Los Angeles (CNN) — Comedian Phyllis Diller, known for her self-deprecating humor, died “peacefully in her sleep” at her Los Angeles home this morning, her manager said. Diller was 95.
Her son, Perry, “found her with a smile on her face,” manager Milt Suchin said.
Diller’s career as a stand-up comic, which she started at age 37, skyrocketed in the 1960s, partly because of her many appearances with Bob Hope on his television specials, USO tours and three movies.
She became a pop culture icon for her disparaging jokes about her looks, her cooking and her fictitious husband “Fang.” She wore a blonde fright wig, held a long cigarette holder as a prop and laughed with a loud cackle.
One line attributed to her demonstrates how Diller got laughs: “Burt Reynolds once asked me out. I was in his room.”
