Carol Burnett Sets a New Record with Her 2024 Emmy Nomination for ‘Palm Royale’
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1933-present
Carol Burnett Today: Actor Makes History As Oldest Emmy Nominee in Comedy
After nearly eight decades, comedy icon Carol Burnett is still making firsts. The 91-year-old is now the oldest woman to be nominated for an acting Emmy in a comedy. Burnett earned a nod for her performance as Norma Dellacorte in the Apple TV+ period comedy-drama Palm Royale. Already a seven-time Emmy winner, the actor could bring home her eighth trophy at the 76th awards ceremony on September 15.
Her fellow nominees in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series race are Meryl Streep, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Hannah Einbinder, Janelle James, and Liza Colón-Zayas. Burnett, whose character is comatose for the first few episodes of Palm Royale, told The Hollywood Reporter in August that she was “very surprised” by the nomination because of the coma but enjoyed the schedule it afforded her.
“I had the most fun. I loved it all, I really did,” she said. “But I have to say, when I first started shooting, I’m in the coma, right? So I get up out of bed at 5 in the morning, go to the studio, get made up, put on my costume, and go right back to bed. Kind of a good gig.”
Who Is Carol Burnett?
Comedy legend Carol Burnett became popular through TV guest appearances and specials before receiving her own variety program, The Carol Burnett Show, in 1967. The show ran for 11 seasons, and three of its 25 Emmy Awards were for outstanding variety show. Beyond television, Burnett has appeared in a number of movies and on Broadway. The actor has most recently appeared in the shows Better Call Saul and Palm Royale.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Carol Creighton Burnett
BORN: April 26, 1933
BIRTHPLACE: San Antonio, Texas
SPOUSES: Don Saroyan (1955-1962), Joe Hamilton (1963-1984), and Brian Miller (2001-present)
CHILDREN: Carrie, Jody, and Erin
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Taurus
Early Life
Carol Creighton Burnett was born on April 26, 1933, in San Antonio to Joseph and Ina Louise Burnett. After her parents divorced in the late 1930s, Burnett moved with her grandmother, Mabel Eudora White, to a small apartment in Hollywood, California. She attended Hollywood High School and graduated in 1951.
The aspiring playwright studied theater arts and English after enrolling at the University of California, Los Angeles. However, Burnett left school early and made her way to New York City with her boyfriend, Don Saroyan, in hopes of breaking into acting.
The Carol Burnett Show
Burnett made her first television appearance in the early 1950s with a short stint on The Winchell-Mahoney Show, a children’s TV program. She then began co-starring with Buddy Hackett on the sitcom Stanley, from 1956 to 57. In 1959, Burnett became a regular on The Garry Moore Show. Over the years, she was also featured on occasional CBS specials. Already a popular performer with two Emmy Awards, she got her own comedy-variety show, The Carol Burnett Show, in 1967.
The Carol Burnett Show usually opened with a question-and-answer session with the audience before silliness ensued. In a broad range of comedy skits and sketches, Burnett used her expressive face to great humorous ends. The show was an immediate and enduring hit, collecting 25 Emmys across its 11 seasons. It was named outstanding variety series three times before leaving the air in 1978.
Burnett later returned to TV with the comedy series Carol & Company in 1990 and The Carol Burnett Show in 1991. However, neither effort lasted long.
From 1983 to 2011, Burnett guest starred as the iconic Verla Grubs in the soap opera All My Children. Starting in 1996, she played Theresa Stemple in Mad About You. The role earned Burnett her sixth Emmy, this time for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. She later reprised her role in the 2019 revival. Over the years, she has made several guest appearances in shows like Desperate Housewives, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Glee, Hot in Cleveland, and Hawaii 5-0.
Newest Shows: Better Call Saul and Palm Royale
In 2022, Burnett landed a role on the Breaking Bad spinoff series Better Call Saul. She portrayed Marion, Jeff the cab driver’s sympathetic mother who welcomes the title character Saul Goodman into her home only to find out that he’s con man. Burnett received high praise from critics for her story arc and spoke highly of her time on the show in an interview with AMC Talk. “I had the best time, and there wasn’t one day that I didn’t laugh,” she said.
Burnett turned heads yet again with her show-stopping performance as Norma Dellacorte on the 2024 comedy-drama Palm Royale. The series is about the high society of 1960s Palm Beach, Florida, in which Norma is wealthy heiress known as the queen of the town. In July, Burnett received an Emmy nod for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, becoming the oldest woman acting nominee in a comedy.
Movies and Theater
In addition to her hit television show, Burnett has appeared in a number of movies, including Pete ’n’ Tillie (1972), The Front Page (1974), Annie (1982), Noises Off (1992), and Post Grad (2009). She has also performed the voices of animated characters in films like The Trumpet of the Swan (2001) and Horton Hears a Who! (2008).
The legendary comedian has done a lot of stage work, too. She made her Broadway debut in the musical Once Upon a Mattress in 1959 and went on to appear in a few other Broadway shows, including Moon Over Buffalo (1995-1996) and Putting It Together (1999-2000). Her 1986 autobiography, One More Time: A Memoir, provided the source material for the play Hollywood Arms, which was performed on Broadway from October 2002 to January 2003. Burnett co-wrote the piece with her oldest daughter, Carrie Hamilton.
In recent years, Burnett has appeared at theaters across the country. Each performance is an unscripted event with Burnett forming a dialogue with the audience. The inspiration for this style of show comes from the question-and-answer session she used to do at the beginning of each episode of The Carol Burnett Show.
Awards and Accolades
Over her decades-long career, Burnett has won numerous honors, including American Comedy Awards, Emmy and Golden Globe awards, the 1980 Women in Film Crystal Award, the 2006 Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Burnett received a unique honor in 2009. One of her costumes from The Carol Burnett Show was added to the collection of the Smithsonian’s American History Museum. The dress selected was from her famed spoof of Gone With the Wind. The following year, she looked back on her career with the autobiography This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection.
In 2013, Burnett won one of greatest honors bestowed on comedians. She received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center Honors held that October. Tina Fey was among those who helped celebrate Burnett’s work at the event. According to The Huffington Post, Fey told Burnett, “I fell in love with sketch comedy watching your show, and you proved sketch comedy is a good place for women.” Just months later in 2013, Burnett became a recipient of Kennedy Center Honors, one of the most respected awards given to the creative minds who influence American culture with their art.
Husband and Children
Burnett has been married three times, including to her current husband, Brian Miller. The couple celebrated their wedding in 2001.
Her first husband was Don Saroyan. They married in 1955 before splitting up in 1962. The following year, Burnett married Joe Hamilton. With Hamilton, Burnett had three daughters: Carrie, Jody, and Erin. The famed comedian’s second marriage ended in divorce in 1984.
In 2002, Burnett suffered a devastating loss when her oldest daughter, Carrie, died of cancer. She later established the Carrie Hamilton Theatre at the Pasadena Playhouse in her honor. More than a decade after Carrie’s death, Burnett explored her relationship with her late daughter in the 2013 memoir Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story. The book details Carrie’s struggles with addiction and her cancer journey.
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