Joan Alexandra Molinsky
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Joan Rivers born Joan Alexandra Molinsky was an American comedian, talk show host, and actress from Brooklyn, New York. She voiced Dot Matrix in Mel Brooks’ 1987 film Spaceballs and starred in films such as Shrek 2 and Iron Man 3. She won a Daytime Emmy in 1990 for Outstanding Talk Show Host and was the first permanent guest host on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1982.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Joan Rivers — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Joan Rivers by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Joan Rivers — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Joan Alexandra Molinsky was born on June 8, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York, to Beatrice Grushman Molinsky, a housewife, and Meyer C. Molinsky, a doctor. Both parents were Russian Jewish immigrants. Growing up, she was overweight, which she later said profoundly affected her body image. She attended Connecticut College and later transferred to Barnard College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature and anthropology in 1954. She also studied at Columbia University.
Rivers started performing stand-up comedy under the stage name Pepper January before becoming a writer for Candid Camera. She gained fame as a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and in 1982 was appointed its first permanent guest host. Her 1986 departure to host her own show, The Late Show on Fox, ended her friendship with Carson, who never spoke to her again. She then hosted the daytime talk show The Joan Rivers Show from 1983 to 1993, winning a Daytime Emmy in 1990. Rivers also acted in films such as Spaceballs 1987 as the voice of Dot Matrix, Look Who’s Talking 1989, and Iron Man 3 2013. She co-hosted Fashion Police from 2002 until her death.
Rivers married James Sanger in 1956; the marriage ended in divorce the following year. In 1965, she married English television producer Edgar Rosenberg, with whom she had her only child, Melissa Rivers, born in 1968. Rosenberg died by suicide in 1987 after a period of depression and financial trouble. She was close friends with Barbara Walters, whom she met in 1965, and remained friends for nearly 50 years. Rivers was national spokesperson for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and supported the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
Joan Rivers broke barriers as a pioneering female comedian in a male-dominated field. She influenced comedians like Kathy Griffin and Sarah Silverman. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television on July 26, 1989, and was named Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year. Her red-carpet commentary on Fashion Police changed celebrity fashion coverage. After her death in 2014, her daughter Melissa continued her legacy. Her sharp wit, fearless comedy, and red carpet interviews define her legacy.
Browse the complete filmography of Joan Rivers — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Joan Rivers — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Joan Rivers's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
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A wall of memorable lines from Joan Rivers — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
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.
Queen Camilla Is an Earthy, Funny Woman. You Can Swear in Front of Her.
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.
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.
I Knew I Was an Unwanted Baby When I Saw My Bath Toys Were a Toaster and a Radio.
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.
New York Was the Magic City. New York Was Oz. All I Wanted to Do Was Get Out of Brooklyn and Get into Oz. We’d Go to the Theater District I Saved My Money, and I Would Go with a Girlfriend and Sit in Sardi’s, Order an Avocado for 60 Cents, and Wait to Be Discovered. They Must Have Been Thrilled to See Us. We Went to Howard Johnson’s, and My Friend Smoked a Cigarette. We’re Sitting at the Howard Johnson’s, and We’re Smoking Cigarettes Say No More.
Men Who Look Down My Dress Usually Compliment Me on My Shoes.
That Awful, Vulgar, Loud Woman on Stage, That’s Not Me. I Wouldn’t Want to Be Her Friend.
I Don’t Exercise. If God Had Wanted Me to Bend Over, He Would Have Put Diamonds on the Floor.
My Best Birth Control Now Is Just to Leave the Lights On.
The Secret of My Success Is Just Saying What Everybody Else Has Been Thinking.
I Haven’t Missed the Emmys Since That Year My Makeup Team Was Nominated for Best Special Effects!
Look at Gwyneth Paltrow Being Named the Most Beautiful This Year. Congratulations, Gwyneth! Now Look at Who She Got to Vote: Ray Charles, José Feliciano, Helen Keller, Ronnie Milsap, Tom Sullivan, and Stevie Wonder.
Never Be Afraid to Laugh at Yourself; After All, You Could Be Missing Out on the Joke of the Century.
I Hate Housework. You Make the Beds, You Do the Dishes…and Six Months Later, You Have to Start All Over Again.
There Are Three Things All Children Should Be Taught Never to Do: Touch a Hot Stove; Pull Lamps off Tables; and Wake Their Mother Before Noon.
A Study Says Owning a Dog Makes You 10 Years Younger. I’d Rescue Two More, but Who Wants to Go Through Menopause Twice?
At My Funeral, I Want Meryl Streep Crying in Five Different Accents.
Want to Know Why Women Don’t Blink During Foreplay? Not Enough Time.
If You Don’t Want Gays in the Military, Make the Uniforms Ugly.
My Love Life Is Like a Piece of Swiss Cheese: Much of It’s Missing, and What’s There Stinks.
The Great Thing About Irrigating Your Colon Is That Sometimes You Find Old Jewelry.
People Say That Money Is Not the Key to Happiness. but I’ve Always Figured That, with Enough Money, You Can Hire a Battering Ram.
All I Ever Heard When I Was a Kid Was,Why Can’t You Be More Like Your Cousin Sheila? and Sheila Had Died at Birth.
I Wish I Had a Twin, so I Could Know What I’d Look Like Without Plastic Surgery.
I Have No Sex Appeal. If My Husband Didn’t Toss and Turn, We’d Never Have Had Any Kids.
Little-known facts about Joan Rivers — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
In 1982, she was named the first permanent guest host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. She angered Johnny Carson by leaving to host her own show, The Late Show on Fox in 1986, and Carson never spoke to her again.
She began performing stand-up comedy using the stage name Pepper January.
She was nominated for a Broadway Tony Award in 1994 as Best Actress Play for portraying Sally Marr in Sally Marr… and Her Escorts.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in English literature and anthropology from Barnard College in New York City in 1954.
Early in her career, before becoming a successful comedienne and talk show host, she worked as a writer for Candid Camera.
On July 26, 1989, she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television at 7030 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
She served as the national spokesperson for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
She was an advocate of plastic surgery for older women, stating that once a woman can afford it, it is beneficial for her self-esteem.
After college graduation, she briefly worked as a shoe buyer for Lord & Taylor, a department store in New York City.
She attended Connecticut College for Women in New London, Connecticut.
Her parents were Meyer C. Molinsky, a doctor in Brooklyn, and Beatrice Grushman Molinsky, a housewife, both Russian Jewish immigrants.
Her mentor was the late Phyllis Diller.
In 2012, Rivers protested Costco because they would not sell her New York Times bestselling book I Hate Everyone… Starting with Me. She handcuffed herself to a shopping cart and shouted through a megaphone; police were called but she left without incident.
She served as an Honorary Director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Most of her plastic surgery was performed by Santa Monica surgeon Steven Hoefflin, who also performed plastic surgery on Michael Jackson’s nose. She also received Botox and collagen injections every four months from New York City dermatologist Patricia Wexler.
After her funeral at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan, she was cremated at Garden State Crematory in Union City, New Jersey, and her ashes were sprinkled in Wyoming.
She supported the Elton John AIDS Foundation and God’s Love We Deliver, which delivers meals to HIV/AIDS patients in New York City.
On August 28, 2014, Rivers was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital after experiencing complications during throat surgery at a New York City clinic.
Although she disliked discussing politics in her comedy routines, during interviews she enjoyed skewering politicians by insulting both their policies and their fashion.
She changed her last name from Molinsky to Rivers because she wanted to be an actress; her agent Larry Rivers suggested the change.
She met Barbara Walters at NBC in 1965, and despite potential competition, the two became friends for nearly 50 years, until Rivers’ death.
She was among the stars who released statements in Paul Reubens’ defense after his arrest for indecent exposure in July 1991.
Her hobbies included dancing, philanthropy, spending time with family, social media, collecting necklaces and jewelry, dining, cooking, petkeeping, traveling, and collecting Fabergé eggs.
An accomplished author, she wrote several candid autobiographies including Enter Talking and Still Talking, self-help books like Bouncing Back and Don’t Count the Candles, and comedy books such as Having a Baby Can Be a Scream and The Life and Hard Times of Heidi Abromowitz.
She lived in Malibu, California with her daughter Melissa Rivers and her grandson Edgar Cooper Endicott.
Before her success, she performed as half of the comedy team of Joanie and Bill with former actor William Perry, nephew of actress Toby Wing.
Decades before Johnny Carson’s death, she called him many times, but he refused to answer. When she hosted The Tonight Show, Carson would receive her phone call but would hang up and never speak to her.
She was a Phi Beta Kappa key holder from Barnard College, where she studied anthropology.
Her funeral on September 7, 2014, was attended by Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Bernadette Peters, David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Kathy Griffin, Donald Trump, Rhonda Shear, Boy George, Deborah Norville, Kelly Osbourne, Howard Stern, Robin Quivers, Regis Philbin, Kathie Lee Gifford, Rachael Ray, Geraldo Rivera, Sally Jessy Raphael, Sarah Jessica Parker, Judy Sheindlin, Barbara Walters, Rosie O’Donnell, Diane Sawyer, and her daughter Melissa Rivers.
She won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1990 for best talk show host and was nominated for a Tony Award in 1994 for Donna Marr and Her Escorts. She was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording in 1985.
On June 30, 2004, she announced that she and her daughter Melissa Rivers were leaving E! Entertainment to host red-carpet shows on the TV Guide Channel after being with E! since 1996.
She attended Adelphi University in Garden City, New York.
She said in an interview that she was overweight through childhood and adolescence, which profoundly affected her body image throughout her life.
She hosted a daily talk show on WOR-AM radio in New York City from 1997 to 2002, syndicated to about 50 stations.
Her father, Dr. Meyer C. Molinsky, graduated from medical school at Long Island College and kept an office at 760 Montgomery Street in Crown Heights, New York, in the mid-1930s.
She maintained a residence in Litchfield County, Connecticut, adjacent to the former Bill Blass estate.
She met a young Rhonda Shear at a surgeon’s clinic when Shear needed a nose job; their friendship lasted exactly 30 years until Rivers’ passing.
According to her daughter Melissa, Rivers was fastidious in keeping accurate records of every appearance, performance, jokes used on television, and clothes worn to stay fresh.
Unlike fellow talk show host Geraldo Rivera, Rivers was a huge fan of dancing and invited nearly every musician onto both of her talk shows.
She knew Kelly Osbourne when Osbourne was only six years old and later worked with her on Fashion Police.
Her older sister, Barbara Waxler, passed away on June 3, 2013, at age 82.
After being fired from her late-night talk show and the death of her husband, Geraldo Rivera recruited her to host a daytime talk show, The Joan Rivers Show, which ran until its cancellation at the end of 1993.
She never retired from comedy.
On the 100th episode of The Late Show, Rivers faced two problems: sinking ratings and separation from her husband Edgar Rosenberg, who was depressed, in bad health after years of smoking, and deeply in debt. He asked for help, but she refused, telling him to get help himself. Before his suicide, she was fired from the show after one year.
The public best remembers her as host of The Joan Rivers Show, Fashion Police, and Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?
In 1964, before becoming a successful comedienne, she was part of a comedic musical trio called Jim, Jake, and Joan.
She graduated from the Adelphi Academy of Brooklyn in Brooklyn, New York, at age 18 in 1951.
Her career almost ended after feuding with Johnny Carson, the loss of her husband Edgar Rosenberg, and her short-lived talk show The Late Show, but she made a comeback with her daytime talk show The Joan Rivers Show.
Before becoming a television personality, she was the most frequent guest on Truth or Consequences, opposite Bob Barker, who knew she was funny and hilarious, and she was also doing club performances.
At age 39, she moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1972 to write a book and pursue a career as a talk show host and television personality.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Joan Rivers.
Celebrities similar to Joan Rivers — same craft, ranked by reach.
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