The laughter stopped long before anyone was ready.
For decades, Ruth Buzzi’s sharp wit and swinging purse defined a generation of comedy, but her last years unfolded far from the spotlight, in the slow, unforgiving shadow of Alzheimer’s. Fans had no idea how bad it had become. Those closest to her watched the brightest rooms grow dar… Continues…

She slipped away the way she never played a scene: quietly. Ruth Buzzi, forever etched in memory as Gladys Ormphby from Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, died on May 1, 2025, at 88, after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s. The woman who once dominated sketch comedy with a glare and a handbag spent her final days in hospice care, surrounded by love rather than applause.

Her legacy reaches far beyond one iconic character. She was the only performer to appear in every Laugh-In episode, earned a Golden Globe, multiple Emmy nominations, and made generations of children laugh on Sesame Street and through her animated voice work. Colleagues remember her as fiercely professional, surprisingly shy, and endlessly kind. She leaves behind her husband, Kent Perkins, and millions who never met her but feel, somehow, that they’ve lost someone they knew.