Born Joan Alexandra Molinksy on June 8, 1933, to Russian Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn, NY, Rivers spent her childhood in the famed New York borough until her physician father’s salary enabled the family to move to upper class Westchester County. Rivers was educated at both Connecticut College and Barnard College, where she earned degrees in English and Anthropology while appearing in school theatrical productions. After college, Rivers went to work in retail, first as a publicist for Lord & Taylor, then as a fashion coordinator for Bond department stores. In the mid-1950s, she had a failed marriage to Bond heir, James Sanger, which forced her to make a drastic life readjustment and set her sights on becoming a serious actress. She studied drama and appeared in a few off-Broadway plays – including one with an equally novice Barbra Streisand – when she was told by an agent she should be doing comedy.
Rivers put together an act, billed herself as "Pepper January, Comedy with Spice," and began playing anywhere that would book her — from seedy clubs and strip joints to bohemian Greenwich Village clubs to Borscht Belt hotels. She spent nine months working with the Second City touring troupe in Chicago and returned to New York where she resumed her ambitious performance schedule. Rivers was soon tapped to write material for other female entertainers, such as Zsa Zsa Gabor and Phyllis Diller. In 1965, she landed her big break with an appearance on "The Tonight Show," where host Johnny Carson proclaimed she would be a star. Following her high profile breakthrough, Rivers released her first comedy album, Joan Rivers Presents Mr. Phyllis and Other Funny Stories, then married Edgar Rosenberg, a British television producer who guided her career and worked with her to refine her act for a wider audience. The emphasis became somewhat self-deprecating, Rivers portraying herself as a fat child turned flat-chested woman who couldn't cook and loved to shop. River’s lampoon of the post-War housewife struck a chord, prompting a showcase in Las Vegas, where she opened for music acts before becoming a headlining comedian.
Despite her mounting success, career choices were few-and-far between for female writers and comedians, while her unabashed upper-middle class Jewish background further limited her options in the sitcoms and movies of the period. Nonetheless, Rivers persevered. In 1967, Rivers was hired as a gag writer for “Candid Camera” (CBS, 1960-67) and the following year she made her big screen debut in the Burt Lancaster vehicle, "The Swimmer" (1968), in which she had one line in a party scene. Following the birth of her first and only child, Melissa, in 1968, the new mom scored big when she became the host of “That Show With Joan Rivers” (NBC 1969-72), which lasted two seasons. During the early 1970s, while guest starring on variety shows and continuing to headline Vegas, Rivers established herself as a satirical writer with a nationally syndicated newspaper column distributed in the Chicago Tribune. She joined the cast of psychedelic kids show “The Electric Company” (PBS, 1971-77) as the narrator of the spelling superhero “Letterman” segments, then made her debut as a Broadway playwright and star with "Fun City" (1972).
Rivers moved to Los Angeles in 1972 where she penned scripts, released a humorous book on motherhood called Having a Baby Can Be a Scream in 1974, and wrote and directed the unsuccessful feature film "Rabbit Test" (1977), starring Billy Crystal as a man who gives birth. She also co-created a television series, "Husbands, Wives and Lovers" (CBS, 1977-78), an unsuccessful hour-long comedy following the lives of five couples. Throughout it all, Rivers kept in the public eye particularly as a frequent guest of Johnny Carson on his "Tonight Show." By the early 1980s, Rivers was often the substitute host, eventually leading NBC to give her a contract in 1983 and declaring her the first permanent co-host for the veteran comic, who at the time was trying to reduce his air time. At this juncture, Rivers' act had moved away from self-deprecation and more towards lampooning public figures. Her quips about Elizabeth Taylor's weight gains and Queen Elizabeth became part of the greater public culture, while Rivers – always a snappy dresser – turned herself into a fashion plate and an advocate of plastic surgery. Meanwhile, she released a second comedy album, What Becomes a Semi-Legend Most, in 1983.
Rivers “Tonight Show” guest-host ratings were strong, but when the network put together a list of potential replacements for Carson upon his imminent retirement, her name was conspicuously left off. Smarting from the snub, Rivers joined the fledgling Fox network as the host of "The Late Show" (Fox, 1986-88), with a three-year, $15 million contract and husband Edgar serving as producer. The agreement made her the time-slot competitor of the man she credited with launching her career – public perception was that Rivers had betrayed her benefactor. “The Late Show” premiered in October 1986 and her attempts to smooth things over with Carson were met with icy silence. Meanwhile, ratings at the brand new Fox network were low. Rivers and Rosenberg butted heads with Fox head Barry Diller, resulting in his firing of Rivers in May 1987. Several weeks later, Rosenberg committed suicide by overdosing in a Philadelphia hotel room. Even that personal tragedy turned into a public relations disaster for Rivers, when article after article painted her as an image-crazed woman with little sentiment for her dead spouse. In reality, Rivers became bulimic, estranged from her daughter and contemplated suicide herself.
After finally pulling herself together, Rivers was in need of cash and became the lively center square on "The Hollywood Squares" (NBC and syndicated, 1966-2004). The smarting widow moved her base to New York and won the mother role in Neil Simon's "Broadway Bound" (1988), where her reviews were strong as was the box office. The following year, Rivers launched “The Joan Rivers Show,” which had an emphasis on celebrity gossip. Her only co-host was her tiny dog, Spike, who frequently appeared in her arms. Ratings were strong and in 1990 Rivers won a Daytime Emmy Award for Best Talk Show Host. That same year she teamed with home shopping giant QVC to sell her own line of jewelry, The Joan Rivers Classics Collection. Adding to her visibility, she created a weekly half-hour show, "Gossip! Gossip! Gossip!" (USA, 1990-91). But by 1994, both her talk shows had run their course and were effectively canceled. Rivers tried a different format with "Can We Shop?" a syndicated semi-version of home shopping in 1994, but the show failed to catch on.
Finally reconciled with daughter Melissa, the pair joined forces to write and star in "Tears and Laughter: The Joan and Melissa Rivers Story" (NBC, 1994), a TV-movie that dramatized the events surrounding Rivers' firing from Fox, Rosenberg's death, and mother and daughter finding common ground. The project sparked a whole new professional relationship between the two, who joined the E! Network as a red carpet correspondent team and fashion commentators for big celebrity events like the Oscars and Emmys. Meanwhile, Rivers returned to Broadway and won a Tony Award for her role in “Sally Marr and Her Escorts.” Back at the top of her game, Rivers brought her brash, catty wit and glamour to guest spots on sitcoms like “Suddenly Susan” (NBC, 1994-99) and the daytime soap “Another World” (NBC, 1996-2000). Ever the entrepreneur, she founded Joan Rivers Worldwide Enterprises and began selling her own line of skin care and cosmetics, then signed a deal with New York’s WOR to host a nationally syndicated talk radio show.
In 2002, Rivers performed her one-woman show “Broke and Alone” at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where rave reviews led to performances in London, Sydney and Los Angeles. After eight years with E!, Rivers and daughter signed a deal with the TV Guide Network to perform similar red carpet duties, while Rivers parodied her own gossip show image with an animated cameo in “Shrek 2” (2004) as a host on Medieval Entertainment Television. Still a Vegas headliner and ubiquitous presence on television and radio, including on several episodes of “Nip/Tuck” (FX, 2003- ), Rivers got her foot in the reality door in 2008 with an appearance on the U.K. series “Big Brother: Celebrity Hijacker” as a comedic dictator in the house, then made an appearance as a contestant on “Celebrity Family Feud” (NBC, 2007- ). The 75-year-old comedian also maintained a schedule of weekly performances in New York, a role on the IFC series “Z Rock” (2008- ), and was slated to bring her one woman show “A Life in Progress by a Work in Progress” to the Edinburgh Fringe Fest and London theaters in the fall of 2008.