Ruth Buzzi rose to fame as the frumpy and bitter Gladys Ormphby on the groundbreaking sketch comedy series « Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. »
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, her agent confirmed to CBS News on Friday. She was 88.
Buzzi died Thursday at her home in Texas, her agent Mike Eisenstadt said in a statement. 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.
