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Ruth Buzzi was born on July 24, 1936, in Westerly, Rhode Island, to Rena and Angelo Buzzi, a nationally acclaimed stone sculptor. Raised in Wequetequock, Connecticut, she attended Stonington High School, where she gained experience as a cheerleader, performing at athletic events.
At 17, she enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse for the Performing Arts, studying alongside classmates such as Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman. She graduated with honors and went on to perform in a variety of revues across New England. During this time, she worked with emerging talents like Barbra Streisand, Joan Rivers, Dom DeLuise, Bernadette Peters, and Carol Burnett.
Buzzi gained national attention when she partnered with Dom DeLuise in an act where he portrayed an incompetent magician and she played his silent, grinning sidekick, "Shakuntala." Their popularity led to appearances on major nighttime television variety shows, including The Garry Moore Show (1958), The Entertainers with Carol Burnett, and Your Show of Shows (1950) with Imogene Coca.
Bob Fosse hired her to perform in his wife Gwen Verdon's hit Broadway musical Sweet Charity. Around this time, she auditioned for and secured a permanent role on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967), portraying a wide range of characters from deadpan housewives and hard-bitten drunks to Southern belles and hookers. Notable characters included Busy-Buzzi, a Hollywood gossip columnist; Doris Swizzler, a dipsomaniac who often drank heavily with her husband Leonard (played by Dick Martin); and one of the notoriously rude Burbank Airlines Stewardesses.
