Ruth Buzzi

Ruth Buzzi

Ruth Buzzi in May 2008
Born Ruth Ann Buzzi
(1936-07-24) July 24, 1936
Westerly, Rhode Island, US
Residence Stephenville, Texas
Occupation Actress, comedian
Years active 1962–present
Spouse(s) Kent Perkins (m. 1978)

Ruth Ann Buzzi (born July 24, 1936) is an American comedian and actress of theatre, film, and television. She is especially known for her performances on the comedy-variety show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In from 1968 to 1973, for which she won a Golden Globe Award and received five Emmy nominations.

Early life

Buzzi was born at Westerly Hospital, Westerly, Rhode Island, the daughter of Rena Pauline and Angelo Peter Buzzi, a nationally recognized stone sculptor.[1][2] She was raised in Wequetequock, Connecticut, in a rock house overlooking the ocean at Wequetequock Cove, where her father owned Buzzi Memorials, a business still operated by her older brother Harold.

Her father was born in Arzo, Switzerland, in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, a few miles from the Italian border. He carved the marble eagles at Penn Station in New York designed by artist Adolph A. Weinman (who also designed the Walking Liberty half dollar and Mercury dime for the U.S. Mint), the granite Leif Erikson memorial in Providence, Rhode Island, the animals seen in relief on the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and made thousands of tombstones. He was asked to work on the carving of the Presidents on Mount Rushmore but declined, out of a fear of heights. Her mother was born in the United States to immigrants from northern Italy.

Buzzi attended Stonington High School, where she gained experience as head cheerleader performing before crowds at athletic events. At 17, she enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse for the Performing Arts and graduated with honors. She studied voice, dance, and acting, and took courses in cosmetology in case the acting career failed to attain success. Classmates at Pasadena Playhouse included legendary actors Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman.

Career

Early successes

Before graduation from college, Buzzi was already a working actress with a union card in musical and comedy revues. Her first job in show business was at 19, traveling with singer Rudy Vallee in a live musical and comedy act during her summer break from college; it allowed her to graduate with a treasured union card with Actors' Equity Association. She moved to New York City after graduation and was hired immediately for a lead role in an off-Broadway musical revue, the first of 19 in which she performed across the East Coast.

In musical and comedy revues from Provincetown, Massachusetts, to the Catskills of New York, to off-Broadway, she worked alongside other young, talented performers just beginning their careers at the time, including Barbra Streisand, Joan Rivers, Dom DeLuise, Bernadette Peters and Carol Burnett. Buzzi performed in New York musical variety shows, and she made numerous television commercials, some of which won national awards including the Clio Award.

Her first national recognition on television came on The Garry Moore Show in 1964,[3] just after Carol Burnett was replaced by Dorothy Loudon on the series. Buzzi saw her first taste of national fame as "Shagundala the Silent", a bumbling magician's assistant to her comedy partner Dom DeLuise who played "Dominic the Great". They were an instant hit with the public.

Buzzi was a member of the regular repertory company on the CBS variety show The Entertainers (1964–1965). In 1966–1967, Buzzi played in a Bob Fosse classic Broadway musical Sweet Charity, with Fosse's wife Gwen Verdon in the original cast. She had several small roles, one of them "the Singing Fairy".

In the late 1960s, Ruth Buzzi appeared in every episode of The Steve Allen Show, a comedy-variety series starring Steve Allen. Her character parts in the Allen sketches led her to be cast for NBC's new show Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. She was the only featured player to appear in every episode of Laugh-In including the pilot for the show and the Laugh-In television special.

A versatile comedian, Ruth Buzzi played everything from dowdy old women to tipsy drunks, from Southern belles to flashy hookers. Among her recurring characters on Laugh-In were Busy-Buzzi, Hollywood gossip columnist; Doris Swizzler, a cocktail-lounge habituée who always got riotously smashed with husband Leonard (Dick Martin); and one of the Burbank Airlines Stewardesses, teaming with Debbie Reynolds as two totally inconsiderate flight attendants. Her most famous character is the dowdy spinster Gladys Ormphby, clad in drab brown with her bun hairdo covered by a visible hairnet knotted in the middle of her forehead. Buzzi first used this look when she played Agnes Gooch in a school production of Auntie Mame. In most sketches, she used her lethal purse, with which she would flail away vigorously at anyone who incurred her wrath.

On Laugh-In, Gladys most often appeared as the unwilling object of the advances of Arte Johnson's "dirty old man" character Tyrone F. Horneigh. In a typical exchange, Tyrone accosts Gladys and asks, "Do you believe in the hereafter?" "Of course I do!" Gladys retorts defensively. Delighted, Tyrone shoots back: "Then you know what I'm here after!" NBC collectively called these two characters The Nitwits when they went to animation in the mid-1970s as part of the series Baggy Pants and the Nitwits. Buzzi and Johnson both voiced their respective roles in the cartoon.

Buzzi, as Gladys, was featured in most of the Dean Martin Roasts from the MGM Hotel in Las Vegas. Memorable shows included her intense comedic dialogue, ranting about notable roastees including Muhammad Ali, Frank Sinatra, and Lucille Ball, to name a few. In each case, Gladys Ormphby pugnaciously attacked the honoree with her flailing purse to the screams and howls of the Las Vegas audience.

Martin would also suffer Gladys's purse assaults for his remarks about her unappealing looks and poor romantic prospects. In one such exchange, Gladys accusingly questioned Martin about who had been chasing her around a hotel room in the wee hours; Martin's response ("The exterminator!") earned him a beating as he broke up laughing along with the audience. Gladys then declared to the audience that, when Martin and other men looked at her, only one thing came to their minds. Martin, still laughing, could barely get out the answer: "Rabies!" This earned him an even fiercer beating from Gladys.

Continued success on television

Buzzi was featured as a semi-regular on the sitcom That Girl as Marlo Thomas's friend Pete Peterson.[3] She starred with Jim Nabors as the time-traveling androids Fi and Fum in The Lost Saucer produced by Sid and Marty Krofft which aired from September 11, 1975 to September 2, 1976 (16 episodes).

Buzzi also guested as Chloe, the usually never-seen but often mentioned wife of phone company worker Henry Beesmeyer, on Alice in 1981.

Buzzi was also a guest star on the syndicated sitcom Down to Earth in 1985.

Dean Martin's producer, Greg Garrison, obviously enjoyed Ruth Buzzi's work as a comedy sketch artist and hired her for his comedy specials starring Dom DeLuise.

Buzzi charted the single "You Oughta Hear The Song" in 1977. It reached #90 on Billboard's national Country Music chart.

Buzzi was a guest star on many television series including Donny & Marie, The Flip Wilson Show, The Dean Martin Music and Comedy Hour, the Dean Martin Roasts, The Carol Burnett Show, Tony Orlando and Dawn, The Monkees, Emergency!, and variety series hosted by Leslie Uggams and by Glen Campbell. She also appeared occasionally on game shows, and was a celebrity judge on The Gong Show. She appeared on Lucille Ball's last (but short-lived) sitcom, Life with Lucy, as Mrs. Wilcox in the episode "Lucy Makes a Hit with John Ritter". She appeared eight times on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and has made more than 200 other television guest appearances.

Buzzi is an accomplished voice actress. She voiced the character Nose Marie in the Hanna-Barbera animated series Pound Puppies (1986). She also voiced Mama Bear in Berenstain Bears (1985) and performed hundreds of guest voices for many other cartoon series, including The Smurfs, The Angry Beavers and Mo Willems' Sheep in the Big City.[3] She has appeared frequently on Sesame Street in comedy sketch clips from her six years on that show, and she is often heard as the voice of outlandish failed torch singer Suzie Kabloozie. While she was a regular performer on Sesame Street, she was nominated for an Emmy Award for her work as Ruthie, a shopkeeper.

Buzzi performed in numerous national television commercials, most notably for Clorox 2, Liquid Swan soap, Clairol hair products, Ban roll-on deodorant, and Santa Anita Raceway, but probably her best known voice was for Granny Goodwitch, antagonist to the Sugar Bear in the animated commercials for Sugar Crisp cereal. She originated the Goodwitch character in the animated TV series Linus! The Lion Hearted (1964–65).[3]

Buzzi appeared in the "Weird Al" Yankovic video "Gump" and similarly appeared in other music videos with the rock groups B-52's and The Presidents of the United States of America. She appeared on Saved by the Bell (playing Screech Powers's wacky mother as an Elvis fanatic), The Muppet Show, You Can't Do That on Television (during its CTV-produced incarnation Whatever Turns You On), and numerous other television shows. She played the role of the eccentric Nurse Kravitz on NBC's daytime soap opera Passions. In 2006 and 2007, she made guest appearances on the children's TV series Come on Over.

Buzzi had a successful nightclub act all across the United States including in Las Vegas at the Sahara Hotel and at the MGM Grand. She only performed the act for one year because she did not like the smell of cigarette smoke and disliked traveling all the time. Her shows were all sold out and she was offered an extended stay in Las Vegas but declined.

Buzzi has had featured roles in more than 20 feature films, including Chu Chu and the Philly Flash, Freaky Friday, The North Avenue Irregulars, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, The Villain, The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland and a number of westerns for the European market known as the Lucky Luke series in which she plays the mother of the Dalton Gang.

Filmography

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1964–1965 Linus the Lionhearted Granny Goodwitch 3 episodes
1967–1973 Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In Regular Performer 141 episodes
1967 The Steve Allen Show Herself
1967 The Monkees Mrs. Weatherspoon 1 episode
1967–1968 That Girl Pete Peterson 5 episodes
1969 That's Life 1 episode
1969 In Name Only Ruth Clayton TV Movie
1970–1982 Walt Disney anthology television series Granny 6 episodes
1970–1974 The Dean Martin Show Herself 16 episodes
1970–1973 Love, American Style Beverly 2 episodes
1971 Night Gallery Hungry Witch 1 episode
1972 The Singles TV Movie, also starring Michele Lee and John Byner
1972 Here's Lucy Annie Whipple 1 episode
1973–1976 Medical Center Rose Jenkins 2 episodes
1974 Lotsa Luck Wilma Wallachek 1 episode
1974 Paradise TV Movie, also starring Luther Adler
1974 ABC Afterschool Special Cleaning Lady 1 episode
1975–1976 The Lost Saucer Fi 16 episodes
1976 Emergency! Amy Merkle 1 episode
1977–1978 Baggy Pants and the Nitwits Gladys 16 episodes
1977 Once Upon a Brothers Grimm Queen Astrid TV Movie
1978–1987 The Love Boat Herself 2 episodes
1979 Legends of the Superheroes Aunt Minerva Part Two of a Two Part TV Special
1979 You Can't Do That on Television Ms. Fitt 2 episodes
1979–1980 CHiPs 2 episodes
1979 Whatever Turns You On Miss Fit
1980 "Myra" Mrs. Paige Animated Short
1981 Alice Chloe 1 episode
1981 Aloha Paradise Herself 1 episode
1982 Trapper John, M.D. Laura Morley 1 episode
1983 Gun Shy Mrs. Mound 1 episode
1983 Days of Our Lives Leticia Bradford unknown episodes
1983 Alvin and the Chipmunks 13 episodes
1984 Masquerade 1 episode
1984 Don't Ask Me, Ask God Jonesey's Wife TV Movie, also starring Pat Robertson and Steve Allen
1985 Paw Paws Aunt Pruney Paw unknown episodes
1985 George Burns Comedy Week Juliette 1 episode
1985 The Berenstain Bears Mama Bear 26 episodes
1985 The Jetsons 1 episode
1986 Check It Out! Tiffany Cobb, Mrs. Cobb's Daughter 1 episode
1986 Life with Lucy Mrs. Wilcox 1 episode
1986 Kids Incorporated: Rock in the New Year Blanche TV Movie
1986–1987 Pound Puppies Nose Marie 26 episodes
1987 Milroy, Santa's Misfit Mutt Mrs. Claus (voice) TV Short (also starring Buddy Ebsen)
1988 Rockin' with Judy Jetson Felonia Funk (voice) TV Movie
1988–1990 The Munsters Dracula's Mom 2 episodes
1988–1991 Out of This World Mrs. Miller 3 episodes
1989 "Marvin: Baby of the Year" Chrissy's Mother (voice) TV Short
1990 Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers Ma 1 episode
1990 Gravedale High voice role unknown episodes
1990 Saved by the Bell Roberta Powers 1 episode
1991 They Came from Outer Space Carol 1 episode
1991 The New Adam-12 Mrs. Woolridge 1 episode
1992 Lucky Ed's Tabloid News Sample Lady TV Movie
1992 Darkwing Duck Alien Crow (voice) 2 episodes
1992 Lucky Luke Ma Dalton 1 episode
1992 Major Dad Mattie Fae Tillman 1 episode
1993 I Yabba-Dabba Do! Additional Voices TV Movie
1993 Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa 1 episode
1993 Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby Additional Voices TV Movie
1993 The Pink Panther 1 episode
1993–1998 Sesame Street Ruthie 14 episodes
1993–1994 Cro Nandy 20 episodes
1994 All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Street Forever! Ruthie (voice) TV Movie
1995 Savage Dragon Various Voices unknown episodes
1997 The Jamie Foxx Show Judge Lekeisha Roshanda Jackson 1 episode
1998 Sabrina the Teenage Witch Delilah 1 episode
1998–2001 7th Heaven Telephone Operator 2 episodes
1999 Boys Will Be Boys Mrs. Rudnick TV Movie, also starring Randy Travis and Mickey Rooney
1999 Diagnosis Murder Liz Summers 1 episode
2000 Rocket Power Dog Owner 1 episode
2000 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd Old Lady 1 episode
2000 The Angry Beavers Mrs. Beaver 1 episode
2000–2001 Sheep in the Big City Delilah 7 episodes
2003 Passions Nurse Kravitz 2 episodes
2006–2007 Come On Over Ruthie 2 episodes

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1970 The Aristocats Frou-Frou (singing voice) also starring Phil Harris and Eva Gabor
1976 Freaky Friday Opposing Coach also starring Barbara Harris, Jodie Foster and John Astin
1977 The Rescuers German Mouse (voice) / unconfirmed/uncredited also starring Bob Newhart, Eva Gabor and Geraldine Page
1978 Record City Olga
1979 The North Avenue Irregulars Dr. Rheems also starring Edward Herrmann, Barbara Harris and Susan Clark
1979 The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again Old Tough Kate, aka 'Granny' also starring Don Knotts and Tim Conway
1979 The Villain Damsel in Distress also starring Kirk Douglas, Ann-Margret, and Arnold Schwarzenegger
1979 Skatetown, U.S.A. Elvira
1980 I Go Pogo Miz Beaver / Miss Mam'selle Hepzibah (voice)
1981 Chu Chu and the Philly Flash Consuelo also starring Alan Arkin, Carol Burnett and Jack Warden
1983 The Being Virginia Lane
1984 Surf II Chuck's Mom
1986 Bad Guys Petal McGurk also starring Adam Baldwin
1988 Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw Nose Marie (voice)
1988 Dixie Lanes Betty
1989 Up Your Alley Marilyn
1989 My Mom's a Werewolf Madame Gypsy
1990 Wishful Thinking Jody also starring Murray Langston
1990 Diggin' Up Business Widow Knockerby
1994 The Fight Before Christmas Maw
1999 The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland Ruthie
2000 Nothing But The Truth Lois Troy
2004 "Adventures in Homeschooling" Gertie Hemple Short Film, also starring Dan Castellaneta
2006 Fallen Angels Perril

2016 Motion Picture: "One Month Out" role of Agness, 4th lead role in film written and directed by John Schneider. Also starring Barry Bostwick, Vernon G. Wells, Laura Cayoutte. Scheduled for release early 2017, producer Alicia Allain, Maven Films, Holden, Louisiana at John Schneider Studios.

Awards

Buzzi received five Emmy Award nominations and won the Golden Globe Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in 1973 for her work on Laugh-In.

On November 22, 2014, Women in Film (Dallas, Texas chapter) awarded Buzzi their highest achievement honor, the Topaz Award, at their annual gala.

She was inducted in 2002 into the Television Hall of Fame (presented by the National Broadcasters Association, which bestowed the honor to Buzzi as well as the producers, director and cast of Laugh-In).

In 1971 she was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.

Buzzi received the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Pasadena Playhouse of the Performing Arts. She was one of the first recipients of the Pasadena Playhouse Alumni Achievement Award.

Buzzi received a Clio Award for Best Spokesperson in a television commercial for her series of Clorox-2 commercials, and was among the first of only a few Caucasian women to ever win an NAACP Image Award.

In 2008 Ruth Buzzi was named a "Distinguished Woman of Northwood" by the Board of Regents of Northwood University. In 2015 Ruth Buzzi received, for her lifetime achievements and contributions to television and film history, The Topaz Award from Women in Film. In 2016 Ruth Buzzi played a lead supporting role "Agness" in the feature motion picture One Month Out, written and directed by John Schneider, starring Barry Bostwick and Vernon G. Wells with Laura Cayoutte.

Personal life

Buzzi lives with her husband Kent Perkins on a 600-acre (200 ha) cattle and horse ranch near Stephenville, Texas. She is a charter member of the Pasadena Playhouse Alumni Association.[4] Buzzi paints as a hobby; she has never offered her oil paintings for sale to the public, but has donated original works to charity, where they have sold in excess of $6,000.

She supports numerous children's charities including Make a Wish Foundation, the Special Olympics, The Thalians, St. Jude's Hospital, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and is a children's art summer camp sponsor through Dallas Museum of Biblical Art. Buzzi is active in fundraising for the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch[5] in Medina, Texas and other animal causes.

Buzzi and her husband are avid automobile collectors. Their collection focuses on post-war English vehicles including Bentley and Rolls-Royce and Jaguar, although it also includes several American convertibles and muscle cars. Some of her vehicles have been in television commercials, featured in parades, and her blue Bentley convertible was featured on the cover of Vogue with Jessica Simpson behind the wheel. with some of their cars having been donated and/or loaned to and displayed at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California including a 1957 Chevrolet convertible that was exhibited as part of the display honoring the cars of Steve McQueen. Buzzi's 1960 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud drophead coupe convertible was on display for the "Century of Elegance" exhibit.[6] The museum has also featured a 1965 Chrysler Imperial convertible previously owned by Katharine Hepburn, donated to the museum by Buzzi and Perkins in 2001 and the vehicle remains there for special exhibition. Buzzi and Perkins won first place in their category with their 1961 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II drophead coupe at the Concours d'Elegance national championship in Amelia Island, Florida. The vehicle won first place in the Los Angeles Rolls Royce Owners Club's "most elegant car" competition.

Buzzi has been name-dropped in numerous songs, including House of Pain's "I'm A Swing It", The Bled's "Ruth Buzzi Better Watch Her Back", and the Loretta Lynn/Conway Twitty duet "You're the Reason Our Kids are Ugly".

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is sometimes jokingly referred to as Ruth "Buzzi" Ginsburg, a reference to the Justice's rather drab and dowdy appearance much like the Gladys Ormphby character made famous by Buzzi.

References

  1. ↑ "Ruth Buzzi". FilmReference.com.
  2. ↑ Riggs, Thomas. Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television, Cengage Gale, 2006.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Ruth Buzzi at the Internet Movie Database
  4. ↑ Hernandez, Al Carlos (14 March 2011). "Golden Globe winning Comic Icon Ruth Buzzi". Herald de Paris. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
  5. ↑ "We Salute Our Pen Sponsors". Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
  6. ↑ "Buzzi loves pulling up in an eye-catching Rolls". Deseret News. 22 June 2003. Retrieved 15 September 2012.

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