Shortly before her death, her husband posted a statement on Buzzi’s Facebook page, thanking her many fans.
LOS ANGELES — Ruth Buzzi, renowned for her portrayal of the frumpy and cantankerous Gladys Ormphby on the influential sketch comedy show “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,” and known for over 200 television appearances throughout her 45-year career, has passed away at 88.
Buzzi died on Thursday at her home in Texas, according to her agent, Mike Eisenstadt. She had been battling Alzheimer’s and was receiving hospice care. Just before her passing, her husband, Kent Perkins, shared a message on Buzzi’s Facebook page, expressing gratitude to her many fans and noting: “She wants you to know she likely enjoyed performing on those shows even more than you enjoyed watching them.”
Buzzi received a Golden Globe and was nominated twice for an Emmy for her work on the NBC show, which aired from 1968 to 1973. She was the sole regular cast member to feature in all six seasons, including the pilot episode.
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. 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.
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.
Born Ruth Ann Buzzi on July 24, 1936, in Westerly, Rhode Island, she was the daughter of Angelo Buzzi, a nationally known stone sculptor.
Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
