Carol Burnett credits luck and kindness for career spanning decades: ‘I got a little angel here somewhere'
10.04.2024 - 09:21
/ foxnews.com
Carol Burnett has enjoyed a seven-decade career in show business, breaking barriers for women in comedy and staying active as ever at 90 years of age. She stars on "Palm Royale" on AppleTV+ alongside Kristen Wiig, Allison Janney and Laura Dern. Despite her talent, her legendary career may not have happened without a few lucky breaks she gratefully acknowledges.
In a recent interview on "WTF with Marc Maron," while recounting her many serendipitous circumstances, Burnett said, "I got a little angel here somewhere." Her lucky streak began when Burnett was about to graduate high school and desperately wanted to attend UCLA but could not afford the tuition. She recalled on "WTF" that it cost $43 a term in 1951. Her family’s rent was $30 a month at the time, an amount they could barely afford.
She was determined to attend and said on "The Howard Stern Show" in 2015, "I knew I was going to go. It wasn’t like I wished for it or was hoping for it. I saw myself on campus.
And I didn’t know how I was going to get there, but I knew it was going to happen." Then, by chance, an envelope addressed to her with $50 appeared in her mailbox. She noted on "WTF" it had been typed, so there was no handwriting to analyze, and although it had a stamp, it hadn’t actually been mailed. It was placed in the mailbox.
"To this day, I don’t know where that came from. Because we didn’t have that kind of money," Burnett said, adding "everybody was poor" in her building, so it was unlikely to have been a generous neighbor. At UCLA, Burnett intended to pursue journalism like her mother, but there was no specific major for the field, so she enrolled as a theater arts/English major.