Carol Burnett 2

American actress Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is a noted comedian, singer, dancer and writer as well. She began her career in New York, and became a hit on Broadway. Her debut on television followed. She came to be known after appearances on The Garry Moore Show. Carol Burnett then left for Los Angeles where she started off with a show that would run for another eleven years from the studios of CBS. The Carol Burnett Show, which was a combination of song, dance, comedy and sketches was aired on CBS television for 11 years since 1967. Burnett concocted and played parodies of several well known characters.

Carol Burnett was born in San Antonio, Texas, the daughter of Ina Louise (nee Creighton), a publicity writer for movie studios, and Joseph Burnett, a movie theatre manager. Both her parents suffered from rampant alcoholic tendencies, and so she was sent to live with her grandmother at a very young age. By the time she was in the fourch grade she had already created an imaginary twin sister, Karen with Shirley Temple like dimples. Burnett remenisces that she "fooled the other boarders in the rooming house where we lived by frantically switching clothes and dashing in and out of the house by the fire escape and front door. Then I became exhaused and Karen mysteriously vanished"

1951 saw Carol graduating from Hollywood High School. She began with a course on journalism in the University of Calofornia, Los Angeles, but soon switched her focus to theater arts and English, with the purpose of becoming a playwright. Meanwhile, she was active in University productions, showcasing her comedic and musical talents. In her junior year, Burnett and her boyfirend, Don Saroyan, left college and moved to New York to pursue acting careers, with the help of funding they had got from a man who felt their prospects of making it big prominent. Thus were the seeds for a successful career sown.