I almost fell out of my chair when actress-comedian Ruth Buzzi recently agreed to an interview - and Gladys Ormphby didn't even hit me with her lethal purse. I grew up with Ms. Buzzi, who became a household name as a cast member on the NBC comedy-variety show,
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. From 1968 to 1973, she made us laugh on Monday nights - especially whenever she played her most famous character, Gladys, a drab spinster who was always hit on by Arte Johnson's dirty old man while sitting on a park bench. She would then
hit him with her purse, causing many viewers - including myself - to erupt in a fit of giggles. And in 1973, Buzzi deservedly won a Golden Globe Award for her work on
Laugh-In (she also received three Emmy nominations - two for
Laugh-In and one for
The Dean Martin Comedy Hour - as well as two Daytime Emmy nominations for
The Berenstain Bears and
Sesame Street).
The actress has also entertained us over the years on TV's
That Girl, the daytime soap operas,
Days of our Lives and
Passions, and in such films as
Freaky Friday (1976),
The North Avenue Irregulars (1979),
The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (1979),
The Villain (1979),
Skatetown, U.S.A. (1979) and
Chu Chu and the Philly Flash (1981). She was even in the original cast of the 1966 Broadway musical,
Sweet Charity, playing a receptionist, a woman with a hat, and the Good Fairy.
Inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2002, today Ruth Buzzi is enjoying life on a Texas ranch with her husband Kent, three cats, five horses, two white swans, and dozens of cows, chickens, ducks and Guinea fowl. I am so thrilled and honored to have this lovely and talented lady here on the
Dish to discuss her career and answer a few pop culture questions.
