Rosie O’Donnell

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Date of Birth : May 21st 1962

O’Donnell began her acting career doing stand-up comedy around the East Coast, and was soon cast as Maggie O’Brien on the Nell Carter sitcom Gimme a Break. Her heavy-set appearance and tomboyish, husky New York accent stood her apart from other actresses and comediennes. She hosted the VH1 stand-up comedy series Stand-Up Spotlight in the late 1980s, and eventually was cast as the lead in her own sitcom in 1992, called Stand by Your Man. It was quickly cancelled from lack of viewers.

In the early 1990s O’Donnell starred in a string of comedy films including A League of Their Own, Another Stakeout and Sleepless in Seattle. She was highly acclaimed for her performances, but quickly lost that popularity by appearing in a string of flops in the mid 1990s. These included Car 54, Where Are You?, The Flintstones and Exit to Eden.

In February of 2004, O’Donnell married her longtime partner, Kelli Carpenter, in San Francisco after that city began approving gay marriages. As she became more open about her political opinions, O’Donnell became a high-profile advocate for gay rights and gun control, making her a target for criticism from conservative pundits such as Rush Limbaugh and Pat Buchanan. In 2006 she joined the hosting cast of The View (with Barbara Walters), and in no time was making headlines again with political comments (she is a harsh critic of George W. Bush) and, most famously, a public spat with Donald Trump. Unable to reach a contract agreement with ABC in 2007, O’Donnell left the show in May, but not before engaging in a public spat with co-host Elizabeth Hasselbeck.