Roseanne Barr

This article is about the actress. For the television sitcom, see Roseanne (TV series).

Roseanne Barr
Born	Roseanne Cherrie Barr
Other names	Roseanne Arnold, Roseanne, Roseanne Thomas, Roseanne Barr-Pentland-Arnold-Thomas
Spouse(s)	Bill Pentland(1974-1990) Tom Arnold(1990-1994) Ben Thomas(1995-2002)

Roseanne Cherrie Barr (born November 3 1952) is an Emmy Award-winning American comedian, actress and writer. At times in her career she has also been known as "Roseanne Arnold" and "Roseanne Thomas". On the opening credits of one final-season episode of her TV show, she was credited as "Roseanne Barr Pentland Arnold Thomas". For several years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, she was known simply as Roseanne, but by 2005 had resumed referring to herself by her maiden name, Roseanne Barr.

Biography

Early life

The eldest of four children, she was born in Salt Lake City to a working-class Jewish family. Her mother, Helen (née Davis), was a bookkeeper and cashier, and her father, Jerome Hershel “Jerry” Barr, worked in sales as a door-to-door salesman of household goods. Barr's grandparents and great-grandparents were immigrants from Kiev, Russia, Lithuania and Austria-Hungary, and her paternal grandfather changed his surname from "Borisofsky" to "Barr" upon entering the United States. Barr's parents kept their Jewish heritage secret from their neighbors, and thus were partially involved in The Church of Jesus Christ Of Later Day Saints, and Barr has stated that "Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning I was a Jew; Sunday afternoon, Tuesday afternoon, and Wednesday afternoon we were Mormons"; her Jewish upbringing was influenced by her devoutly Orthodox Jewish maternal grandmother.

Barr married Bill Pentland on February 4, 1974, and they had three children, Jennifer, Jessica, and Jacob. In 1971, prior to marriage and while residing in Denver, Roseanne had a daughter named Brandi Brown for whom she arranged an adoption. In 1989 Roseanne located and met Brandi. Immediately, Brandi moved to L.A. and began working for Roseanne. Brandi and Roseanne remain very close.

Career

Roseanne became famous in the early 1980s with her stand-up comedy routine, receiving critical acclaim for her unglamorized portrayal of the typical American working-class housewife. In her routine she coined the now well-known phrase, "domestic goddess," to refer to a homemaker or housewife. The success of her act led to her own series on ABC, called Roseanne. The show ran from 1988 to 1997, and co-starred Emmy winners Laurie Metcalf and John Goodman. Roseanne herself also won an Emmy for her part in the show. In 1997, after the end of her sitcom's run, she portrayed the Wicked Witch of the West in a production of The Wizard of Oz at Madison Square Garden.

She went on to host her own talk show, The Roseanne Show which ran for two years before it was canceled in 2000. In the summer of 2003, she took on the dual role of hosting a cooking show (called Domestic Goddess) and starring in a reality show (called The Real Roseanne Show) about hosting a cooking show, although food poisoning and an emergency appendectomy brought a premature end to both projects. In 2005, she returned to stand-up comedy, touring the world. In February 2006, Roseanne performed her first-ever live dates in Europe as part of the Leicester Comedy Festival in Leicester, England. The shows took place at De Montfort Hall. She also released her first kids' DVD, Rockin' with Roseanne: Calling All Kids, that same month.

Roseanne's return to the stage culminated in an HBO Comedy Special Roseanne Barr: Blonde N Bitchin', which aired November 4, 2006, on HBO. Two nights earlier, Roseanne returned to prime-time network TV with a guest spot on NBC's My Name Is Earl, playing a wacky nun.

Roseanne has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6767 Hollywood Blvd.

On January 11, 2007, TV Land announced that Roseanne will be the host of season three of The Search for the Funniest Mom in America on Nick @ Nite. The show aired in spring 2007. She has also signed on to host a daily radio talk show on KCAA in the Los Angeles area.

It has been rumored that Roseanne will return to television and ABC with a recurring role on season 4 of Desperate Housewives.

Awards

Emmy Awards:

• Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for: "Roseanne" (1993)

Golden Globe Awards:

• Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Comedy/Musical for: "Roseanne" (1993)

Personal life

While taping her show she separated from Dill Stancombe and later fell in love with fellow comedian Tom Arnold. In January 1990 she divorced Pentland and married Arnold. Four years later she and Arnold divorced. She later married her security guard, Ben Thomas, on Valentine's Day in 1995. They had one son, Buck Thomas. She and Thomas divorced in 2002.

In a 1991 interview with People, Roseanne revealed herself to be an incest survivor, accusing both of her parents of physical and sexual abuse, charges which they and her sister Geraldine publicly denied. Geraldine later sold stories to the tabloids calling Roseanne a liar and accusing her of making up the story to boost her show's ratings. Geraldine also accused Roseanne of "unfairly" firing her from the cast of the show and claiming that Roseanne "owed" her half of the show's profits.

It was during this period that the bonds Roseanne had with Laurie Metcalf, John Goodman, and the rest of her show's cast solidified. She also grew closer to her own real-life children and played a vital role in her oldest daughter overcoming alcoholism. To this day, Roseanne and most of the cast of Roseanne remain friends, despite the show's run being long over and everyone pursuing different paths in their lives.

Barr has written that she considers herself a kabbalist and a follower of Jesus Christ.

Controversies

Star Spangled Banner controversy

On July 25, 1990, Barr performed a controversial rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" before a Cincinnati Reds-San Diego Padres baseball game in San Diego, California. As she later reported, she was initially having trouble hearing herself over the public-address system, so she was singing as loudly as possible, and her rendition of the song sounded "screechy". Following her rendition, she mimicked the often-seen actions of players by spitting and grabbing her crotch as if adjusting a protective cup. Barr claimed she had been encouraged by baseball officials to "bring humor to the song". The song and the closing routine offended many in the audience, and it was replayed frequently on television, drawing further attention to it.

She referenced the incident on the Roseanne episode The Test (originally aired September 18, 1990) when she comments on what a nice Saturday morning it is and how it makes her feel like she could sing (she then pauses until the studio audience laughs, cheers, and applauds).

She also joked about the incident later in season 3 in the episode Home-Ec in the Buy N Bag scene.

She also humorously referred to the incident a year later in her television movie, Backfield in Motion, in which her character, Nancy Seavers, is asked to sing the anthem. She responds incredulously, "Me? Sing the national anthem?" The line is followed by a long, dramatic pause, with the camera zooming in on her face. She then grins and says, "I don't think so."

On February 16, 1991, she joked about the incident further on Saturday Night Live in a skit called Comedy Killers, a mock game show about gags that aren't funny.

A brief parody of the incident was included in the 1992 made-for-TV movie Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation.

Gay Rights controversy

On April 6, 2007 Barr made a controversial statement about gay activists during her show on California's KCAA radio. Barr commented that putting measures like gay marriage on ballots for elections only hurts the gay rights cause and elects more conservative politicians. Barr went on to say, "And I have never once -- and I say I have gay and lesbian people in my family -- never once in my life have I ever once heard a gay or lesbian person who’s politically active say one thing about anything that was not about them. They don’t care about minimum wage, they don’t care about any other group other than their own self because you know, some people say being gay and lesbian is a totally narcissistic thing and sometimes I wonder. I’ve never heard any of them say anything except for 'accept me 'cause I'm gay.' It's just, it’s screwed up."

Barr later apologized twice on her online blog stating, "I deeply regret that I have offended gay people. I said things that I do not really mean, before I had thought them through.... I was wrong and I seriously apologize! Call me up today and let me have it! I will apologize and try to make clear what I really meant to say... which was that everybody needs to unite right now, and step outside of their own neighborhoods, groups, races and classes to stop Bush's war on our country and our people. I love gays and I hate division. I am just a big idiot with a big mouth sometimes. I will learn to be more careful! Please forgive me, I am so sorry!!!!" Barr continued to state in further online posts that she believes gays need to unite against those who try to oppress them: "Let's all leave our own bedrooms, kitchens, neighborhoods and groups and meet each other to form a diverse army that stands for Democracy and Economic justice!"

A 1992 Playboy magazine article quoted a letter in which Barr used numerous homophobic slurs to try to insult then USA Today reviewer, Matt Roush.

Barr is not a lesbian herself; she has recently been "romantically" linked to Nickelodeon Game Show Host Phil Moore.

Self-rediscovery

Barr told James Rampton of The Independent that fame went to her head. Barr, who had worked as a window dresser and waitress in Denver, said she had become famous quickly and lost touch with reality. "I was in a sound studio for almost a decade. At the end of it, like Rip van Winkle, I came back and found that everything had changed. Suddenly there were computers and e-mails, and it took me another 10 years to catch up with regular people. But the TV show is over. What am I going to do? I can't boss people around anymore - sad but true."

Barr went back to stand-up comedy but with a notably different appearance: she has lost some weight, dyed her hair blonde, and had plastic surgery, which she does not recommend - "Now I realize that everyone has to get old and die, but it was still a very bad experience.... No one looks better after plastic surgery. Just pink and shiny. At the end of it, you look like an idiot." Some of her surgery was for health reasons; she had a rhinoplasty to correct sleep apnea; while her breast reduction surgery was to reduce back pain.

Filmography

Television work

• Rodney Dangerfield: It's Not Easy Bein' Me (1986)
• On Location: The Roseanne Barr Show (1987)
• Roseanne (1988-1997)
• Little Rosie (1990-1991)
• Backfield in Motion (1991)
• The Rosey and Buddy Show (1992) (voice) (unsold pilot)
• The Woman Who Loved Elvis (1993)
• General Hospital (cast member in 1994)
• The Roseanne Show (1998-2000)
• The Brothers Garcia (2001)
• The Real Roseanne Show (2003) (cancelled after 1 episode)
• Roseanne Barr: Blonde and Bitchin' (2006)
• My Name Is Earl (2006)
• The Search For The Funniest Mom In America 3 (2007)
• Desperate Housewives (2007) Never Appeared
• Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack (2008)
• Comedy Live Presents (2008)

Film

• She-Devil (1989)
• Look Who's Talking Too (1990) (voice)
• Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)
• Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993)
• Dancing Outlaw II: Jesco Goes to Hollywood (1994) (documentary)
• Unzipped (1995) (documentary)
• Blue in the Face (1995)
• Meet Wally Sparks (1997)
• Get Bruce (1999) (documentary)
• Cecil B. Demented (2000)
• 15 Minutes (2001)
• Home on the Range (2004) (voice)

External links

• RoseanneWorld.com - Roseanne's website and daily blog
• Roseanne Barr at IMDb
• Template:Tvtome person

• Independent interview
• Chat about Roseanne
• Roseanne on Myspace