Selma Diamond

About Selma Diamond

Who is it?: Actress, Writer, Soundtrack
Birth Day: August 06, 1920
Birth Place:  Montréal, Québec, Canada
Died On: May 13, 1985(1985-05-13) (aged 64)\nLos Angeles, California, U.S.
Birth Sign: Virgo
Cause of death: Lung cancer
Occupation: Comedic actress Comedy writer for radio and television
Years active: 1943–1985

Selma Diamond Net Worth

Selma Diamond was born on August 06, 1920 in  Montréal, Québec, Canada, is Actress, Writer, Soundtrack. Most familiar to TV audiences as the diminutive but feisty court bailiff on Night Court (1984), Selma Diamond's entrance into acting wasn't through the usual venue of vaudeville, stage work or modeling - she was a writer for TV shows, once having been nominated for an Emmy for Caesar's Hour (1954). Although she had that tough New York accent and street demeanor, she was actually born in Canada, but raised in Brooklyn. A graduate of New York University, she at first made a living by selling cartoons and fiction to the "New Yorker" magazine. NBC hired her as a writer for one of its radio shows, "The Big Show," and she later made the transition into writing for television. Her film debut was as the voice on the telephone of Spencer Tracy's wife in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), where the world got a sample of the distinctive Diamond voice: nasal, high-pitched and one that could never be mistaken for anyone else's. She did a lot of TV work and was a regular on another series, Too Close for Comfort (1980) before Night Court (1984). She died of lung cancer in 1985.
Selma Diamond is a member of Actress

💰 Net worth: Under Review

Some Selma Diamond images

Biography/Timeline

1920

Diamond was born in London, Ontario, Canada in 1920 to a tailor and his wife, but moved at a young age to Brooklyn, New York. She was graduated from New York University and published cartoons and humour essays in The New Yorker before moving to the West Coast, hiring an agent, and finding work in radio and, eventually, television. Her first radio writing credit was in 1943 on Pabst Blue Ribbon Time with Groucho Marx, the Camel Caravan with Jimmy Durante and Garry Moore, The Drene Show with Rudy Vallee, Duffy's Tavern, and The Kenny Baker Show. In 1950, she became one of the staffers hired by legendary comedy Writer Goodman Ace (who'd previously hired her for some work on Danny Kaye's short-lived 1940s' radio show) for The Big Show (1950–52), the ninety-minute weekly program hosted by Actress Tallulah Bankhead. Considered one of the last great variety shows of the classic old time radio era, this Sunday night comedy marathon featured some of the biggest entertainers of the era.

1960

By the 1960s and 1970s, Diamond was familiar as a frequent guest on The Jack Paar Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and she made numerous film appearances, including Stanley Kramer's comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (as the unseen telephone voice of Spencer Tracy's wife, Ginger Culpepper), Bang the Drum Slowly (as hotel switchboard operator Tootsie), and All of Me (as Margo). In 1982, she appeared in My Favorite Year with a memorable small role as wardrobe mistress for King Kaiser's Comedy Calvalcade, a fictional show which clearly echoed the time and venue of her work for Sid Caesar. She was also a semi-regular for four seasons of the Ted Knight comedy series Too Close For Comfort.

1970

For many years, Diamond resided in a co-op apartment at 60 Sutton Place South in Manhattan until she moved out in the late 1970s. The diminutive Diamond, who was a chain smoker, was one of the original cast of Night Court until she was stricken with lung cancer and died at age 64 in Los Angeles. By tragic coincidence, her successor playing the bailiff, Florence Halop, was also lost to lung cancer after her one year in the cast of Night Court.

2014

Diamond wasn't always taken seriously by her writing peers. Bob Schiller, who had also written for Duffy's Tavern and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, told author Jordan R. Young (for The Laugh Crafters), "The jury is still out on whether Selma was a comedy Writer. She was really a very interesting character—salty, and she was—exactly what you saw on camera is what she was."