a class act ,,,we miss you

I got kidnapped in San Francisco CA at 3 minutes old

I go by Sheila Monique Rita Cilcus and also Janis Delaney Lynn Joplin plant also noun as Marilyn Monroe Baker Kennedy but I only have i.d user Sheila Monique Rita Cilcus I reside in Toronto Ontario Canada at 224 Spadina Avenue suite 8334 and I want to come home to the United States of America I would love to see and meet and now all of my family members and I have 2 children and 3 grandchildren please find it in your heart to bring all 6 of us home love forever your granddaughter and grandchildren I was a triplet of girls is that Prof enough

This was a wonderful, funny woman she was a great lady and she had a great sense of humor and a wonderful laugh

Will bigotry ever cease?

I've been watching so much Phyliss Diller Lately, she is like a woman I grew up With...Just Beautiful! I was looking for the Doc that talked about her Artwork as I knew she was an Artists beyond Comedy!

I always bust out in laughter when I watch any Phyllis Diller reruns. She was the best comedian who could make anyone laugh with just a facial expression.

There is no evidence at all that she has any Maori ancestry, this is wishful thinking and, maybe, cultural appropriation. Her mother was of mixed English, Welsh, and Sri Lankan ancestry, and her father was an Irish worker that snuggle-struggled her mother at a very young age. Merle Oberon comes from Mumbai, which is the largest city in India. It's also where Bollywood is today. She lied about her Sri Lankan ancestry and said she was from Tazmania, hoping that no one would check it out or be able to check it out. You can tell by looking at her face that she's not completely European, regardless of whether or not the films are in gray scale. In the US the older definition of "white" included Europeans, Middle Easterners, North Africans, AND northern Indians. So even though she wasn't completely white she would still be counted as such on the official census, and would be counted as such as far as Hollywood was concerned. A lot of Anglo-Indians identified with their European side more than their Indian side, so if they could cover it up they did.

I wish she had made harpsichord recordings.

Old dead bag

Not “white” but playing the role of the wealthy elites. Labelling someone as white black brown etc is racist, they’re many ethnicities associated with each term. It’s the government and media who are the racist bigots

An absolute Icon..

Wonderful house. I always liked a rambling ranch. And Phyllis is terrific. I had one of her first albums but don't remember which one. I love that she said when on the Sonny&Cher show "my God people are eating" Very funny line. Boy, the interviewer knew a lot about her. Ends too abruptly

I have enjoyed many presentations by her and people like Bob Hope, Jack Lemmon, and many appearances on Ed Sullivan and other talk shows. So many great memories...

She was a genius and an incredible woman! I love that she painted and played piano too!! Rip we miss you Phyllis

Top shelf woman...RIP

Phyllis such a Beautiful Talented Lady💃🎶. she supported her kids n husband worked herself to Fame.☀️ A very Funny Comedic Actress😊🌷🌷We Adore Her♥️🌷🌷😊🌷🌸🌸💃😊

She's Sri Lankan though?

Still funny

She was so cool the world misses her 😎

when I visited PD I got her homemade cookies and they were awful!!! and I thought they would be great, as a reaction she said you should taste my pancakes they are something to die for!!!!

Brilliant interview, David Hartnell. So well prepared you were. Heavens, I miss Phyllis! Got to spend an afternoon at her house in 2008. Such a thrill.

She must have done pretty good as a comic to afford those houses and cars or married money or both I guess

180 degrees opposite her character in the 60's sitcom 'The Pruitts of Southhampton', where she played a woman living in a mansion after all the money was lost to taxes.

THAT is how you live a life.

Will never know now what her ancestry was. Who was her father? It's like Elizabeth Warren claiming she was native American for all those years, turns out she wasn't. Just family folklore.

She was definitely not Maori, she was born in India.

She is a true legend. Unfortunately they don't make them like Phyllis Diller anymore. She paved the way for every single female comedian after her!

Phyllis is a legend. Always loved the Pruits of South Hampton when I was young . She deserves that bust .

She sounds a bit slurred during this interview I wonder if she was recovering from a stroke

Phyllis was a genuine, warm, real woman, in a VERY different time! how those times and she is missed!

Such a kind and wonderful person in real life she was. Still love her!

Love this woman!

I love you Phyllis.

She looks so much more attractive in older age was it surgery?

Her fav book was magic of believing!

OMG she bought that house when I was born. But she has been my favorite comedian since I was little😂😹🤗

Sounds like the movie painted her as Maori but in reality she most likely was of Sri Lankan descent who lived in India. Any connection to Australia or New Zealand was Merle's fantasy and currently that of the Maori's.

great lady

What a fabulous legend RIP 💐💐💐💐💐💐

Editing is choppy and that in itself is distracting, ruining what might've been a good segment. The other 19(I'm the 20th) who gave this a thumbs-down may well have had the same, or similar opinion.

'a touch of the tar' holy motherforking shirtballs

Thank you for merle oberon of John origin from Bombay india..!

Nine months ago I wrote a comment saying that the cinematographer who was Oberon's second husband was Lucien Ballard, not Gregg Toland, as stated in the interview included in the video. I think in cases like the investigation of Merle Oberon's origins, it's possible to see quite clearly that things have got out of control. Never mind how detached from reality a myth may be, there are always a few facts that can be deemed unquestionable. Thus, a few facts about Merle Oberon can be counted as true and cannot be "edited." Some of these facts, however, have been widely messed with in an attempt to turn her life story into something else. The Sri Lanka connection, for example, is essentially speculative, as is (has always been) the Maori connection, much as the Maori community feels proud of it. I will repeat here what I said nine months ago: the truth about Merle Oberon, especially the identity of her biological father, who was responsible for her so called "white" half, will never be known. Whatever facts (as opposed to speculative theories) it was possible to unearth were revealed by Henry Selby, the man who, in the course of the most thorough investigation, found out that the woman believed to be Merle's mother was in reality her grandmother, which, in turn, made Henry Selby Merle's half-brother, not her nephew, as it was believed up to that point. Finally, it is interesting to think that a very large part of the attention Oberon attracts today is entirely due to her being such an elusive figure. One wonders if her work as an actress and the impact her films have on audiences in the 2020s would be enough to keep people (especially young people) interested. I was 15 in 1967, when Merle Oberon accompanied her husband Bruno Pagliai on a business trip to Brazil, where I was born and have always lived. Coincidentally, "Wuthering Heights" had just been re-released and was a huge hit. She attracted a lot of attention and was very nice to the press (although, rather than permit photos of her to be taken, she supplied a set of recent photos that had been taken at home by her own photographer). The lady who was in charge of organizing her stay in Rio was a friend of my family's. That's how I got a piece of paper addressed to me with a few, extremely kind, words in Spanish followed by the most exquisite autograph I've ever seen. But what I remember most is that she was a big star all right, but she didn't have this aura of mystery around her that is there all the time now. I think it started long after she died, probably after the publication of "Princess Merle: The Romantic Life of Merle Oberon", her biography by Charles Higham and Roy Moseley (that in time proved to be somewhat unreliable). Since everybody seems to agree that "the truth about Merle Oberon" will never be known, so the myth will never die. On the contrary, it will become bigger and bigger.

I knew she was part Indian, but never knew about the Maori part.

The best!......her looks were out there.....Phyllis Diller the original punk rocker......a true STAR 🌟

When I saw her on Groucho Marx, I thought she was BEAUTIFUL, and so graceful!

These people know nothing, a god awful documentary.

She was so different. I grew up watching here. Loved her.

Hi David let me introduce my self my real name is tony Figgiani my stage name was Tony Gerard was an up and coming singer I am proud to say I worked with this wonder full lady in 1977 at ceasers town and country club Rochester New York What an honor She was a class act when I opened the show as her opening act and came off stage she said you were great I never forgot that When Phyllis started doing her act she started to talk to the audience About me I was in awe this is a true story god bless you Phyllis Love tony Gerard 954 366 6262 Tamarac florida