NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Selma Diamond

Selma Diamond (August 5, 1920 - May 13, 1985) was a Canadian-born comedic actress and TV writer. Chain smoking, hoarse voiced, and tiny, she was best known for her role on Night Court. August 5 is the 217th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (218th in leap years), with 148 days remaining. ... 1920 (MCMXX) is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ... May 13 is the 133rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (134th in leap years). ... This article is about the year. ... Night Court was a situation comedy that aired on NBC from January 1984 until May 1992. ...

Early in her career, she worked as a writer for Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, and she was supposedly the inspiration for a character on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Sid Caesar (born Isaac Sidney Caesar on September 8, 1922) is an Emmy-winning comic actor and writer, best known as the leading man on the 1950s television sketch comedy series Your Show of Shows. ... Your Show of Shows was a live sketch comedy television series appearing weekly in the United States, from 1950 until June 5, 1954, featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. ... The Dick Van Dyke Show was an American television situation comedy which aired on CBS from October 3, 1961 to September 7, 1966. ...

The gruff-voiced secretary "Roz" in Monsters, Inc., who was always hounding the lead characters about getting their paperwork done, was voiced by a man doing a good imitation of Selma Diamond. Monsters, Inc. ...

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. My Favorite Year is a 1982 comedy film which tells the story of the early days of television, and a flamboyant film actor who is shepherded by a young intern through a day of overdrinking. ...

During the run of Night Court she died from lung cancer at age 64. (Her character was replaced by a different female bailiff, played by Florence Halop, who likewise died from cancer before the show ended.) Night Court was a situation comedy that aired on NBC from January 1984 until May 1992. ... The incidence of lung cancer is highly correlated with smoking. ... Florence Halop (b. ...

She never married or had children.

External links

Selma Diamond at the Internet Movie Database

Results from FactBites:

Selma Diamond - Biography - Moviefone (138 words)
	Actress and comedy writer Selma Diamond may best be remembered as the feisty, whiskey-voiced bailiff Selma Hacker in the first year of the popular television sitcom Night Court, but she was involved in the entertainment industry many years before that.
	A native of Canada, Diamond graduated from a New York university and got her start selling ideas for cartoons and humorous stories to various magazines.
	Diamond also appeared in a few films, especially during the early '80s.

Reference.com/Encyclopedia/Selma Diamond (528 words)
	Diamond was reputed to have been the inspiration for the Sally Rogers character on The Dick Van Dyke Show (played by the similarly raspy-voiced Rose Marie), which centered around the head writer for a fictitious, mercurial television comedian.
	The diminutive, chain-smoking Diamond was one of the original cast of Night Court until she was stricken with and died of lung cancer and died at age 64.
	Diamond was the author of Nose Jobs for Peace, a 1970 collection of humour writings, some of which touched on her television work.

More results at FactBites »

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