Roseanne Barr

Actor, comedienne, producer, talk show host. Born Roseanne Barr on November 3, 1952, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Roseanne became one of America’s most watched sitcom stars during the late 1980s and 1990s. She married Bill Pentland in 1974 and the couple had three children. Roseanne turned her experiences as a wife and mother into a stand-up comedy act and began performing at local clubs. Audiences responded to her “domestic goddess” routine and she got bigger gigs and made friends such as comics as Sam Kenison. She started making appearances on The Tonight Show in the mid-1980s. In 1988, Roseanne became a television star with her self-titled show. Her realistic depiction of a tough, but tender, wise-cracking mom struck a cord with viewers. Roseanne received three Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, before finally winning the award in 1995. In addition to the show, Roseanne has worked in several feature films. She starred in She-Devil (1989) opposite Meryl Streep and Ed Begley, Jr., and appeared in Freddy’s Dead (1991), Blue in the Face (1995), and Meet Wally Sparks (1997). She also voiced a baby girl in Look Who’s Talking Too (1990) and a cow in Home on the Range (2004). She also wrote two books about her experiences: Roseanne: My Life as a Woman (1989) and My Lives (1994). For almost a decade, viewers tuned in each week to catch the adventures of the Conners. After the show ended in 1997, Roseanne tackled a number of projects. She had her talk show from 1998 to 2000. More recently she returned to her stand-up roots with her own HBO comedy special in 2006.