Joan Rivers (born 8 June, 1933) is a United States comedian, talk show host, and celebrity. She is known for her brash manner and loud, gruff voice with a heavy New York City accent.

Rivers was born as Joan Sandra Alexandra Molinsky in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from Barnard College in 1954 with a B.A. in English and anthropology.

In the 1960s she made television appearances as a comedian on the popular shows The Tonight Show and The Ed Sullivan Show, as well as hosting the first of her several talk shows. She would often be brought in as a guest host of the Tonight Show through the 1980's. In the early 1980's she was named the permanment guest host of that show.

In 1978 she directed the film Rabbit Test.

In the mid 1980's she received her own evening talk show on the Fox Television Network, one of the launch shows for the new network. At the time she was the permanent guest host for Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. Carson was so upset by her decision to leave, he banned her from his show, even after Rivers' show failed. The two never reconciled before his 2005 death.

Soon after the cancellation of her series, her husband Edgar Rosenberg committed suicide. Joan was devastated by the loss but eventually returned to television with a daytime talk show of her own, "The Joan Rivers Show," which ran from 1989 until 1993.

Joan Rivers has been awarded the 1975 Georgie Award as "Best Comedienne", the Clio Award for "Best Performance in a TV Commercial" in 1976 and 1982, and the 1990 Daytime Emmy Award as "Best Talk Show Host".

As of 2005, Joan Rivers is a host for the TV Guide channel, often cohosting red carpet specials before awards shows with her daughter, Melissa Rivers. She previously worked for the E! Entertainment Television network in a similar role. In the movie Shrek 2, she cameoed as a computer-generated version of herself, hosting the parody ME! Medieval Entertainment Television channel.

In a 2005 Channel 4 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, she was voted amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

Rivers is an avid and unapologetic user of plastic surgery to enhance her looks. She is also an avid collector of jewelry.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Joan Rivers

• JoanRivers.com (http://www.joanrivers.com/)
• E! Entertainment Bio (http://www.eonline.com/Facts/People/Bio/0,128,13333,00.html)
• IMDb.com Profile: Joan Rivers (http://imdb.com/name/nm0001672/)