The American comedian, Joan Rivers, has passed away at the age of 81. She had suffered a cardiac arrest a week prior to her passing.
Miss Rivers first success was as a guest on the Tonight Show in 1965, which she would go on to guest star on a number of occasions. She would also was a guest on the Ed Sullivan Show, as well as the Carol Burnett Show.
Miss Rivers would go on to make appearances on many other television shows, including Here’s Lucy, Needles and Pins, How to Murder a Millionaire, Lady Boss, and Dawn French’s Girls Who Do Comedy. She would star in Another World, An Audience with Joan Rivers, Joan Rivers: Can We Talk?, The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers, and The Joan Rivers Show.
She would win a daytime Emmy for The Joan Rivers Show, as well as five other Emmy nominations, a Grammy Award nomination, and a Tony Award nomination. She also received a star on the Walk of Fame in 1989.
Miss Rivers was born Joan Alexandra Molinsky in Brooklyn on June 8th, 1933 to Meyer and Beatrice Molinsky. She had an older sister, Barbara. Miss Rivers attended Barnard College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1954 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature and anthropology. Her agent, Tony Rivers, suggested a change name, so she took the stage name, Joan Rivers.
Miss Rivers’ first marriage, James Sanger, was in 1955 and was annulled later that year. She would marry again, to Edgar Rosenberg in 1965, which lasted to his death in 1987. Her daughter, Melissa Warburg Rosenberg (known by her stage name of Melissa Rivers), was born in 1968.
Miss Rivers suffered a cardiac arrest on August 28th, 2014 while undergoing surgery and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and reportedly placed into an induced coma. She would later be put on life support, and passed away a little after 1:00 p.m. on September 4th.
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