Ruth Buzzi, comedy sketch player on groundbreaking series ‘Laugh-In,’ dies at 88

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 television appearances during a -year career has died at age 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 report on Buzzi s Facebook page thanking her a multitude of fans and telling them She wants you to know she likely 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 to 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 memoir Still Chuckling 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 informed 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 majority of 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 described The Connecticut Post in 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 selected 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 advised 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 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 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 at once hired for a lead role in an off-Broadway musical revue the first of such shows she performed in on the East Coast She got her national television break on The Garry Moore Show in 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 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- s 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- 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 progressing 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 The couple moved from California to Texas in and bought a -acre ranch near Stephenville Buzzi retired from acting in and suffered a series of strokes the following year Her husband notified The Dallas Morning News in that she had dementia Associated Press National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this statement