Who Was Don Saroyan? The Untold Story of Carol Burnett’s First Husband

Don Saroyan is best known as the first husband of Carol Burnett, the comedian and actress whose The Carol Burnett Show made her the first woman to host a comedy-variety television series, winning 23 Emmy Awards across its run. Don and Carol met and moved to New York together in 1954, using a $1,000 interest-free loan from an anonymous benefactor to pursue their acting careers, before marrying on December 15, 1955, and later divorcing in 1962. This article brings together the verified facts of his life, his marriage to Carol Burnett, and the remarkable career she built across more than five decades in American entertainment.

Bio Table

Detail	Information
Birth name	Harry Donald Sarooian
Born	October 4, 1928, Omaha, Nebraska
Married Carol Burnett	December 15, 1955
Divorced	1962
Died	November 24, 1990, Los Angeles
Spouse	Carol Burnett, comedian and actress

Who Was Don Saroyan?

Don Saroyan, born Harry Donald Sarooian, married Carol Burnett on December 15, 1955, following a relationship that began when the two moved to New York together in 1954, supported by a $1,000 interest-free loan from an anonymous benefactor to help them pursue acting careers. The couple’s marriage lasted roughly seven years before ending in divorce in 1962, a period during which Carol’s own career began its remarkable rise toward national fame.

Don had been previously married to Eleanor Pietrzak Baux in 1948, with whom he had a daughter, Barbara Sarooian Baux, who died young in 1956. He adopted the stage name “Saroyan,” the same spelling as the celebrated Armenian-American writer William Saroyan, though no evidence suggests any family relationship between the two beyond a shared heritage and the coincidence of spelling.

Don Saroyan’s Marriage to Carol Burnett

Don Saroyan’s marriage to Carol Burnett came after the couple’s considerable early struggles as aspiring actors in New York, a period during which both were working to establish themselves in the entertainment industry well before Carol’s eventual rise to national fame. This substantial early partnership, formed during their shared pursuit of acting careers, reflects a relationship considerably rooted in mutual ambition before either had achieved significant recognition.

Key Details of Don Saroyan’s Marriage

Several key details define the marriage between Don Saroyan and Carol Burnett:

1. The couple moved to New York together in 1954 to pursue acting careers.
2. They married on December 15, 1955, and divorced in 1962.
3. Don had previously been married, with a daughter who died young.

Carol Burnett’s Breakthrough on Broadway

To understand the marriage Don Saroyan shared with his wife, it helps to look closely at her performing career. Carol Burnett achieved considerable early recognition through her Tony-nominated performance in Once Upon a Mattress, a Broadway musical that opened in 1959, still during the years of her marriage to Don, establishing her as a genuinely rising talent in American musical theatre.

Timeline of Key Events

• 1954: Don Saroyan and Carol Burnett move to New York together to pursue acting.
• December 15, 1955: Don Saroyan marries Carol Burnett.
• 1956: Don Saroyan’s daughter from his first marriage, Barbara Sarooian Baux, dies young.
• 1959: Carol Burnett stars in Once Upon a Mattress on Broadway, earning a Tony nomination.
• 1962: Don Saroyan and Carol Burnett divorce.
• 1963: Carol Burnett marries her second husband, television producer Joe Hamilton.
• 1967 to 1978: Carol Burnett hosts The Carol Burnett Show, winning 23 Emmy Awards.
• 1990: Don Saroyan dies in Los Angeles at age 62.

Carol Burnett’s Landmark Television Series

Carol Burnett achieved considerable and lasting fame as the first woman to host a comedy-variety television series with The Carol Burnett Show, which ran from 1967 to 1978 and won 23 Emmy Awards during its run, cementing her reputation as one of American television’s most significant comedic pioneers. This considerable career achievement, arriving years after her marriage to Don had ended, reflects the substantial rise that continued well beyond their years together.

This period of Carol’s career, spanning her earlier Broadway breakthrough through her considerable and groundbreaking television success, reflects a genuinely significant career that Don had witnessed only in its earliest stages before their divorce in 1962.

Don Saroyan’s Own Acting Career

Don Saroyan’s own career as an actor and sound-department worker in Hollywood included film appearances throughout the 1960s and 1980s, along with television guest appearances, including a role on Airwolf in 1986. This considerable and steady career, though considerably less prominent than his former wife’s eventual fame, reflects a genuine and sustained presence within the entertainment industry across several decades.

Carol Burnett’s Later Marriages

Following her divorce from Don in 1962, Carol Burnett went on to marry television producer Joe Hamilton in 1963, a union that produced three daughters and lasted until 1984, before her later marriage to drummer Brian Miller in 2001. This considerable personal history, extending across three marriages, reflects the continued evolution of Carol’s personal life well beyond the years she spent with Don during her earliest career struggles.

The Anonymous Loan That Launched Two Careers

The $1,000 interest-free loan that helped Don and Carol move to New York in 1954 has become one of the most frequently retold details of Carol Burnett’s early biography, an act of considerable generosity from an anonymous benefactor that she has credited as pivotal to her entire career. This considerable and remarkable story, later revealed to have come from oil businessman Pauline Kenneth Cook, illustrates just how precarious the couple’s early circumstances were before either of them achieved any professional recognition.

This considerable early chapter of Carol’s life, shared directly with Don during their years together, reflects the genuinely modest and uncertain beginnings that preceded her eventual rise to becoming one of American television’s most celebrated performers.

Why People Search for Don Saroyan

Interest in Don Saroyan tends to arise from fans of Carol Burnett researching the legendary comedian’s personal history, particularly given how considerable and enduring her fame has become across generations of television audiences. Because Don shared Carol’s earliest and most formative years as a struggling actor in New York, curiosity about her first husband continues to draw readers researching the fuller picture of her personal life before her rise to considerable national fame.

This curiosity has persisted for decades, sustained by Carol Burnett’s enduring reputation as one of American entertainment’s most beloved and pioneering figures, a status that has continued to generate interest in the personal relationships that shaped her early life, including her first marriage to Don.

The Shared Surname Coincidence With William Saroyan

Don Saroyan’s adopted stage name, spelled identically to that of the celebrated Pulitzer Prize-winning writer William Saroyan, has occasionally led to confusion among readers researching his life, though no reliable source establishes any family relationship between the two men beyond their shared Armenian-American heritage. This considerable and notable coincidence is worth clarifying directly, given how easily the two names might otherwise be conflated by readers unfamiliar with Don’s own biography.

The Broader Saroyan Family Story

The broader family story surrounding Don Saroyan, including his birth as Harry Donald Sarooian in Omaha, Nebraska, and his earlier marriage and daughter who died young, reflects a personal history considerably more complex than his brief but historically notable marriage to Carol Burnett alone might suggest.

Carol Burnett’s Considerable Honours and Legacy

Carol Burnett’s considerable and lasting legacy, including her seven Primetime Emmy Awards, five Golden Globes, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, reflects a genuinely significant place within American entertainment history that continued to grow for decades after her marriage to Don had ended. This considerable body of recognition illustrates just how far her career travelled from the years she and Don spent struggling together in New York.

The Considerable Public Fascination With Carol Burnett’s Early Life

The considerable and sustained public fascination with Carol Burnett’s early life, including her struggles as an aspiring actress in New York before her eventual fame, reflects a broader pattern within entertainment biography, where the formative years before a star’s breakthrough often attract as much curiosity as their later, more celebrated achievements. This pattern has meant that Don, as the husband who shared those earliest years with Carol, has remained a consistent part of how her biography continues to be told decades later.

Readers researching Carol Burnett’s life frequently find themselves curious about Don specifically, given how directly his years with her overlapped with the uncertain and formative period before she became one of the most significant figures in American comedy-variety television.

Key Takeaways About Don Saroyan

Don Saroyan, born Harry Donald Sarooian, was the first husband of comedian Carol Burnett, married to her from December 1955 until their divorce in 1962. The couple had moved to New York together in 1954 to pursue acting careers. Carol Burnett went on to achieve considerable and lasting fame as the first woman to host a comedy-variety television series, winning 23 Emmy Awards for The Carol Burnett Show.

Conclusion

Don Saroyan’s story is closely tied to the earliest and most formative years of one of American entertainment’s most celebrated and pioneering careers, having shared Carol Burnett’s struggles as an aspiring actor in New York before her eventual rise to considerable national fame. While Carol’s legacy as a groundbreaking comedian and television host remains firmly secured through her decades of work, Don’s own story, including his previous marriage and his later career as a working actor, reflects a considerably more private personal history than his brief but notable connection to Carol’s early life might suggest. His story is a genuine reminder that behind many of entertainment’s most celebrated careers lie early relationships that shaped the people involved before fame arrived.

Don’s years alongside Carol, spanning their shared early struggles in New York through the years leading to her Broadway breakthrough, offer a genuine window into the personal life that existed before she became one of American television’s most enduring and beloved figures.

FAQs

Who was Don Saroyan married to?

Don Saroyan was married to Carol Burnett, the comedian and actress known for The Carol Burnett Show, from 1955 until their divorce in 1962.

Is Don Saroyan related to writer William Saroyan?

No. Despite sharing an identical stage-name spelling, no reliable source establishes any family relationship between Don Saroyan and the writer William Saroyan.

What was Don Saroyan’s birth name?

Don Saroyan was born Harry Donald Sarooian in Omaha, Nebraska.

Did Don Saroyan have children?

Yes. He had a daughter, Barbara Sarooian Baux, from a previous marriage, who died young in 1956.

What is Carol Burnett best known for?

Carol Burnett is best known as the first woman to host a comedy-variety television series, The Carol Burnett Show, which ran from 1967 to 1978 and won 23 Emmy Awards.