with her grandmother because both of her parents were alcoholics.
In the late 1930s, her parents got divorced. After her parents relocated to Hollywood, Burnett and her grandmother moved into a one-room apartment close to her mother. They shared a boarding house in Hollywood, California, with Chrissie, Burnett’s younger half-sister. Burnett had an imaginary twin sister named Karen in the second grade who had dimples akin to Shirley Temple.
Later, she recounted that, driven to maintain the façade, she “We hurried in and out of the house by the front entrance and the fire escape, fooling the other boarders in the rooming house where we resided. Then I was worn out, and Karen just disappeared.” Burnett taught herself how to do the “Tarzan shout” when she was nine years old. Years later, she learned that it was a wonderful vocal practise for loudness, and it ended up becoming a fan favourite.
Carol Burnett : Career
Burnett performed The Rehearsal Club Revue on March 3, 1955, with the help of other females residing at the Rehearsal Club (a boarding house for women actively pursuing acting careers), after spending her first year in New York working as a hat-check girl and failing to get acting roles.
They sent out invitations to agents, who came along with celebrities like Marlene Dietrich and Celeste Holm. Many of the females were able to advance because of their attendance. In 1955, she was given a little part on The Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Show. On the well-liked children’s show, she had the role of a ventriloquist’s dummy’s girlfriend.
She went on to star opposite Buddy Hackett in the brief sitcom Stanley from 1956 to 1957 as a result of this role. Burnett experienced a brief period of unemployment following Stanley. A few months later, she recovered and enjoyed great success as a singer on the New York cabaret and nightclub circuit, most known for her smash parody song “I Made a Fool of Myself Over John Foster Dulles.
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” She played this song on The Tonight Show with Jack Paar and The Ed Sullivan Show in 1957. On Meet the Press, Dulles was questioned about her, and he joked, “I never discuss issues of the heart in public.”
Carol Burnett Net worth
The estimated net worth of Carol Burnett as of August 2022 is more over $30 million. She accumulated this riches during the course of her more than 60-year career as a well-known actress in television. She has had success as an actress in several plays, films, and TV shows. She also has singing and writing talent. Burnett’s appearances on different talk shows contributed to the increase in his net worth. She continues to enthral audiences with her compelling performance.