Comedy icon Joan Rivers has died due to complications from a vocal cord procedure, her daughter confirmed in a statement. "It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my mother, Joan Rivers," she said. Rivers went into cardiac arrest during surgery on August 28 and was put on life support shortly thereafter. She was 81 when she died.
Today, Rivers is best known for hosting E!'s Fashion Police and making jokes at the expense of celebrities (herself included), but her career as a comedian spans decades. She started appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1965 and was a regular guest host and writer by the early '80s, publicly crediting Carson — whom she considered her mentor — for her career. She was known for being a boundary-pushing comedian from the outset, joking about sex and marriage and abortion ("My friend has had 14 appendectomies, if you know what I mean").
In 1986, Fox gave her a talk show of her own, The Tonight Show Starring Joan Rivers, at which point Rivers's relationship with Carson came to an abrupt end. (Rivers has said that she called him twice to let him know she'd taken a competing job and that he hung up both times.) She was banned from appearing on The Tonight Show until current host Jimmy Fallon invited her back for his first episode, in February 2014.
Rivers's late-night show was produced by her then-husband of 21 years, Edgar Rosenberg, and was troubled from the start. Fox offered to keep it going without Rosenberg, but Rivers told the network they'd need to keep both of them or fire both of them — and they opted for the latter. Not long after the show's cancelation, her marriage fell apart; in 1987, Rosenberg committed suicide, leaving behind Rivers and their daughter, Melissa, then 19.
Although Rivers was famously close to her daughter at the time of her death, the two were estranged for about a year after Rosenberg's suicide — a period Rivers once described as "terrible." They went on to make a made-for-TV movie about Rosenberg's death, in which they played themselves, in 1994. That same year, they hosted E!'s red carpet show ahead of the Golden Globes, giving birth to the famous question, "What are you wearing?" — and they went on to host E!'s Oscar red carpets as well. They also co-starred on Celebrity Apprentice and Joan and Melissa: Joan Knows Best?
Rivers hosted the talk show, The Joan Rivers Show, from 1989 to 1994, winning a Daytime Emmy in 1990 for Outstanding Talk Show Host. In addition to her work in television, she starred in a critically-acclaimed documentary about her life, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010); she co-wrote and starred in a play about comic Lenny Bruce's mother, Sally Marr (1994); she is the author of 12 books, including the best sellers The Life and Hard Times of Heidi Abramowitz and I Hate Everyone ... Starting with Me; she created her own YouTube show, In Bed With Joan Rivers; and so much more.
She is survived by her daughter and 13-year-old grandson, Cooper. "My mother's greatest joy in life was to make people laugh," Melissa said in her statement. "Although that is difficult to do right now, I know her final wish would be that we return to laughing soon."
