Comedienne Joan Rivers, whose sharp tongue and quick wits have entertained the masses for decades, has died; she was 81.

Rivers, whose real name was Joan Molinsky, got her big break after an appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1965. Carson and Joan would become good friends, and Joan would even become Carson's Tonight Show co-host in 1983. But, in 1986, after Joan was offered her own late night talk show by Fox, her friendship with Johnny Carson ended for good.

Rivers' talk show would last only a year, and the suicide of her husband three months after the show's cancellation would temporarily put Rivers' career on hold.

But, the unstoppable diva kept on and resurrected her career. Rivers got another chance at being a talk show host in 1989 with The Joan Rivers Show. The show lasted five years and earned Rivers a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host. Rivers has also made appearances on Hollywood Squares, The Celebrity Apprentice, and has been a pre-show red carpet commentator for several major award shows. In 2010, Rivers and her daughter Melissa began hosting The Fashion Police on E!, and a year later, they appeared in their own reality series Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?. Joan Rivers has written 12 books, including her most recent book Diary of a Mad Diva.

Rivers was admitted to Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City after going into cardiac and respiratory arrest during throat surgery on Aug. 28. After spending the rest of the week in a medically induced coma, she was taken out of the coma and placed on life support last Sunday. Her daughter Melissa announced her death Sep. 4.

In a statement, according to The Associated Press, Melissa Rivers stated, “My mother's greatest joy in life was to make people laugh…Although that is difficult to do right now, I know her final wish would be that we return to laughing soon." Melissa Rivers said that Joan died surrounded by family and close friends.

Photo Courtesy of: Roger Wong/INFphoto.com