Burnett's film roles include Pete 'n' Tillie (1972), The Front Page (1974), A Wedding (1978), The Four Seasons (1981), Annie (1982), Noises Off (1992), and Horton Hears a Who!

[citation needed] When Burnett was in second grade, she briefly invented an imaginary twin sister named Karen, with Shirley Temple-like dimples.

After graduating from Hollywood High School in 1951, Burnett received an anonymous envelope containing $50 for one year's tuition at UCLA, where she initially planned on studying journalism.

[18]The young Burnett, always insecure about her looks, responded many years later to her mother's advice of "You can always write, no matter what you look like" by noting "God, that hurt!"

When he learned that she wanted to travel to New York in order to try her luck in musical comedy but could not afford the trip, he offered her and her boyfriend (Don Saroyan) each, on the spot, a $1,000 (equivalent to $11,346 in 2023) interest-free loan; the man, who was a millionaire from La Jolla, California, wasn't affiliated with show business and had earned his wealth from the shipbuilding industry.

[26] His conditions were simply that the loans were to be repaid within five years, his name was never to be revealed, and if she achieved success, she would help other aspiring talents to pursue their artistic dreams.

[31] Burnett's first true taste of success came with her appearance on Broadway in the 1959 musical Once Upon a Mattress, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award; in the same year, she paid back her mysterious benefactor "to the day" after agreeing to her non-obligatory unsecured loan of $1,000.

"[41] During this time she acted in the CBS variety show The Entertainers alongside Bob Newhart and in an episode of the Mel Brooks and Buck Henry created spy comedy series Get Smart in 1966.

Its ensemble cast included Tim Conway (who was a guest player until the ninth season),[43] Harvey Korman, Lyle Waggoner and the teenaged Vicki Lawrence, whom Burnett discovered and mentored.

On an Intimate Portrait episode about Burnett, she tearfully recalled her grandmother's last moments: "She said to my husband Joe from her hospital bed 'Joe, you see that spider up there?'

[citation needed] Burnett starred in a few films while her variety show was running, including Pete 'n' Tillie (1972) and The Front Page (1974).

The show's enduring popularity surprised many when a 2001 retrospective containing outtakes and discussions with the cast, and a tribute to Bob Mackie, drew in 30 million viewers, topping the Emmy Awards as well as all but the final game of that year's World Series.

[29] Her Grammy-winning memoir In Such Good Company is about the show, and Burnett tells about how it was developed, with anecdotes about improvisations, the cast, crew, and guests.

Burnett had long been a fan of the soap opera All My Children and realized a dream when Agnes Nixon created the role of Verla Grubbs for her in 1983.

Burnett played the long-lost daughter of Langley Wallingford (Louis Edmonds), causing trouble for her stepmother Phoebe Tyler-Wallingford (Ruth Warrick).

Those who were there to honor Burnett included her longtime friends and collaborators Julie Andrews, Vicki Lawrence and Tim Conway, as well as Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Rashida Jones and Martin Short.

The event featured Burnett, original cast members Vicki Lawrence and Lyle Waggoner, costume designer Bob Mackie and special guests Jim Carrey, Kristin Chenoweth, Stephen Colbert, Harry Connick Jr., Bill Hader, Jay Leno, Jane Lynch, Bernadette Peters, Maya Rudolph and Martin Short.

In June 2022, Burnett guest starred in the second half of the sixth and final season of American drama series Better Call Saul, a spin-off, prequel, and sequel to Breaking Bad.

"[56] Upon Burnett missing out on an Emmy nomination for her role, Daniel Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter praised Burnett, lamenting the outcome and describing her performance "as a subtle symphony of world-weary nuance, a characterization that simultaneously matches the spirit-draining black-and-white texture of the series' Omaha interludes and ties in perfectly with one of the most colorful chapters in the life of Bob Odenkirk's Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman.

[60] In March 2024, Burnett co-starred alongside Kristen Wiig, Allison Janney, and Laura Dern in the Apple TV+ comedy series Palm Royale.

In 2024 at age 91, she became the oldest nominee for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, for her work in Palm Royale.

[71] On her 90th birthday she was honored with an NBC variety special entitled, Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love where various collaborators and performers paid tribute to her.

This included Julie Andrews, Vicki Lawrence, Lily Tomlin, Steve Carell, Amy Poehler, Ellen DeGeneres, Bob Odenkirk, and Cher among many others.

[29][82] Burnett has enjoyed close friendships with Lucille Ball, Beverly Sills, Jim Nabors (who became the godfather to her daughter Jody),[38] Julie Andrews and Betty White.

They share a close friendship, as noted by Lawrence in a testimonial speech during her appearance at Burnett's 2013 Mark Twain Award in Washington, D.C. (recorded and broadcast on PBS Television).

[84] Burnett and Miller subsequently held temporary guardianship of the child from September 2020 to November 2021, at which point Dylan's case worker assumed the role.

[85] In keeping with her promise to the anonymous benefactor who assisted her in 1954, she has contributed to scholarship programs at UCLA and the University of Hawaii to help people in financial need.

In 1976, a false report in the tabloid newspaper The National Enquirer incorrectly implied that Burnett had been drunk and boisterous in public at a restaurant with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in attendance.

Though the initial jury award of $1.6 million was reduced to $200,000 after a series of appeals, and the final settlement was out of court, the event was widely viewed as a historic victory for libel victims of tabloid journalism.

In the episode, the characters discuss the cleanliness of a porn shop, Glenn Quagmire stating that it is so clean because Burnett works there as a janitor.