Roseanne Barr is a Jewish American actress, comedian, writer, television producer and director.
The eldest of four children, she was born
in Salt Lake City, Utah to a working-class
Jewish family. Her mother, Helen, 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 Ukraine, 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 Latter-day
Saints. 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. 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. Eventually, Brandi moved
to L.A. and began working for Roseanne. She
later moved to Denver and now splits her
time between Denver and the Colorado West
Slope. Brandi and Roseanne remain very close.
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
popularized 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. For the final season Roseanne
earned $650,000 an episode. 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 crazy trailer park manager.
Roseanne has a star on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame at 6767 Hollywood Blvd in Los Angeles. In 2007, TV Land announced that
Roseanne would be the host of season three
of The Search for the Funniest Mom in
America on Nick at Nite. The show aired
in spring 2007. She headlined at
the Sahara Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas
Strip in Nevada in 2008.
In 2012, Barr ran for the U.S. Presidential nomination of the Green Party but lost to Jill Stein. She won the presidential nomination for the Peace and Freedom party later that year.
The awards she has won and for which she was nominated include multiple Emmys, People's Choice Awards, the American Comedy Award, Golden Globe Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Award. The majority of her awards are for Roseanne.
