“Laugh-In” standout, “Sesame Street” regular and Broadway performer Ruth Buzzi is dead at 88.
She was perhaps best known as drab, purse-swinging Gladys Ormphby, who appeared on more than 130 episodes of “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” between 1967 and 1973.
On “Sesame Street” Buzzi voiced the character Suzie Kabloozie 86 times between 1993 and 2008, according to her IMDb page. Viewers of that show got to see her when she played Finders Keepers store owner Ruthie and other bit characters.
“I can confirm that Ruth passed away peacefully at 5:30pm on May 1, 2025 from complications she had from Alzheimer’s for 10 years,” her representative Michael Eisenstadt told the Daily News.
Eisenstadt, who worked with Buzzi for more than 30 years, remembers her as a “warm, loving and funny” person he thought of as family.
Buzzi’s husband Kent Perkins said on Facebook in 2022 his wife of nearly 48 years was working to recover from “devastating strokes that have left her bedridden and incapacitated” and thanked her fans for their support.
He confirmed on Facebook Friday that Buzzi died peacefully in her sleep following years of hospice care. A day earlier he wrote that his ailing wife was still reading posts from fans, but was no longer able to reply to them.
“She wants you to know she probably had more fun doing those shows than you had watching them,” he added.
According to Eisenstadt, Perkins told him Buzzi was still making people laugh days before dying in her home outside Fort Worth Texas, where the couple lived on a 640-acre ranch.
Buzzi joked on social media on April 26 “You know you’re old when your walker comes with curb feelers and an airbag.”
Her long list of accomplishments also included working with Marlo Thomas on Broadway in 1966’s “Sweet Charity,” starring alongside Jim Nabors in the 1970s children’s show “The Lost Saucer” and playing the mother to Dustin Diamond’s Screech character on the 1990s sitcom “Saved by the Bell.”
Her big screen credits included “Freaky Friday” and “The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again.”
She appeared in quirky music videos including “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “Gump” and worked with the B-52’s, who gave her a shout-out during a 2018 concert, according to X feed.
“Love you guys so much!” she replied to the band.
Buzzi was born in Westerly, R.I. and spent her childhood in Connecticut. When she was 18, Buzzi enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse, where she worked with Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
She retired from acting in 2021. Her last credit was for the John Schneider’s “One Month Out,” in which her husband is also credited. The pair also worked together in the 2020 film “Glenn’s Gotta Go.”
WIth News Wire Services
