Celebrity Then And Now
Ellen DeGeneres
Name: Ellen DeGeneres | Birthdate: January 26, 1958 |
Famous Years: 1990s - Present | Currently Known For: Comedian, Television Host, Actress, Writer, Producer, and LGBT Activist |
| Networth: $400 Million | Famous For: Ellen, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Finding Nemo |
“Most comedy is based on getting a laugh at somebody else’s expense. And I find that’s just a form of bullying in a major way. So, I want to be an example that you can be funny and be kind, and make people laugh without hurting someone else’s feelings.” One of the most popular names in Hollywood today, Ellen DeGeneres has had a unique journey to fortune and fame as the Louisiana native set out to be a star from an early age. First catching the nation’s attention after winning over the legendary Johnny Carson on an episode of The Tonight Show in 1986, DeGeneres took her talent and knack for comedy to shows like Open House, One Night Stand, Laurie Hill, and Roseanne before she was cast in her own television sitcom, ABC, in 1994. Over the show’s next four years, DeGeneres found incredible fame only to lose it all after coming out as a lesbian in 1998. In the controversy that followed, DeGeneres took a few years to rebuild her career and, since 2003, has come back stronger than ever as the host of The Ellen DeGeneres Show where her compassion and unique sense of humor leave audiences tuning in for more day after day!
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Louisiana Roots: Early Life
“I was going to take chances. I was going to be different. I was going to be successful. I was going to have money… I wanted to be special, I wanted people to like me. I wanted to be famous.” The daughter of an insurance agent and a speech therapist, Ellen Lee DeGeneres was born on January 26, 1958 in Metairie, Louisiana. Raised alongside her older brother in a Christian Scientist household, DeGeneres knew early on that she wanted to become famous and to have money as she watched her brother build his reputation as a talented musician and producer. “When you’re growing up and you see your brother who’s talented and gorgeous and all these things, you want to be all these things. I thought if I could find a way to be famous, people would love me.”
With her parents divorcing when she was 15 years old, DeGeneres moved in with her mother while her brother lived with their father. During this time, she attended Grace King High School and later graduated from Atlanta High School. She spent a semester studying communications at the University of New Orleans, but knew in her heart that academic life wasn’t for her. Eventually dropping out of college to work full time, DeGeneres took a string of odd jobs as a legal clerk, retail salesperson, house painter, waitress, bartender, and hostess. She was doing everything possible to get by when a tragedy struck close to home—her girlfriend, Kat, was tragically killed in a car crash.
“We had a fight. I left to go stay with friends to try to teach her a lesson. My brother’s band was performing and she went looking for me…” DeGeneres said of the night that ended in devastating loss. Prolonging the fight and refusing to leave with Kat, DeGeneres left only moments later and passed a car accident just a few blocks away where the car was split in two. She learned the next morning that it was Kat’s car. “I was so devastated but just trying to make sense of it,” DeGeneres said of the loss.
Unable to afford the rent in their spacious apartment, DeGeneres moved into a tiny flea-infested apartment where she buried herself in her grief. Sleeping on a mattress on the floor, she was inspired to write her first piece, “A Phone Call to God.” “I just thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if you literally had a phone number for God? You could just call God and ask God questions that you wanted answers to.’ I just wrote exactly what it would be like to try to call God. It would ring forever ‘cause it’s such a big place. Him not knowing who I am at first, and then making fun of my name. God sneezing and me saying, ‘God bless you.’ It just poured out. And then I decided that I’m going to go on Johnny Carson and do this, so I just started finding a place to do comedy. And out of nowhere a comedy club opened in New Orleans. I got a job as an MC and I started writing more, and more, and more.”
Declared the “Master of Ceremonies” at Clyde’s Comedy Club, DeGeneres’ popularity blossomed over the next few years as she worked toward her dream to become the first woman invited over to Carson’s infamous couch on The Tonight Show. She took her act on the road in the early 1980s and enjoyed a successful national tour before she was named the “Funniest Person in America” by Showtime in 1984. Then, just two years later, she saw her biggest dream come true when she made her way to The Tonight Show, a moment that changed her entire career.
“I remember watching Roseanne Barr on Johnny Carson and she was killing,” DeGeneres recalled. “It was her first appearance and I just watched and I thought, ‘He’s going to call her over for sure. And he didn’t. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that he didn’t call her over, and for whatever reason it happened to me. The fact that he wanted me to sit down and talk to him, it catapulted my career. But that’s not why I wanted to do it. I wanted to do it because I knew he would appreciate it, I knew it was smart, I knew it was different, and I knew that nobody was doing what I was doing. That’s all I wanted. I wanted people to get me.”
Taking Her Place in the Spotlight
As the first woman invited over to The Tonight Show couch, DeGeneres skyrocketed to even greater fame as she made appearances in television series like Duet, Open House, One Night Stand, and Laurie Hill as well as in films like Coneheads. Although nothing about these projects were widely successful, DeGeneres’ luck improved in 1994 when she landed her own sitcom, Ellen, on ABC. Showcasing her observational style of comedy as she starred as a neurotic bookstore owner named Ellen Morgan, DeGeneres proved her knack for primetime comedy as the series became an instant hit with many calling her the female version of Jerry Seinfeld.
Four years into the show, however, things took a different turn when DeGeneres was invited on The Oprah Winfrey Show where she publicly came out as a lesbian. Days later, her character on the show also came out, which ignited a massive pushback from the network who didn’t support the gay themes presented on the sitcom. By 1998, ABC canceled the series as DeGeneres was blacklisted in Hollywood, left angry and afraid of her future.
“I was struggling with the idea of coming out—what it would do to my career and to me—and in this dream, I was holding a tiny finch in the palm of my hand,” DeGeneres recalled of her decision to come out. “I could feel how much I loved this bird and that it was safe in my hand and how I was reaching in to put it back in its cage—one of these thin, bamboo, beautiful, multitiered cages—and as I was putting the bird back in, I realized that the cage was against a window and the bird could fly out. The bird realized it at the same time I did, and I became the bird. And the bird looked at me and wanted to fly out, but I looked at the bird and said, ‘But you’re safe in here in a beautiful cage. Don’t leave.’ And the bird just looked at me and flew out the window.”
Losing Everything and Rebuilding
Although DeGeneres was at peace with her decision to come out, she never expected the backlash especially not after winning over the hearts of so many fans first on The Tonight Show and then on Ellen. Struggling to find work in television and film, she returned to stand-up comedy where she couldn’t hide her anger at being the punchline of everyone’s jokes. “I had done a sitcom and a movie and hosted the Emmys, and all of sudden, I lost everything,” DeGeneres said. “I was the butt of every joke. I was the punchline and it hurt. And my relationship was very, very public. Then I lost everything, and ultimately, I lost that relationship. But I had to look at my part in it, and I had to look at and understand other people’s side of it.”
Fighting the urge to crawl up in a ball and hide forever, DeGeneres later realized that if she was strong enough to build her career the first time, she could rebuild it again. Doing exactly that, she let the dust settle and, by 2003, returned to television as the host of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Interviewing celebrities, politicians, and other noteworthy figures, the show won four Daytime Emmy Awards out of 11 nominations in its first season as fans fell in love with DeGeneres once again as she danced and sang her way through the audience at the beginning of every show.
With her show still on the air today, DeGeneres has become a staple on daytime television and no longer worries about another reversal of fortune or hiding her true identity, which includes her marriage to actress Portia de Rossi. In fact, DeGeneres couldn’t be happier with where life has taken her. “I’m truly in an amazing, amazing place in my life. But, I don’t want to say I’m surprised, because at the same time, I created it. I thought it. I wanted this. So, when I look back on it, every single thing I’m doing is what I’ve wanted, and I believe that you get what you want.”
Life Today: DeGeneres’ Personal Relationships & Her Kindness Initiative
After a devastating end to her four-year relationship with Anne Heche in 2000 followed by an affair with actress, director, and photographer Alexandra Hedison, DeGeneres met and fell in love with actress Portia de Rossi in 2004. Together ever since, the couple got engaged and married in August 2008 just days after the same-sex marriage ban in California was overturned. “Getting married was more important to her, really,” DeGeneres says. “She says all the time how lucky we are that we had each other in that short window of time when it was legal to marry because a lot of people hadn’t found their person, and then suddenly that right was taking away. I’m tearing up thinking about it—we got to get married and have a wedding. I grew up thinking I’d never get to do that.”
Sharing a home in Beverly Hills, California with their four dogs and three cats, DeGeneres couldn’t be happier with how her life has turned out even after her efforts to rebuild. “I got to learn how to sit back and watch other people and learn what judgment was and have compassion,” she says. “And learn that not only was I strong enough to make it in the first place, but I was strong enough to come back and make it again. How lucky am I to have learned that?”
That’s exactly why DeGeneres is adamant about promoting kindness in everything she does. “The most important thing for me is to know that I represent kindness,” DeGeneres says. “I’m glad I’m funny. I’m glad I make people happy because that’s very important. But I’m proud to be known as a kind person. You listen to any monologue on late-night TV or just in general, to people talking, and there’s always a joke at someone else’s expense. It’s sarcasm; it’s nasty. Kids grow up hearing that and they think that’s what humor is… but that negativity permeates the entire planet. So, I’m really proud I’m not adding to the negativity. I’m proud that for the hour my show is on television, I’m not being mean and I’m hopefully helping one other person go, I’m going to be kind. Because then it all just kind of spreads, and the world is a little nicer out there.”
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