Roseanne Barr

Biography

Roseanne Barr, one of America's funniest comedians, has another side that not many people have seen. She was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. During her teenage years, she worked as a dishwasher at a local restaurant. She married Bill Pentland and they had three children together. They remained married for 16 years, until Roseanne found her place as a comedian. She worked doing stand-up comedy until her 8/23/85 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) thrust her into the limelight. In 1987, HBO offered her a show of her own, On Location: The Roseanne Barr Show (1987). It was canceled after a short time. In 1989, Roseanne starred opposite Meryl Streep and Ed Begley Jr. in She-Devil (1989). Though her first picture wasn't as successful as she might have hoped, her sitcom,Roseanne (1988), ran for 9 seasons seasons on ABC. During the show, Roseanne fell in love with fellow cast member Tom Arnold and divorced her husband Bill after 16 years of marriage in order to marry Arnold. After 4 years, Roseanne and Arnold divorced. Ratings on her TV show were also down. On Valentine's Day 1995, Roseanne married former bodyguard Ben Thomas. The marriage lasted until 2002. In 1996, she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and won, but she was not there to accept it. After Roseanne (1988) was canceled, she went on Broadway to play "The Wicked Witch of the West" in "The Wizard of Oz" to rave reviews.