Latest news with #TheSteveAllenComedyHour
Epoch Times
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Epoch Times
Comedian and ‘Laugh-In' Star Ruth Buzzi Dies at 88
Ruth Buzzi, the comedian and actress best known for her portrayal of the sharp-tongued, purse-wielding Gladys Ormphby on 'Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In,' has passed away at 88. Her agent, Mike Eisenstadt, said that Buzzi passed away Thursday at her home in Texas after battling Alzheimer's and receiving hospice care. Shortly before her death, her husband, Kent Perkins, shared a message on Facebook, asking fans to share pictures, memories, and cherished moments from her career. 'She asked me to thank all of you for being so good to her for so many years,' the Buzzi's career spanned 45 years, including stage performances and over 200 television appearances. She won a Golden Globe and was a two-time Emmy nominee for 'Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In,' which ran from 1968 to 1973. She was the only regular to appear in all six seasons, including the pilot. Buzzi was first spotted by 'Laugh-In' creator and producer George Schlatter when she was playing various characters on 'The Steve Allen Comedy Hour.' Related Stories 4/7/2025 1/9/2025 Schlatter saw a picture of her dressed as Gladys Ormphby, sitting in a wire mesh trash barrel, clad in drab brown with her bun covered by a hairnet knotted in the middle of her forehead. That image made a deep impact. 'I must admit that the hairnet and the rolled-down stockings did light my fire,' Schlatter wrote in his 2023 memoir 'Still Laughing: A Life in Comedy.' '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. 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 entertainment legends like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Lucille Ball, among others. Gladys Ormphby wasn't the only personality Buzzi portrayed. Her other recurring characters on 'Laugh-In' included Busy-Buzzi, a Hollywood gossip columnist; Doris '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.' "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" cast members, from left, Lily Tomlin, Henry Gibson, Ruth Buzzi and Gary Owens on April 2, 2002, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. Nick Ut/AP Photo Love, Peace, and Laughter Ruth Ann Buzzi was born on July 24, 1936, in Westerly, Rhode Island. Her father, Angelo, was a renowned stone sculptor who ran a gravestone and monument business in Stonington, Connecticut. Buzzi enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse at age 17 and earned her Actors' Equity union card during her summer break while touring in a musical and comedy act with singer Rudy Vallee. With her degree from the College of Theatre Arts in hand, Buzzi moved to New York, where she was immediately hired for a lead role in an off-Broadway musical revue—the first of 19 such shows. But it was just the beginning. In 1964, she landed her television break on 'The Garry Moore Show,' playing Shakundala the Silent, a bumbling magician's assistant to Dom DeLuise's character Dominic the Great. Her varied TV career included appearances on 'The Entertainers,' 'That Girl,' 'The Lost Saucer,' and Lucille Ball's final sitcom 'Life With Lucy,' as well as cameos in music videos with 'Weird Al' Yankovic and the B-52's. As a voice actor, she took on hundreds of appearances in cartoon series including 'The Smurfs,' 'Pound Puppies,' 'Berenstain Bears,' and 'The Angry Beavers.' She was Emmy-nominated for her six-year run as shopkeeper Ruthie on 'Sesame Street.' On the big screen, Buzzi appeared in films such as 'Freaky Friday,' 'Chu Chu and the Philly Flash,' 'The North Avenue Irregulars,' and 'The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again.' She was also part of the original Broadway cast of 'Sweet Charity' with Gwen Verdon in 1966. Beyond her screen work, Buzzi entertained a quarter of a million followers on social media with her humor and witty remarks, including classics like 'I have never faked a sarcasm,' 'The trouble with 'You know you're old when your walker comes with curb feelers and an airbag,' was her last humorous Buzzi married actor Kent Perkins in 1978. The couple moved from California to Texas in 2003 to live on a 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. In a Friday The Associated Press contributed to this article. From NTD News
Boston Globe
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Ruth Buzzi, comedy sketch player on groundbreaking series ‘Laugh-In,' dies
Advertisement She was first spotted by 'Laugh-In' creator and producer George Schlatter playing various characters on 'The Steve Allen Comedy Hour.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 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.' Advertisement 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. 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. Advertisement 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.' Advertisement 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 Kent 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.
Los Angeles Times
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Ruth Buzzi, who played a purse-wielding spinster on ‘Laugh-In,' dies at 88
Ruth Buzzi, famous for her work as handbag-wielding spinster Gladys Ormphby on 'Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In,' died Thursday, her family announced Friday. The actor was 88. 'Ruth Buzzi died peacefully in her sleep at home in Texas,' read the note on Facebook. 'She was in hospice care for several years with Alzheimer's disease.' Buzzi's husband of more than 40 years, Kent Perkins, announced in July 2022 that she had suffered 'devastating strokes' that left her bedridden and incapacitated. 'I am living with an attitude of gratitude for 43 years of marriage to my best friend, the greatest person I ever met, the one and only Ruth Buzzi,' he wrote at the time on social media. 'Her love for others knows no bounds, and she has spent a lifetime making people smile.' She could still speak, understand and recognize her friends and loved ones at that point, he said. Early Thursday he wrote on Facebook that Buzzi had 'asked me to thank all of you for being so good to her for so many years. She wants you to know she probably had more fun doing those shows than you had watching them.' The performer was born July 24, 1936, in Rhode Island and raised in Connecticut. She enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse College of Theatre Arts, which was affiliated with Southern California's Pasadena Playhouse from 1928 to 1968 and had more than 5,000 students over the years. She was in every episode of NBC's 'Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In' (1967-73), where she honed her comedic role as a park-bench spinster, and was among many cast members to utter the line 'Sock it to me.' That came after Buzzi became a fixture on television in the late '60s with appearances on 'The Monkees' (1967) and 'The Steve Allen Comedy Hour' (1967) and a part on 'That Girl' (1967-68). 'You can't find anyone funnier than Goldie Hawn or Ruth Buzzi or Arte Johnson,' 'Laugh-In' creator and executive producer George Schlatter told The Times in 2019. Buzzi herself told The Times in 2011 about working with John Wayne on the variety show. 'John Wayne loved us so much. He would do just about anything you would ask him to do. He did one sketch where he was Gladys' husband,' she said, referring to her famous spinster character. 'They had me wearing a little bitty cowboy hat and little bitty guns. I had to hit him, and I kept hitting him waiting for them to say cut. I turned around and said, 'Please, I don't want to hit this man.' It was so funny they put [the aside] in the show.' Among her more recent acting credits were the 2009 film 'City of Shoulders and Noses,' 'Fallen Angels' (2006) and multiple episodes of 'Passions' (2003), and she played Suzie Kabloozie in 86 episodes of 'Sesame Street.' Her final credit came in 2021 when she played Agnes in the movie 'One Month Out.' This story is developing and will be updated. Former Times staff writer Lauren Beale contributed to this report.
NBC News
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
Ruth Buzzi, comedy sketch player on groundbreaking series ‘Laugh-In,' dies at 88
LOS ANGELES — 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, says her agent Mike Eisenstadt. 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. 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 Kent 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.
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
Ruth Buzzi, comedy sketch player on groundbreaking series 'Laugh-In,' dies at 88
LOS ANGELES -- 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, says her agent Mike Eisenstadt. 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. 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.
