Ruth Buzzi

Ruth Ann Buzzi was born on July 24, 1936, in Westerly, Rhode Island. Her father, Angelo Peter Buzzi, was a stone sculptor. Raised in Wequetequock, Connecticut, Buzzi attended Stonington High School, where she was head cheerleader. At 17, she enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse for the Performing Arts, graduating with honors. Her classmates there included Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman. Before graduating, Buzzi began her professional acting career at 19, touring with Rudy Vallée in a musical and comedy act during a summer break, which earned her an Actors’ Equity Association union card.

After college, Buzzi moved to New York City and secured a lead role in an off-Broadway musical revue, one of 19 such productions she performed in throughout the East Coast. During this period, she worked alongside emerging talents such as Barbra Streisand, Joan Rivers, Dom DeLuise, and Carol Burnett. She also appeared in New York musical variety shows and numerous television commercials, some of which received national recognition, including the Clio Award. Her national television breakthrough came in 1964 on “The Garry Moore Show,” where she performed as “Shakundala the Silent,” a magician’s assistant to her comedy partner Dom DeLuise.

Buzzi gained widespread recognition for her role on NBC’s “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” from 1968 to 1973, appearing in every episode, including the pilot. She portrayed various characters, such as Flicker Farkle, Busy-Buzzi the Hollywood gossip columnist, Doris Swizzler, and a Burbank Airlines Stewardess. She became best known for her character Gladys Ormphby, a drab, purse-wielding spinster who frequently confronted Arte Johnson’s “dirty old man” character, Tyrone F. Horneigh. This dynamic duo later inspired the animated series “Baggy Pants and the Nitwits” in the mid-1970s, where Buzzi and Johnson provided the voices for their respective characters. Buzzi performed as Gladys in numerous “Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts,” often using her purse as a prop to interact with roastees like Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball. She received a Golden Globe Award and earned five Emmy nominations for her work on “Laugh-In.” Beyond “Laugh-In” she was active in film, television, and voice acting, appearing in over 20 films and lending her voice to numerous animated series like “Pound Puppies” and “Berenstain Bears.” She joined “Sesame Street” in 1993 as the shopkeeper Ruthie and also voiced Suzie Kabloozie and Feff. Buzzi retired from acting in 2021 and passed away on May 1, 2025, at the age of 88, due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease.