Joan Rivers was born in Brooklyn, in the Big Apple, before entering show business, Rivers worked at assorted roles like a tour guide at Rockefeller Center, a writer / proofreader at an advertising corporation and as a fashion specialist at Bond outfitters. In this period, an agent named Tony Rivers instructed her to change her name, so she advised Joan Brooks as her new name.

By 1965, Rivers had a stint on Candid Camera as a gag writer and participant; she was "the bait" to lure folks into stupid eventualities for the show. She also made her first appearance on The Tonight Show with new host Johnny Carson, on February 17th, 1965.

In the same decade, Brooks made other appearances on The Tonight Show as well as The Ed Sullivan Show, while hosting the 1st of several talk shows. She had a short role in The Swimmer ( 1968 ), starring Burt Lancaster. A year later on she had a short lived syndicated daytime talk show ; Johnny Carson was her first guest. In the middle of the 1960s, she released at least 2 comedy albums, the following to Last Joan Brooks Album and Joan Rivers Presents Mr. Phyllis & Other Funny Stories.

By the 1970s, Brooks was appearing on assorted television comedy and variety shows, including The Carol Burnett Show and a semi-regular stint on Hollywood Squares. From 1972 to 1976, she announced The Adventures of Letterman, an animated segment for The Electrical Company.

A TV special primarily based on the personality, a ridicule tribute called Joan Brooks and Friends Salute Heidi Abramowitz, was not successful with the general public. Also in 1986 came the move that cost Brooks her longtime closeness with Carson, who had first employed her as a Tonight Show writer. The soon-to-launch Fox TV Network claimed it was giving her a late night talk show, The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers.

The new network intended to broadcast the show 11:00 p.m. To 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time, making her a Carson rival.

Rivers was a guest on TV's Pee-Wee's Theatre Yuletide Special. By 1989, she attempted another daytime Television talk show, The Joan Rivers Show, which ran for 5 years. In 1994, Rivers and girl Melissa first hosted the E! Entertainment TV pre-awards show for the Golden Globe Awards. Beginning 1995, they hosted the yearly E! Entertainment TV pre-awards show for the Oscars. Beginning in 1997, Rivers hosted her very own radio show on WOR in NY. Rivers also appeared as one of the center squares on the 1986-89 version of The Hollywood Squares, hosted by John Davidson, and swapping with Jim J. Bullock and disk jockey Shadoe Stevens. By 2003, Rivers had left her E! Red-carpet show for a three-year contract ( valued between $68 million ) to cover award-show red-carpet shows for the Television Guide Channel. Joan Rivers poses for a picture at the Pierre Hotel, May twenty-four, 2001 Rivers appeared in 3 episodes of the Television show Nip / Tuck during its 2nd, 3rd and 7th season playing herself. Rivers appears constantly on television's The Shopping Channel ( in Canada ) and QVC ( in both the U.S. and the United Kingdom ), pushing her own line of jewelry under brand "The Joan Rivers Collection."

She was also a guest presenter at the opening of the North American Operating Room Nurses 2k San Francisco Meeting . Both Joan and Melissa Rivers are regular guests on Howard Stern's radio show, and Joan Brooks regularly appears as a guest on UK panel show eight out of 10 Cats . On Aug 16, 2007, Rivers started a 14 day workshop of her new play, with the unconfirmed title "The Joan Rivers Theatre Project," at The Magic Theatre in San Francisco. On December three, 2007, Brooks was featured before Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh in the Royal Variety Show 2007 at the Liverpool Empire Theatre.

Rivers died on September 4, 2014 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York due to brain damage caused by cerebral hypoxia or lack of oxygen to the brain, which resulted to brain damage. Her death came in the wake of a minor throat operation at a Manhattan outpatient clinic, where she stopped breathing and experienced grave operations during the procedure.

Because of Rivers death, the said surgical procedure was placed under investigation. After two months of probing, federal officials revealed that the clinic committed several mistakes prior the surgery and while it was ongoing. Among those oversights were the possible administration of incorrect dosage of anesthetic, the failure to respond to the comedian's deteriorating vital signs, which included a severe dip of her blood pressure and the performance of a procedure without her consent.

Rivers was 81 years old upon her death. A private service was held for her at the Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan on September 7 following her cremation.