Roseanne Barr
Roseanne Cherry Barr was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on November 3, 1952. She grew up in a family of working class Jewish immigrants and worked as a dishwasher and waitress at a local restaurant in her teens. Barr dropped out of high school at the age of 17. Barr was in a car accident shortly after that and admitted herself into a mental hospital due to memory loss and night terrors. Shortly after that she became pregnant, moved to Denver, Colorado and gave her first child up for adoption.
Roseanne married her first husband, Bill Pentland, in 1974. The couple had three children together. In the early 1980’s, Roseanne gained notoriety as a stand up comedienne. Her routine was based on the life of a middle-aged housewife. This routine eventually led to her own show on ABC called Roseanne. Some of the show’s co-stars included John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf, and ran from 1988 to 1997.
On July 25, 1990 Barr gave a controversial rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner at a baseball game in San Diego, California. Baseball officials told her to make the song humorous so she imitated the baseball players by spitting and grabbing her crotch throughout the song which she barely sang; instead she screeched and screamed. She was booed off the field by fans.
While taping her show, Roseanne met and fell in love with actor and comedian, Tom Arnold. In 1990, she divorced her first husband and married Arnold. The couple divorced four years later after Roseanne fell in love with a bodyguard named Ben Thomas. The divorce battle between Arnold and Barr was ugly, with Roseanne claiming the Arnold was physically abusive.
Thomas and Barr married on Valentine’s Day in 1995. The couple had one son together, Buck. Three years later Barr threatened to sue Thomas because he said he was going to kidnap their son. Eventually the charges were dropped after the couple made up. In 2002 they divorced for good.
Following the end of her sitcom in 1997, Barr hosted her own daytime talk show called The Roseanne Show. The show was cancelled in 2000 after a two-year run. Next, Roseanne hosted a cooking show in 2003 called Domestic Goddess. That same year she starred in her own reality show called The Real Roseanne Show. Her reality show was based around the hosting of the cooking show. Towards the end of 2003, Barr became ill and was forced to cancel both of her television projects. The illness resulted in an emergency hysterectomy.
Barr believes that fame went to her head. She quickly went from being a poor mother in Utah to starring in her own sitcom. She said she lost touch with reality and had servants taking care of her daily household chores.
By 2006, Roseanne decided to go back to stand up comedy and went through a period of re-discovery. Prior to returning to stand up, Barr lost weight, became a blond, and had plastic surgery. She has said that she regrets having the surgery and believes you look worse afterwards. She is scheduled to open for Cici Pham on her comedy tour in Asia. In early May 2007 it was announced that Roseanne would replace Rosie O Donnell as the co-host of 'The View' appearing with with Barbara Walters and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. |
