Biography: Joan Rivers was born Joan Alexandra Molinsky on June 8, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York to Beatrice and Dr. Meyer C. Molinsky. She attended Adelphi Academy in Brooklyn, Connecticut College for Women and Barnard College. She joined the Chicago-based Second City troupe in the early 1960s. She appeared in thousands of television shows, wrote 11 books, and raised millions of dollars for causes including AIDS and cystic fibrosis. She married James Sanger and then Edgar Rosenberg, with whom she had her daughter, Melissa.

Film/TV Credits: Film credits include: "Spaceballs," "Iron Man 3," "Shrek 2," "Tower Heist," "The Smurfs," "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," "Look Who's Talking," "First Daughter," "Serial Mom," and "The Swimmer." Television credits include: "The Simpsons," "Saturday Night Live," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "The Love Boat," "Louie," "The Daily Show," "The View," "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," "The Carol Burnett Show," "Entertainment Tonight," and "Late Night with David Letterman."

Other Awards: Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk/Service Show Host for "The Joan Rivers Show" in 1990. Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for the album "Diary of a Mad Diva" in 2015. Received a star on the Walk of Fame in 1989.

Trivia:
She worked as an office temp while taking small parts off Off Broadway.
The marquees of Broadway theaters were dimmed in her honor on September 9, 2014.