Joan Rivers became a star as a young comedian on The Tonight Show in the 1960s. Viewers saw her as
a regular fixture on the NBC late-night show, and in 1982 she was named Johnny Carson's first-ever,
permanent guest host. Four years later, the ever-popular Rivers scored her own talk show,
The Late Show, on Fox, thus burning a bridge with Carson forever.
Throughout her long career in show business, Rivers' looks changed dramatically.
The Fashion Police star often joked about plastic surgery, once quipping,
"I wish I had a twin, so I could know what I'd look like without plastic surgery."
There was speculation about how many surgical procedures she’d actually had before her death
in 2014 at age 81. The Sydney Herald once reported that Rivers' first plastic surgery was thought to
have been an eye lift when she was 32. If that's the case, Rivers started changing her face at
the same time that she started out on Johnny Carson's chatfest in 1965, the outlet noted.
But just how many procedures did she have in her lifetime?
Well, we don't know for sure.
The Sydney Herald claimed that Rivers had rhinoplasty, at least two facelifts,
and countless Botox procedures during her life. The number of procedures Rivers had done
was once estimated to be 734, but she claimed the number was 739,
according to The New York Daily News. While she later said the "739" count was a joke,
Rivers did admit to getting Botox injections every five to six months.
After Rivers' death, her daughter Melissa opened up in her 2015 tell-all,
The Book of Joan: Tales of Mirth, Mischief and Manipulation, to reveal that her famous mother
didn't have as much work done as people thought. Melissa put her mom's final surgery count at 365.
She also explained that although her mother had been insecure about her appearance,
she had finally been at peace with her looks before she died.
While Joan Rivers was a prolific plastic surgery patient,
it was a surgical procedure that also caused her death.
Rivers died on September 4, 2014 following an elective procedure at a clinic in New York City.
The throat procedure was considered minor, but Rivers stopped breathing while under anesthesia.
"It's her assistant. And she said, I don't know what— She's crying. And she said,
‘I don't know what to tell you. Your mother stopped breathing.
I don't know what to tell you. We're on the way to the hospital’."
The Hollywood Reporter noted that in 2016, Rivers' daughter, Melissa,
settled a malpractice lawsuit against the clinic where her mother died. In her suit,
Rivers' daughter alleged that doctors at the clinic performed, quote,
"unauthorized medical procedures" on the Emmy-winning comedian and talk show host.
Even more shocking was the revelation that the doctor who performed the procedure was caught
taking a photo of Rivers while she was under anesthesia. Melissa Rivers' attorney, Jeffrey
Bloom, told USA Today that the doctor used his cell phone to take a photo of Rivers on the table.
Rivers, who had been under anesthesia many times for her past plastic surgery procedures,
died because her brain did not get enough oxygen during the surgery.
Rivers never stopped talking about plastic surgery.
"People will tell you about their sex lives.
People will tell you how much money they have. They will not ask you about plastic surgery."
It was a key part of her comedy repertoire — but in her later years,
she also started to talk about death.
"I spend half my day working, half my day going to funerals."
In a 2010 interview with The Times of London, Rivers revealed that she thought about death
constantly as she approached her 80s. She also admitted she would not want to live if
she couldn't perform comedy, but noted that she was not at all afraid of death — mostly due to
her experience with being put to sleep for her many plastic surgeries. She told the outlet,
"I don't fear it. With plastic surgery the general anesthetic is like a black-velvety sleep,
and that's what death is — without waking up to someone clapping and going, 'Joan,
wake up, it's all over and you're looking pretty.'"
Rivers ultimately told her last joke about death the night before she went
in for her fatal surgical procedure. According to ABC 7, during what would
be her final performance at a Manhattan theater, Rivers told the crowd she could,
quote, "go at any moment" and that the audience would have bragging rights to say,
"I was there the night Joan Rivers passed."
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