The comedic legend Carol Burnett is set to turn 91 later this month, but she’s still as busy as ever, and she’s currently promoting her AppleTV+ series “Palm Royale” that she stars in with Kristen Wiig, Allison Janney, and Laura Dern.
In a new interview, Burnett reflected on her seven decades of success in Hollywood, crediting her long-lasting stardom to a “little angel.”
Burnett’s ‘Little Angel’
“I got a little angel here somewhere,” Burnett admitted while appearing on the “WTF with Marc Maron” podcast.
Burnett also credits luck and the kindness of others with her success. This all started when she was about to graduate high school and desperately wanted to attend UCLA, but she couldn’t afford the tuition. She explained that attending the school cost $43 a term in 1951, and since her family could barely afford their $30 a month rent at the time, there was no way they could pay this.
Burnett’s life changed forever one day when she opened her mailbox and found an envelope addressed to her with $50 inside it. The letter had been typed, so it was impossible for her to analyze the handwriting, and though it had a stamp, it had never been mailed and had instead been placed in the mailbox by hand.
“To this day, I don’t know where that came from. Because we didn’t have that kind of money,” Burnett recalled, adding that “everybody was poor” in her building, so she doesn’t think it came from a neighbor.
Related: Carol Burnett Celebrates 90th Birthday – ‘I Am One Of The Luckiest Broads In The World’
Burnett Gets Another Stroke Of Luck
Burnett fell in love with acting at UCLA, and she soon got lucky again when she got some help from another generous benefactor who had seen her performing with some fellow students at a party in San Diego.
Burnett and her boyfriend at the time were approached by a man and his wife who offered them each a $1000 interest-free loan after learning that they wanted to move to New York to pursue acting. The man told Burnett that he would give her the money on the condition that she never reveal his name, and that she pay him back in five years if she was financially able to.
“His wife told me he had also helped somebody start a restaurant and another person run a gas station. He liked the people he picked and felt that they had a chance and were sincere, so he sponsored them,” Burnett previously recounted. “Somebody had helped him get his start in this country. So he was paying it forward.”
In her latest interview, Burnett stated that she did pay him back five years later, and she’s kept her word to him to this day by never revealing his name.
“Weird things happen like that,” she said.
Burnett’s Famous Friends
In this same interview, Burnett talked about some of her famous friends, describing the former Mary Poppins star Julie Andrews as her “long-lost sister.”
“One thing I have always said is that she’s very bawdy in a good sense of the word,” Burnett told Fox News of Andrews last year. “And very funny. She gave me class when I worked with her. And she said I allowed her to be silly. It was wonderful to have her there. She sat with me the whole evening. She flew out just for this. It was so sweet. I was just so touched.”
Related: Julie Andrews Honors Carol Burnett On Her 90th Birthday – ‘Oh How We’ve Laughed!’
Burnett also talked about her bond with the late “I Love Lucy” star Lucille Ball.
“She never tried to give me any advice,” Burnett said of Ball in 2019. “She was not one to give any kind of advice. She just supported me. And we had fun working together. Having fun was so important to us.”
Burnett remained friends with Ball until her death in 1989.
“She sent me flowers on my birthday every year with a card that said, ‘Happy Birthday, kid,'” Burnett said in her new interview.
Ball happened to die on Burnett’s 56th birthday, and she remembers turning on the television that morning to see the news that she had passed away.
“And I got her flowers that afternoon,” Burnett said with a smile.
Though Burnett is turning 91 on April 26, she is eager to keep working and is pushing for a second season of “Palm Royale.”
“That’ll keep me working, which I like,” she said. “Yes, as long as I have fun, and that’s what I want.”
Burnett is a true legend, and there never will be another one like her. Hopefully that “little angel” continues to stand by her, because the world needs Burnett in it for many more years to come!
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