Ruth Buzzi, comedy sketch player on groundbreaking series 'Laugh-In,' dies at 88
By BETH HARRIS
Ruth Buzzi, who rose to fame as the frumpy and bitter Gladys Ormphby on the groundbreaking sketch comedy series 'Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In' and made over 200 television appearances during a 45-year career, has died at age 88.
Buzzi died Thursday at her home in Texas, her agent Mike Eisenstadt said. She had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and was in hospice care. Shortly before her death, her husband Kent Perkins, had posted a statement on Buzzi's Facebook page, thanking her many fans and telling them: 'She wants you to know she probably had more fun doing those shows than you had watching them.'
Buzzi won a Golden Globe and was a two-time Emmy nominee for the NBC show that ran from 1968 to 1973. She was the only regular to appear in all six seasons, including the pilot.
She was first spotted by 'Laugh-In' creator and producer George Schlatter playing various characters on 'The Steve Allen Comedy Hour.'
Schlatter was holding auditions for 'Laugh-In' when he received a picture in the mail of Buzzi in her Ormphby costume, sitting in a wire mesh trash barrel. The character was clad in drab brown with her bun covered by a hairnet knotted in the middle of her forehead.
'I think I hired her because of my passion for Gladys Ormphby,' he wrote in his 2023 memoir 'Still Laughing A Life in Comedy.' 'I must admit that the hairnet and the rolled-down stockings did light my fire. My favorite Gladys line was when she announced that the day of the office Christmas party, they sent her home early.'
The Gladys character used her purse as a weapon against anyone who bothered her, striking people over the head. On 'Laugh-In,' her most frequent target was Arte Johnson's dirty old man character Tyrone F. Horneigh.
'Gladys embodies the overlooked, the downtrodden, the taken for granted, the struggler,' Buzzi told The Connecticut Post in 2018. 'So when she fights back, she speaks for everyone who's been marginalized, reduced to a sex object or otherwise abused. And that's almost everyone at some time or other.'
Buzzi took her act to the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts in Las Vegas, where she bashed her purse on the heads of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Lucille Ball, among others.
'Ruth Buzzi brought a singular energy and charm to sketch comedy that made her a standout on 'Laugh-In' and the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts. Her characters, especially the unforgettable Gladys Ormphby, captured the delightful absurdity of the era," said Journey Gunderson, executive director of the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York.
Her other recurring characters on 'Laugh-In' included Flicker Farkle; Busy-Buzzi, a Hollywood gossip columnist; Doris Swizzler, a cocktail-lounge regular who got drunk with husband Leonard, played by Dick Martin; and an inconsiderate flight attendant.
'I never took my work for granted, nor assumed I deserved more of the credit or spotlight or more pay than anyone else,' Buzzi told The Connecticut Post. 'I was just thrilled to drive down the hill to NBC every day as an employed actor with a job to do.'
Buzzi remained friends through the years with 'Laugh-In' co-stars Lily Tomlin and Jo Anne Worley.
Born Ruth Ann Buzzi on July 24, 1936, in Westerly, Rhode Island, she was the daughter of Angelo Buzzi, a nationally known stone sculptor. Her father and later her brother operated Buzzi Memorials, a gravestone and monument maker in Stonington, Connecticut, where she was head cheerleader in high school.
Buzzi enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse at age 17. Two years later, she traveled with singer Rudy Vallee in a musical and comedy act during her summer break. That earned her an Actors' Equity union card before she graduated from the playhouse's College of Theatre Arts.
Buzzi moved to New York and was immediately hired for a lead role in an off-Broadway musical revue, the first of 19 such shows she performed in on the East Coast.
She got her national television break on 'The Garry Moore Show' in 1964, just after Carol Burnett was replaced by Dorothy Loudon on the series. She played Shakundala the Silent, a bumbling magician's assistant to Dom DeLuise's character Dominic the Great.
Buzzi was a regular on the CBS variety show 'The Entertainers' whose hosts included Burnett and Bob Newhart.
She was in the original Broadway cast of 'Sweet Charity' with Gwen Verdon in 1966.
Buzzi toured the country with her nightclub act, including appearances in Las Vegas.
She was a semi-regular on 'That Girl' as Marlo Thomas' friend. She co-starred with Jim Nabors as time-traveling androids on 'The Lost Saucer' in the mid-1970s.
Her other guest appearances included variety shows hosted by Burnett, Flip Wilson, Glen Campbell, Tony Orlando, Donny and Marie Osmond and Leslie Uggams.
She appeared in Ball's last comedy series 'Life With Lucy.'
Buzzi guested in music videos with 'Weird Al' Yankovic, the B-52's and the Presidents of the United States of America.
She did hundreds of guest voices in cartoon series including 'Pound Puppies,' 'Berenstain Bears,' 'The Smurfs' and 'The Angry Beavers.'
She was Emmy nominated for her six-year run as shopkeeper Ruthie on 'Sesame Street.'
Her movie credits included 'Freaky Friday,' 'Chu Chu and the Philly Flash,' 'The North Avenue Irregulars' and 'The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again.'
Buzzi was active on social media and had thousands of followers whom she rewarded with such one-liners as 'I have never faked a sarcasm' and 'Scientists say the universe is made up entirely of neurons, protons and electrons. They seem to have missed morons.'
She married actor Perkins in 1978.
The couple moved from California to Texas in 2003 and bought a 640-acre ranch near Stephenville.
Buzzi retired from acting in 2021 and suffered a series of strokes the following year. Her husband told The Dallas Morning News in 2023 that she had dementia.
—-
Associated Press National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report.
© Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Today
15-05-2025
- Japan Today
Stanley Tucci returns to Italy with National Geographic series and vows to 'go more in depth'
This image shows Stanley Tucci posing in the Abruzzo region of Italy during the filming of his series "Tucci in Italy." By MARK KENNEDY You can't keep Stanley Tucci from his beloved Italy just like you can't keep cheese from lasagna. The Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning actor is once again elegantly roaming through the land of his heritage in National Geographic's new food-travel series 'Tucci in Italy,' less than three years after a similar show was axed. 'I think that visually it's more interesting this time around, and I think that we try to go more in depth into the stories as much as you can, given the format,' he says. Tucci goes from a three-Michelin-star restaurant in Milan where the staff grow their own vegetables — 'Stop it!' he half-heartedly begs a chef adding salmon eggs to a pesto risotto — to cooking fish for anglers on the banks of the Sarca River. 'I'm exploring the complex connections between the land, the people and the food they eat in order to discover the essence of each region in the country I love – Italy,' the 'Conclave' and 'The Devil Wears Prada' star tells viewers in each installment. Each episode of the first season of 'Tucci in Italy' explores a different region — from Tuscany to Trentino-Alto Adige, Lombardy, Abruzzo and Lazio. It was shot over six months, from January to July in 2024. 'It's a lot of planning, it is a lot logistics. But ultimately, once you get to where you're supposed to be, which isn't always easy in Italy, especially in the mountainous areas, it's great,' says Tucci. 'The people are great, extraordinary.' In Tuscany, the cradle of the Renaissance, Tucci eats lampredotto, a sandwich made with the cow's fourth stomach, and a beef tongue stew. In the Alpine region of Trentino-Alto Adige, he skis and munches on beef goulash and polenta near the Austrian border. National Geographic greenlit Tucci's new docuseries a year after CNN canceled his 'Searching for Italy' despite winning Emmys for Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special. Much of the same production staff and crew transferred over with Tucci to his new TV home, and they embraced the use of the latest drones, giving the series a sweep and majesty. Executive producer Lottie Birmingham, who worked on 'Searching for Italy' and jumped aboard 'Tucci in Italy,' says the new series pushes viewers into new parts of the European nation. 'I think before we did focus quite a lot on the major cities, whereas this time we've kind of gone out into the wider regions,' she says. 'In Lazio, for example, we haven't just focused on Rome or in Tuscany we haven't just focused on Florence.' The series also stops to look at some of the social issues roiling Italy, like immigration and gay rights. Tucci and his team spotlight Punjabi migrants, particularly Sikhs, who have a significant presence in the nation's dairy industry, and the impact that Ethiopian immigrants have had despite facing racism and being treated as 'other.' 'Every country does it, and it's never a helpful thing,' says Tucci. 'And after people assimilate, then they often find others to become 'others.' So it's just this sort of weird, vicious circle.' The new series — produced by Salt Productions and BBC Studios — in many ways is more true to Tucci's initial vision, which was to look carefully at trends below the surface of what appears to be a happy, sun-blasted land. 'The original idea of the show that I had almost 20 years ago, at this point, was to show the diversity of Italy. But also to, in a weird way, dispel the myth that it's sunny all the time and everybody's eating pizza and pasta and everybody is happy and smiling all the time. Yeah, that exists, but that's not everything.' It was Tucci who suggested a stop in Lombardy after reading an article about a gay couple who haven't been able to legally adopt their baby boy since the government doesn't recognize adoptions by same-sex couples. 'There's a darker side, as there are with every country,' says Birmingham. 'Italians are so focused on food and family, but what does family mean? That was what we wanted to look at in that story.' Tucci is part of a crowded field of celeb travel hosts, which includes Rainn Wilson, Eugene Levy, Zac Efron, José Andrés, Chris Hemsworth, Will Smith, Macaulay Culkin and Ewan McGregor. Birmingham believes her host has something special to offer. 'I think he's particularly good at putting people at ease,' she says. 'He is genuinely interested, and it is a real passion for him. He's not hosting this series just to host it. He loves Italy more than any of us, and I think that's really apparent.' One of the series' highlights is when Tucci visits Sienna, a city in central Italy's Tuscany region, and watches its medieval-era horse race run around the Piazza del Campo. Afterward, each city ward hosts a dinner party in the streets where thousands sing and toast their neighborhood. 'I didn't know about that and I just think it's incredible,' says Tucci, who first visited Sienna when he was about 12. 'Italy was a very different place and yet still is very much the same.' It's that push and pull of modernity and tradition that the show highlights, like a restaurant in Florence that caused a stir when traditional regional delicacies were done with Japanese styles and ingredients. Tucci found the food delicious and worried that Italians must embrace change. 'They maintain their traditions, they maintain the quality. But it also stops them from growing,' says Tucci. 'There's no reason why you can't have both.' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
02-05-2025
- Japan Today
Ruth Buzzi, comedy sketch player on groundbreaking series 'Laugh-In,' dies at 88
By BETH HARRIS Ruth Buzzi, who rose to fame as the frumpy and bitter Gladys Ormphby on the groundbreaking sketch comedy series 'Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In' and made over 200 television appearances during a 45-year career, has died at age 88. Buzzi died Thursday at her home in Texas, her agent Mike Eisenstadt said. She had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and was in hospice care. Shortly before her death, her husband Kent Perkins, had posted a statement on Buzzi's Facebook page, thanking her many fans and telling them: 'She wants you to know she probably had more fun doing those shows than you had watching them.' Buzzi won a Golden Globe and was a two-time Emmy nominee for the NBC show that ran from 1968 to 1973. She was the only regular to appear in all six seasons, including the pilot. She was first spotted by 'Laugh-In' creator and producer George Schlatter playing various characters on 'The Steve Allen Comedy Hour.' Schlatter was holding auditions for 'Laugh-In' when he received a picture in the mail of Buzzi in her Ormphby costume, sitting in a wire mesh trash barrel. The character was clad in drab brown with her bun covered by a hairnet knotted in the middle of her forehead. 'I think I hired her because of my passion for Gladys Ormphby,' he wrote in his 2023 memoir 'Still Laughing A Life in Comedy.' 'I must admit that the hairnet and the rolled-down stockings did light my fire. My favorite Gladys line was when she announced that the day of the office Christmas party, they sent her home early.' The Gladys character used her purse as a weapon against anyone who bothered her, striking people over the head. On 'Laugh-In,' her most frequent target was Arte Johnson's dirty old man character Tyrone F. Horneigh. 'Gladys embodies the overlooked, the downtrodden, the taken for granted, the struggler,' Buzzi told The Connecticut Post in 2018. 'So when she fights back, she speaks for everyone who's been marginalized, reduced to a sex object or otherwise abused. And that's almost everyone at some time or other.' Buzzi took her act to the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts in Las Vegas, where she bashed her purse on the heads of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Lucille Ball, among others. 'Ruth Buzzi brought a singular energy and charm to sketch comedy that made her a standout on 'Laugh-In' and the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts. Her characters, especially the unforgettable Gladys Ormphby, captured the delightful absurdity of the era," said Journey Gunderson, executive director of the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York. Her other recurring characters on 'Laugh-In' included Flicker Farkle; Busy-Buzzi, a Hollywood gossip columnist; Doris Swizzler, a cocktail-lounge regular who got drunk with husband Leonard, played by Dick Martin; and an inconsiderate flight attendant. 'I never took my work for granted, nor assumed I deserved more of the credit or spotlight or more pay than anyone else,' Buzzi told The Connecticut Post. 'I was just thrilled to drive down the hill to NBC every day as an employed actor with a job to do.' Buzzi remained friends through the years with 'Laugh-In' co-stars Lily Tomlin and Jo Anne Worley. Born Ruth Ann Buzzi on July 24, 1936, in Westerly, Rhode Island, she was the daughter of Angelo Buzzi, a nationally known stone sculptor. Her father and later her brother operated Buzzi Memorials, a gravestone and monument maker in Stonington, Connecticut, where she was head cheerleader in high school. Buzzi enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse at age 17. Two years later, she traveled with singer Rudy Vallee in a musical and comedy act during her summer break. That earned her an Actors' Equity union card before she graduated from the playhouse's College of Theatre Arts. Buzzi moved to New York and was immediately hired for a lead role in an off-Broadway musical revue, the first of 19 such shows she performed in on the East Coast. She got her national television break on 'The Garry Moore Show' in 1964, just after Carol Burnett was replaced by Dorothy Loudon on the series. She played Shakundala the Silent, a bumbling magician's assistant to Dom DeLuise's character Dominic the Great. Buzzi was a regular on the CBS variety show 'The Entertainers' whose hosts included Burnett and Bob Newhart. She was in the original Broadway cast of 'Sweet Charity' with Gwen Verdon in 1966. Buzzi toured the country with her nightclub act, including appearances in Las Vegas. She was a semi-regular on 'That Girl' as Marlo Thomas' friend. She co-starred with Jim Nabors as time-traveling androids on 'The Lost Saucer' in the mid-1970s. Her other guest appearances included variety shows hosted by Burnett, Flip Wilson, Glen Campbell, Tony Orlando, Donny and Marie Osmond and Leslie Uggams. She appeared in Ball's last comedy series 'Life With Lucy.' Buzzi guested in music videos with 'Weird Al' Yankovic, the B-52's and the Presidents of the United States of America. She did hundreds of guest voices in cartoon series including 'Pound Puppies,' 'Berenstain Bears,' 'The Smurfs' and 'The Angry Beavers.' She was Emmy nominated for her six-year run as shopkeeper Ruthie on 'Sesame Street.' Her movie credits included 'Freaky Friday,' 'Chu Chu and the Philly Flash,' 'The North Avenue Irregulars' and 'The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again.' Buzzi was active on social media and had thousands of followers whom she rewarded with such one-liners as 'I have never faked a sarcasm' and 'Scientists say the universe is made up entirely of neurons, protons and electrons. They seem to have missed morons.' She married actor Perkins in 1978. The couple moved from California to Texas in 2003 and bought a 640-acre ranch near Stephenville. Buzzi retired from acting in 2021 and suffered a series of strokes the following year. Her husband told The Dallas Morning News in 2023 that she had dementia. —- Associated Press National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Times
17-04-2025
- Japan Times
Actor Hiroyuki Sanada among Time's 100 most influential people
Three Japanese people, including actor Hiroyuki Sanada, are among Time's 100 most influential people in the world, according to a list released by the U.S. magazine on Wednesday. The other two Japanese are musician Yoshiki and contemporary artist Yoshitomo Nara. Sanada, 64, known for his role in "Shogun," a Golden Globe-winning television drama series, is "a legend, an actor cut from almost mythic material," the magazine said. Yoshiki, a 59-year-old member of rock band X Japan, is "an artist whose brilliance has transcended borders and genres throughout his 40-plus-year career," the magazine said, adding that he "has continued to break boundaries — not just as a musician, but also as a cultural ambassador." Referring to Nara, 65, known for his drawings of girls with big heads and expressive eyes, the magazine said his work "carries messages that we need to hear, presented in a way we can digest with humor and clarity."
