Roseanne Cherie Barr
(born November 3, 1952) is an American actress, comedian, and writer.
Barr won both an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her work on Roseanne
. In addition, she has won five People's Choice Awards, three American Comedy Awards, and a Kids Choice Award.
In 2008, Barr and the cast of Roseanne were honored with the Innovator Award at the TV Land Awards.
|
ROSEANNE BARR TICKETS
|
Biography
Early life
The eldest of 4 children, she was born in
Salt Lake City, Utah, to a working-class
Jewish family. Her mother, Helen (
née Davis), was a bookkeeper and cashier, and is famous for teaching young Roseanne her signature "Fat-Lady Laugh". Her father, Jerome Hershel “Jerry” Barr, worked in sales as a door-to-door salesman of household goods.
[1] [2] Barr's grandparents and great-grandparents were immigrants from
Ukraine,
Russia,
Lithuania and
Austria-Hungary, and her paternal grandfather changed his surname from "Borisofsky" to "Barr" upon entering the United States.
Barr's parents kept their Jewish heritage secret from their neighbors and, thus, were partially involved in
The Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints. Barr has stated that "Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning I was a Jew; Sunday afternoon, Tuesday afternoon, and Wednesday afternoon we were Mormons;"
[3] her Jewish upbringing was influenced by her devoutly
Orthodox Jewish maternal grandmother.
[4]
Barr's brother and sister are
gay, which is what later inspired her to introduce gay characters into her sitcom Roseanne.
[5]
Barr married
Bill Pentland, on February 4, 1974. They had three children, Jessica, Jennifer, and Jake. In 1971, prior to marriage and while residing in Denver, Roseanne had a daughter named Brandi for whom she arranged an adoption.
Career
Roseanne became famous in the early 1980s with her
overweight stand-up comedy routine, receiving critical acclaim for her unglamorized portrayal of the typical
American working-class housewife. In her routine she popularized the now well-known phrase, "domestic goddess," to refer to a homemaker or housewife. The success of her act led to her own series on
ABC, called
Roseanne
. The show ran from 1988 to 1997, and co-starred
Emmy winners
Laurie Metcalf and
John Goodman. Roseanne won an
Emmy, a
Golden Globe, a
Kids Choice Award, and three
American Comedy Awards for her part in the show. For the final season Roseanne earned $650,000 an episode.
[6]
During the show's final season, Roseanne was in negotiations between Carsey-Werner Productions and ABC executives on continuing to play Roseanne Conner in a new spin-off of
Roseanne
.
[7] However, ABC had withdrawn from negotiations with Carsey-Werner and Roseanne and after failed discussions with
CBS and
FOX, Carsey-Werner and Roseanne agreed to not go on with the negotiations.
[8] After the end of her sitcom's run, she portrayed the
Wicked Witch of the West in a production of
The Wizard of Oz
at
Madison Square Garden.
In 1994, Barr became the first female comedian to ever headline as the host for the
MTV Video Music Awards on her own, and she remains the only female comedian to have ever done so.
[9]
She went on to host her own talk show,
The Roseanne Show
, which ran for two years before it was canceled in 2000. In the summer of 2003, she took on the dual role of hosting a cooking show (called
Domestic Goddess
) and starring in a
reality show (called
The Real Roseanne Show
) about hosting a cooking show, although
food poisoning and an emergency
appendectomy brought a premature end to both projects. In 2005, she returned to stand-up comedy, touring the world. In February 2006, Roseanne performed her first-ever live dates in
Europe as part of the Leicester Comedy Festival in
Leicester, England. The shows took place at De Montfort Hall. She released her first kids' DVD,
Rockin' with Roseanne: Calling All Kids
, that month.
Roseanne has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6767
Hollywood Blvd.
Roseanne's return to the stage culminated in an HBO Comedy Special ''Roseanne Barr: Blonde N Bitchin
, which aired November 4, 2006, on HBO. Two nights earlier, Roseanne returned to prime-time network TV with a guest spot on NBC's
My Name Is Earl'', playing a crazy trailer park manager.
On January 11, 2007,
TV Land announced that Roseanne would be the host of season three of
The Search for the Funniest Mom in America
on
Nick at Nite.
[10] The show aired in spring 2007. She has signed on to host a daily radio talk show on
KCAA in the
Los Angeles area.
She just completed a stint, headlining at the
Sahara Hotel and Casino on the
Las Vegas Strip in
Las Vegas, Nevada.
[when?]
On
March 23 2009 it was announced that Roseanne would be returning to primetime with a new sitcom, where she would once again play the matriarch. Jim Vallely, of
Arrested Development, has been tapped to pen the series.
[11]
On
April 15 2009 Barr made a small appearance on Bravo's 2nd Annual A-List Awards in the opening scenes. She played Kathy Griffin's fairy god mother, granting her the wish to be on the
A-List for one night only.
Starting on Wednesday, January 7, 2009, Roseanne has co-hosted a one-hour show on
KPFK, a
Pacifica Radio station, at 5:00 p.m.
Personal life
In January 1990, Barr
divorced Pentland and married Tom Arnold.
Four years later Barr and Arnold divorced.
She later married her security guard, Ben Thomas, on
Valentine's Day, in 1995. They had one son, Buck Thomas. Barr and Thomas divorced in 2002.
Self-rediscovery
Barr told James Rampton of
The Independent
that fame went to her head. Barr, who had worked as a
window dresser and waitress in Denver, said she had become famous quickly and lost touch with reality. "I was in a sound studio for almost a decade. At the end of it, like
Rip van Winkle, I came back and found that everything had changed. Suddenly there were computers and e-mails, and it took me another 10 years to catch up with regular people. But the TV show is over. What am I going to do?"
Barr returned to stand-up comedy but with a notably different appearance: she has lost some weight, dyed her hair blonde, and had
plastic surgery, which she does not recommend - "Now I realize that everyone has to get old and die, but it was still a very bad experience.... No one looks better after plastic surgery. Just pink and shiny. At the end of it, you look like an idiot." Barr claims that some of her surgery was for health reasons; she had a
rhinoplasty to correct
sleep apnea; while her
breast reduction surgery was to reduce back pain.
Barr has written that she considers herself a
kabbalist and a follower of
Jesus Christ.
[12]
Filmography
Television work
- Rodney Dangerfield: It's Not Easy Bein' Me
(1986)
- On Location: The Roseanne Barr Show
(1987)
- Roseanne
(1988-1997)
- Little Rosie
(1990-1991)
- Backfield in Motion
(1991)
- The Rosey and Buddy Show
(1992) (voice) (unsold pilot)
- The Woman Who Loved Elvis
(1993)
- MTV Video Music Awards
(host, 1994)
- General Hospital
(cast member in 1994)
- The Nanny
(1997)
- 3rd Rock from the Sun
(1998)
- The Roseanne Show
(1998-2000)
- The Larry Sanders Show
(1998)
- The Brothers Garcia
(2001)
- The Real Roseanne Show
(2003) (cancelled before 1 episode)
- Roseanne Barr: Blonde and Bitchin
(2006)
- My Name Is Earl
(2006)
- The Search For The Funniest Mom In America 3
(2007)
- Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack
(2008)
- Comedy Live Presents
(2008)
- Bravo's 2nd Annual A-List Awards
(2009)
Film
- She-Devil
(1989)
- Look Who's Talking Too
(1990) (voice)
- Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
(1991)
- Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
(1993)
- Dancing Outlaw II: Jesco Goes to Hollywood
(1994) (documentary)
- Unzipped
(1995) (documentary)
- Blue in the Face
(1995)
- Meet Wally Sparks
(1997)
- Get Bruce
(1999) (documentary)
- Cecil B. Demented
(2000)
- 15 Minutes
(2001)
- Home on the Range
(2004) (voice)
- Michael Moore's Slacker Uprising
(2008) (guest appearance)
Awards
Emmy Awards:
- Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for: "Roseanne" (1993)
Golden Globe Awards:
- Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Comedy/Musical for: "Roseanne" (1993)
People's Choice Awards:
- Favorite Female Performer in a New TV Program for: "Roseanne" (1989)
- Favorite All-Around Female Entertainer (1990)
- Favorite Female TV Performer for: "Roseanne" (1990)
- Favorite Female TV Performer for: "Roseanne" (1994)
- Favorite Female TV Performer for: "Roseanne" (1995)
TV Land Awards:
- Innovator Award (Collaborative) for: "Roseanne" (2008)
American Comedy Awards:
- Funniest Female Leading Performer in a Television Series for: "Roseanne" (1989)
- Funniest Female Leading Performer in a Television Series for: "Roseanne" (1993)
- Funniest Female Leading Performer in a Television Series for: "Roseanne" (1996)
Kids Choice Awards:
- Favorite Television Actress for: "Roseanne" (1992)
References
- Roseanne Biography (1952-)
- The Family Tree of Roseanne Barr
- Roseanne: Jewish Latter-day Saint actress and entertainer
- JewishJournal.com
- http://books.google.com/books?id=WMtihv99wSYC&pg=PA122&dq=roseanne+barr+lesbian+sister&client=firefo
- WHISTLING WHILE THEY WORK | Seinfeld | Pop Culture News | News | Entertainment Weekly
- Roseanne to Continue on TV But Is Expected to Leave ABC
- A Rest for Roseanne
- http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/162384/1994-host-roseanne-barr.jhtml
- Roseanne Barr to host Nick at Nite's 'Funniest Mom in America'
- [1]
- FLATTERED, BUT NOT FREE