Phyllis Diller | 1917-2012

Diller holds a Lucy Award in 2000. The award, named for Lucille Ball, honored Diller’s achievements in television. (Rene Macura / Associated Press)

Aug. 20, 2012 12:36 PM PT

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Phyllis Diller,whose career in comedy clubs spanned nearly 50 years, died in her sleep Monday at her longtime home in Brentwood.

Full obituary: Phyllis Diller, outlandish comedian, dies at 95

Diller at the Emmy Awards. In her TV career, she hosted a 1964 talent show called Show Street, starred as the widowed matriarch of a financially strapped society family in the 1966-67 situation comedy “The Pruitts of Southampton” (renamed ”The Phyllis Diller Show” midway through the season), and starred in the short-lived 1968 comedy-variety series ”The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show.” (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

A critic wrote of Diller: “She wasn’t the first woman stand-up comedian, but she was the first to make it respectable, to drag female comedy out of the gay bars, backrooms and low-rent resorts and go toe-to-toe with her male counterparts in prime clubs.” (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

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