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Carol Burnett has enjoyed a seven-decade career in show business, breaking barriers for women in comedy and staying active as ever at 90 years of age.
She stars on “Palm Royale” on AppleTV+ alongside Kristen Wiig, Allison Janney and Laura Dern.
Despite her talent, her legendary career may not have happened without a few lucky breaks she gratefully acknowledges.
In a recent interview on “WTF with Marc Maron,” while recounting her many serendipitous circumstances, Burnett said, “I got a little angel here somewhere.”
Carol Burnett described some of the astonishing lucky breaks in her life, saying, “I got a little angel here somewhere.” (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
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Her lucky streak began when Burnett was about to graduate high school and desperately wanted to attend UCLA but could not afford the tuition.
She recalled on “WTF” that it cost $43 a term in 1951. Her family’s rent was $30 a month at the time, an amount they could barely afford.
She was determined to attend and said on “The Howard Stern Show” in 2015, “I knew I was going to go. It wasn’t like I wished for it or was hoping for it. I saw myself on campus. And I didn’t know how I was going to get there, but I knew it was going to happen.”
Then, by chance, an envelope addressed to her with $50 appeared in her mailbox. She noted on “WTF” it had been typed, so there was no handwriting to analyze, and although it had a stamp, it hadn’t actually been mailed. It was placed in the mailbox.
Burnett said she received $50 in her mailbox with no explanation, which helped pay her tuition for UCLA and got her into theater and performing. (CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images)
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“To this day, I don’t know where that came from. Because we didn’t have that kind of money,” Burnett said, adding “everybody was poor” in her building, so it was unlikely to have been a generous neighbor.
At UCLA, Burnett intended to pursue journalism like her mother, but there was no specific major for the field, so she enrolled as a theater arts/English major.
She was required to take an acting class, and that’s where she got her first taste of laughter.
“I wasn’t really ready to do the acting thing, but I had no choice. The first show I was ever in was a student-written one-act script, and I played a hillbilly girl,” Burnett told the Toronto Star in 2009.
Burnett recalled getting her first laugh in a college show, telling the Toronto Star, “Everything changed for me.” (CBS via Getty Images)
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“Don’t ask me why, but when we were in front of the audience, I suddenly decided I was going to stretch out all my words and my first line came out, `I’m baaaaaaaack!’
“They laughed,” she continued. “They laughed and it felt great. All of a sudden, after so much coldness and emptiness in my life, I knew the sensation of all that warmth wrapping around me. I had always been a quiet, shy, sad sort of girl, and then everything changed for me. You spend the rest of your life hoping you’ll hear a laugh that great again.”
Burnett’s next opportunity came from a generous benefactor.
After performing at a party in San Diego alongside some fellow students, Burnett and her boyfriend were approached by a man and his wife who, after learning they wanted to move to New York after graduation, offered them each a $1000 loan.
The loan was interest-free, and the man requested that she pay it back in five years if she could, never reveal his name and someday show the same generosity should she become successful.
“His wife told me he had also helped somebody start a restaurant and another person run a gas station. He liked the people he picked and felt that they had a chance and were sincere, so he sponsored them,” Burnett told People. “Somebody had helped him get his start in this country. So he was paying it forward.”
On “WTF,” Burnett noted she paid him back, and true to her word, she’s never revealed his name.
“Weird things happen like that,” she added of these generous breaks.
Burnett was loaned $1,000 by a generous benefactor, so she could move to New York. (Getty Images)
Once in New York, Burnett landed her breakout Broadway role in “Once Upon a Mattress” through pure talent, but the timing did prove to be somewhat magical.
At the time, Burnett thought she had secured a role in a show but was turned down because she wasn’t a big enough star. Her younger sister, Chrissie, was living with her at the time and told her, “You know the cliché, one door closes another one opens.”
According to Burnett, the phone rang “that instant” with a call from the producers of “Once Upon a Mattress,” asking her to audition for George Abbott, a director she had long wanted to work with. She auditioned and arrived home to another phone call telling her she got the part.
Burnett was nominated for a Tony award for her work on the show, and it launched her to superstardom.
Burnett earned her breakout role in the Broadway show “Once Upon a Mattress” the same day she lost another part in a different show. (Getty Images)
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It’s also how she met lifelong friend Julie Andrews, who she described as a “long-lost sister” on “WTF.”
They appeared together in the televised special “Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall” in 1962, earning an Emmy for outstanding program achievement in the field of music and an Emmy for Burnett for her performance.
Last year, Burnett celebrated her 90th birthday with a two-hour special and a host of celebrity friends, including Andrews.
“One thing I have always said is that she’s very bawdy in a good sense of the word,” Burnett told Fox News Digital at the time. “And very funny. She gave me class when I worked with her. And she said I allowed her to be silly. It was wonderful to have her there. She sat with me the whole evening. She flew out just for this. It was so sweet. I was just so touched.”
Burnett described Andrews as a “long-lost sister” on “WTF with Marc Maron.” (Kevin Winter)
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Burnett also made another life-long connection with fellow comedian Lucille Ball, who recognized her talent and offered support and mentorship.
“She never tried to give me any advice,” Burnett told Fox News Digital in 2019. “She was not one to give any kind of advice. She just supported me. And we had fun working together. Having fun was so important to us.”
Burnett and Ball appeared on a special together and remained friendly until Ball’s death in 1989.
On “WTF,” Burnett said, “She sent me flowers on my birthday every year,” with a card that said, “Happy Birthday, kid.”
The day Ball died happened to be Burnett’s 56th birthday, and Burnett remembered turning on the news that day and learning Ball had died.
“And I got her flowers that afternoon,” she said fondly.
Burnett revealed on “WTF” that Lucille Ball sent her flowers every day on her birthday, including the day the late comedienne died. (Getty Images)
The chance circumstances that helped Burnett along the way are more than outmatched by her work ethic. She headlined her own comedy variety show, “The Carol Burnett Show,” for 11 years, bringing in 25 Emmys, as well as Golden Globes and a Grammy for her other work.
She’s also starred in films like “Annie” and made numerous television appearances, most recently in “Better Call Saul” and “Palm Royale,” as part of a still thriving acting career.
“I always approach it as something new that I’ve never done before, so I’m just happy to be working and that I’ve got all my parts,” she told Extra at the premiere of “Palm Royale.” “I have my hips and my knees — and I think my brain. So, as long as I can keep that up and work, then I want to work.”
Burnett will turn 91 April 26 and told the outlet the best gift would be a second season for “Palm Royale.”
“That’ll keep me working, which I like. Yes, as long as I have fun, and that’s what I want.”
