HBO Comedian Diane Ford Dies of Cancer

Diane Ford, a popular stand-up comic who headlined numerous HBO specials and previously wrote an episode of Tim Allen’s Home Improvement, has died at 68. Ford died of cancer in Sarasota, Florida on Tuesday, April 30 her nephew Wes Roberts, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Born in in Waseca, Minnesota in September 1945, Ford was just 14 when her parents died in a car accident. Following their deaths, she lived with relatives, in foster homes, and at a Catholic Girls boarding school. Speaking to The Detroit News years later, Ford said, “a lot of comics have known some personal tragedy in their lives. A lot of comedy comes out of pain. If you can turn it around somehow and then laugh at it, it makes the pain easier to bear.”

Ford’s career spanned decades and saw her cement herself as a familiar face at HBO. Throughout her career, she appeared in four HBO specials, including Women of the Night II, a 1988 special that also featured Joy Behar, Susie Essman, Carla Filisha, Andrea Martin and Lizz Winstead, per IMDb. Two years later, she appeared in the HBO special Command Performance. She also appeared in two episodes of One Night Stand, HBO’s half-hour that featured stand-up comedy specials from some of the top performing comedians, in ’90 and ’92.

Outside of her HBO appearances, Ford also appeared on Fox’s weekly, late-night, hour-long stand-up comedy showcase Comic Strip Live, which ran from 1989 to 1994, a total of 13 times. She made eight appearances on Jerry Lewis’ Labor Day telethon, which raised money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and had her own show in Vegas, Diane Ford’s Cosmopolitan Comedy. Throughout her career, she received 11 nominations at the American Comedy Awards for Comedian of the Year.

In 1994, Ford tried her hand at writing when she penned an episode of Allen’s ABC sitcom Home Improvement. On X (formerly Twitter), Allen wrote “Diane Ford my dear friend and road warrior comedian for so many clubs and so many years passed away. She was a force of nature and I have been blessed to be her friend. God bless her family. Love you Diane see ya in the big green room up there.”

Ford was also a frequent performer at McCurdy’s Comedy Theatre in Sarasota, Florida. In a statement, McCurdy’s co-owner Les McCurdy told THR, “She wasn’t intimidated by anyone. She only allowed you to get so close. Basically, a ballbuster.”