Joan Rivers Passes Away at 81

Joan Alexandra Molinsky, best known by her stage name Joan Rivers passed away Thursday in a private room at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.  She passed surrounded by close family and friends. 

Best known for her crude stand-up and no-apologies fashion critiques, Rivers appeared in more than 25 films,  nearly 50 television productions, along with a handful of theater work. In 1990, Rivers won an Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host, for her show The Joan Rivers Show. She also authored 12 best-selling memoir and humor books.

Rivers first came to prominence in 1965 as a guest on The Tonight Show, a pioneering late-night program with interviews and comedy, hosted by Johnny Carson, whom she acknowledges as her mentor. The show established her particular comic style, poking fun at celebrities, but also at herself, often joking about her extensive plastic surgery.

Statement from Daughter, Melissa Rivers:

.@Joan_Rivers has died. Here's the statement from her daughter, @MelRivers: pic.twitter.com/VjFtF3RL6Y

— Gio Benitez (@GioBenitez) September 4, 2014

On August 28th, Rivers experienced serious complications—including stopping breathing—during throat surgery at a clinic in Yorkville, Manhattan. She was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital and was put into a medically induced coma after reportedly entering cardiac arrest.

On August 29th, her daughter, Melissa, publicly stated that she was "resting comfortably" in the hospital.On August 30th, it was reported Rivers had been put on life support.

Reports initially stated that Rivers' family might face ending her life support if her condition did not improve. However, on September 1st, an unnamed source told Entertainment Tonight that Rivers' physicians at Mount Sinai Hospital had started the process of trying to bring her out of the coma on August 31st. 

Prior to that, there had been no further medical updates beyond her daughter's statement. On September 3rd, Melissa Rivers issued a brief statement that Rivers had been moved from Mount Sinai Hospital's ICU into a private room, without any comment concerning Rivers's condition or prognosis.

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