Most familiar to TV audiences as the diminutive but feisty court bailiff on Night Court (1984), Selma Diamonds entrance into acting wasnt through the usual venue of vaudeville, stage work or modeling - she was a writer for TV shows, once having been nominated for an Emmy for Caesars Hour (1954). Although she had that tough New York accent and street demeanor, she was actually born in Canada, but raised in Brooklyn. A graduate of New York University, she at first made a living by selling cartoons and fiction to the New Yorker magazine. NBC hired her as a writer for one of its radio shows, The Big Show, and she later made the transition into writing for television. Her film debut was as the voice on the telephone of Spencer Tracys wife in Its a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), where the world got a sample of the distinctive Diamond voice: nasal, high-pitched and one that could never be mistaken for anyone elses. She did a lot of TV work and was a regular on another series, Too Close for Comfort (1980) before Night Court (1984). She died of lung cancer in 1985. images.tvrage/people/24/70823.jpg
Posted on: Wed, 21 May 2014 04:07:54 +0000
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