Promoted as "a good ol' girl" version of Lenny Bruce, this bleached blonde, acid-tongued and sharp-witted comic made a name for herself in stand-up comedy before landing her own sitcom, "Grace Under Fire" (ABC, 1993-98). Named after Lady Brett Ashley in Ernest Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises", Butler describes herself as "proletarian, but literate" and that intelligence shines through in her material. Her potentially devastating put-downs of sexists, racists, and others who get her goat is softened somewhat by her Southern accent and sunny demeanor.

Born in Alabama and raised in Georgia, Butler