Smallscreen Features

Comic Phyllis Diller remembered by Latin Diva Monique Marvez (VIDEOS)

By April MacIntyre Aug 20, 2012, 21:09 GMT

Diller indeed was the queen of skewering the 50s housewife, put upon by her fat mother-in-law, and always decked out in nifty shimmery shifts courtesy of "Omar of Omaha" with a husband named "Fang."

Phyllis Diller, the housewife who morphed into a career comic with a trademark cackle, died Monday morning in her Los Angeles home at age 95.

Diller indeed was the queen of skewering the 50s housewife, put upon by her fat mother-in-law, and always decked out in nifty shimmery shifts courtesy of "Omar of Omaha" with a husband named "Fang."

"She was a true pioneer," Fred Wostbrock said. "The first female stand-up comedian. She paved the way for everybody. She paved the way for Joan Rivers, Ellen DeGeneres, Chelsea Handler. Phyllis was the first of the first. The first female to play Vegas ... she was on Broadway, she made movies. She did it all."

Her longtime manager, Milton Suchin, told The Associated press, "She died peacefully in her sleep with a smile on her face."

According to E!, her son Perry found her. She is also survived by two daughters.

"Phyllis Diller," says comedian Monique Marvez (Showtime Latin Divas, Snoop Dogg's Bad Girls of Comedy") "is the reason women today have the ability to tell the truth on stage and be respected and more importantly paid for it.  She was self-deprecating because she knew who she was and how it would play. She was the intellectual, comedic equivalent of old money:  No need to flash beauty, brains or strength. It showed."

Time magazine in 1961 described Phyllis Diller as "the poor man's Auntie Mame, only successful female among the New Wave comedians and one of the few women funny and tough enough to belt out a 'standup' act of one-line gags."