Biographie

She and husband Martin are among the writers working on a musical "Natural Woman," based on the music of Carole King and Gerry Goffin.

Moved to California in the late 80s and met husband Martin Bergman, an Englishman, whom she met when he was producing stand-up comedy shows. Together, they wrote the film Peter's Friends (1992) that co-starred then-married Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson.

She and her husband have written (April 2013) the sitcom, The Rita Rudner Show for BBC Radio 4.

Hoping for her own sitcom like other comedians in the 1980s, Rita did at least a half-dozen pilots but they never came to fruition.

Kooky, slightly vapid-looking American stand-up comedienne whose specialized brand of neurotic comedy was inspired by idols Jack Benny, Woody Allen, and Bob Newhart.

My husband gave me a necklace. It's fake. I requested fake. Maybe I'm paranoid, but in this day and age, I don't want something around my neck that's worth more than my head.

I don't swear. When I do, my husband gets out the tape recorder. Once, when I was first doing comedy, there were only five people in the audience, so I did my whole act swearing every other word. All the waitresses and people at the bar ran in yelling, 'Rita's swearing! Rita's swearing! Everyone come!'

In Hollywood a marriage is a success if it outlasts milk.

Before I met my husband, I'd never fallen in love, though I'd stepped in it a few times.

Men are self-confident because they grow up identifying with super-heroes. Women have bad self-images because they grow up identifying with Barbie.