Roseanne Barr

Roseanne Cherrie Barr (born November 3, 1952), also known mononymously as Roseanne, is an American actress, comedian, writer, and producer. She began her career in stand-up comedy, going on to achieve widespread recognition for her work as the eponymous lead character on the ABC sitcom Roseanne (1988–1997; 2018), for which she received an Emmy and a Golden Globe.

Having been revived in 2018 to strong ratings, plans for further seasons of Roseanne were dropped after Barr made a tweet condemned as racist by many commentators, with Barr later referring to the tweet as a "bad joke." Her comeback comedy special, Cancel This!, was released on Fox Nation in 2023.

Barr was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to a Jewish family. She is the oldest of four children born to Helen (née Davis), a bookkeeper and cashier, and Jerome Hershel "Jerry" Barr, a salesman. Her father's family were Jewish emigrants from the Russian Empire, and her maternal grandparents were Jewish emigrants from Austria-Hungary and Lithuania. Her paternal grandfather changed his surname from "Borisofsky" to "Barr" upon entering the United States. Barr's great-grandparents were murdered during the Holocaust.

Her Jewish upbringing was influenced by her devoutly Orthodox Jewish maternal grandmother. Barr's parents kept their Jewish heritage secret from their neighbors and were partially involved in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Barr has stated, "Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning I was a Jew; Sunday afternoon, Tuesday afternoon, and Wednesday afternoon we were Mormons."

When Barr was three, she was afflicted with Bell's palsy on the left side of her face. She said, "[so] my mother called in a rabbi to pray for me, but nothing happened. Then my mother got a Mormon preacher, he prayed, and I was miraculously cured". Years later, she learned that Bell's palsy was usually temporary and that the Mormon elder came "exactly at the right time".

Barr has stated that she is on the autism spectrum. At six years old, she discovered her first public stage by lecturing at LDS churches around Utah and was elected president of a Mormon youth group.

She attended East High School. At age 16, Barr was hit by a car, and the car's hood ornament impaled her skull; the incident left her with a traumatic brain injury. Her behavior changed so radically that she was institutionalized for eight months at Utah State Hospital.

In 1970, when Barr was 18, she moved out by informing her parents that she was going to visit a friend in Colorado for two weeks, and never returned.