Phyllis Diller

Phyllis Diller, the zany housewife-turned-stand-up comic with the electrified hairdo, outlandish wardrobe and a barrage of self-deprecating jokes punctuated by her trademark laugh, has died. She was 95.

Diller, whose career in comedy clubs spanned nearly 50 years, died in her sleep Monday at her longtime home in Brentwood, said her agent, Fred Wostbrock.

As a professional comedian, Diller was a late bloomer: The Ohio native was an Alameda, Calif., mother of five when she made her nightclub debut at the Purple Onion in San Francisco in 1955 — at age 37.

Jack Paar once described her as looking "like someone you avoid at the supermarket." Bob Hope called her "a Warhol mobile of spare parts picked up along a freeway."

But Diller was always the first to address her colorfully eccentric stage persona, describing herself as "The Elizabeth Taylor of'The Twilight Zone'" and a woman who once worked "as a lampshade in a whorehouse."

During her long career, she was in more than two dozen movies, including three with Hope, with whom she also appeared on numerous TV specials and traveled with to Vietnam to entertain U.S. troops.

But the outlandish Diller always shined best in nightclubs, showrooms and concert halls, where one of her favorite targets was her domestic life, including her fictional husband "Fang."

"I don't like to cook; I can make a TV dinner taste like radio," she'd say.

"Fang's idea of a seven-course dinner is a six-pack and a bologna sandwich. The last time I said let's eat out, we ate in the garage."

"I put on a peekaboo blouse. He took a peek and booed."