Ruth Buzzi, comedy sketch player on groundbreaking series 'Laugh-In,'
dies at 88
[May 03, 2025]
By BETH HARRIS
LOS ANGELES (AP) — 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, died Thursday. She was 88.
Buzzi died 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.
“Ruth Buzzi was a comedic genius,” Nancy Sinatra posted on X. “Working
alongside her on Laugh-In was the most fun I ever had working. I
treasured her friendship and I am heartbroken to wake up to the news
that she is gone. I love you, Ruthie.”
Singer Deana Martin posted, “Her laughter and warmth touched us all,
leaving an everlasting void.”
Ormphby character leads to ‘Laugh-In’
Buzzi 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.
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"Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" co-stars Ruth Buzzi and Gary Owens share
a laugh during NBC's 75th Anniversary Party, in Los Angeles, Jan. 9,
2002. (AP Photo/Rene Macura, File)
 From cheerleading to the stage
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 appeared 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.
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Associated Press National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this
report.
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