Early successes Before graduation from college, Buzzi was already a working
union actress performing in musical and comedy revues. Her first job in show business was at 19, traveling with singer
Rudy Vallée in a live musical and comedy act during her summer break from college; it allowed her to graduate with an
Actors' Equity Association union card. She moved to New York City after graduation and was hired immediately for a lead role in an
off-Broadway musical revue, the first of 19 in which she performed around the East Coast. She worked alongside other young performers just beginning their careers at the time, including
Barbra Streisand,
Joan Rivers,
Dom DeLuise, and
Carol Burnett. She performed in New York musical variety shows, and she made numerous television commercials, some of which won national awards including the
Clio Award. shortly after
Carol Burnett was replaced by
Dorothy Loudon on the series. She performed as "Shakundala the Silent", a bumbling magician's assistant to her comedy partner
Dom DeLuise, who played "Dominic the Great". Buzzi was a member of the regular repertory company on the
CBS variety show
The Entertainers (1964–65). In 1966–67, she appeared in
Sweet Charity with
Gwen Verdon in the original cast (playing three small parts: "The Good Fairy", "Woman with Hat", "Receptionist").
On Laugh-In and related work in a trick-or-treat skit on ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
, October 1968In 1967, Buzzi appeared in all eight episodes of The Steve Allen Comedy Hour'', a variety series starring
Steve Allen. Her character parts in the Allen sketches led her to be cast for
NBC's new show ''
Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. She was the only featured player to appear in every episode of Laugh-In
including the pilot for the show and the Laugh-In
television special. Among her recurring characters on Laugh-In'' were Flicker Farkle, youngest of the Farkle family; Busy-Buzzi, a
Hedda Hopper–type Hollywood gossip columnist; Doris Swizzler, a cocktail-lounge habituée who always got smashed with husband Leonard (
Dick Martin); and one of the Burbank Airlines Stewardesses, inconsiderate flight attendants. Buzzi was probably best-known for her role as "spinster" Gladys Ormphby, clad in drab brown with her bun hairdo covered by a visible hairnet knotted in the middle of her forehead. She first used this look when playing Agnes Gooch in a summer stock production of
Auntie Mame. In most sketches, her purse was used as a weapon, with which she would flail away vigorously at anyone who incurred her wrath. She most often was the unwilling object of the advances of
Arte Johnson's "dirty old man" character Tyrone F. Horneigh. NBC collectively called these two characters
The Nitwits when they went to animation in the mid-1970s as part of the series
Baggy Pants and the Nitwits. Buzzi and Johnson both voiced their respective roles in the cartoon. Buzzi appeared as Gladys in many of the NBC
Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts from the
MGM Grand Hotel in
Las Vegas, ranting about notable roastees including
Muhammad Ali,
Frank Sinatra, and
Lucille Ball. In each case, Gladys pugnaciously attacked the honoree with her purse, and she would also hit Martin when he invariably made disparaging remarks about her looks and her romantic prospects.
Continued success on television Buzzi was featured on the second season on the comedy
That Girl as
Marlo Thomas's friend Margie "Pete" Peterson. She starred with
Jim Nabors as the time-traveling androids Fi and Fum in
The Lost Saucer produced by
Sid and Marty Krofft which aired from September 11, 1975, until September 2, 1976 (16 episodes). In 1979, she co-starred on the Canadian children's comedy show ''
You Can't Do That on Television (also known as Whatever Turns You On'').
Dean Martin's producer
Greg Garrison hired her for his comedy specials starring
Dom DeLuise. She recorded the single "You Oughta Hear the Song" in 1977 which reached number 90 on Billboard's national Country Music chart; Buzzi joked in 2022 in hindsight: "Here's a medley of my hit song: I'd like to thank the millions and millions of you who didn't buy a copy. I got to spend quality time at home in '78 instead of standing in front of all those aggravating audiences." Buzzi was a guest star on many television series: as Chloe, the wife of phone company worker Henry Beesmeyer (
Marvin Kaplan) on
Alice (1981); on
Down to Earth (1985);
Donny & Marie;
The Flip Wilson Show;
The Dean Martin Music and Comedy Hour; the Dean Martin Roasts;
The Carol Burnett Show;
Tony Orlando and Dawn;
The Monkees;
Emergency!; and variety series hosted by
Leslie Uggams and
Glen Campbell. She also appeared occasionally on game shows and was a celebrity judge on
The Gong Show. She appeared in
Lucille Ball's last comedy show,
Life with Lucy, as Mrs. Wilcox in the episode "Lucy Makes a Hit with
John Ritter". She appeared eight times on
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Buzzi appeared in the
"Weird Al" Yankovic video "
Gump" and similarly appeared in other music videos with the
B-52's and
the Presidents of the United States of America. She appeared on
Saved by the Bell,
The Muppet Show, two episodes of ''
You Can't Do That on Television in 1979 (as well as the entire run of the You Can't Do That On Television
s spinoff Whatever Turns You On''), and numerous other television shows. She played the role of the eccentric Nurse Kravitz on NBC's daytime soap opera
Passions. In 2006 and 2007, she made guest appearances on the children's TV series
Come on Over. She had featured roles in more than 20 films, including
Chu Chu and the Philly Flash,
Freaky Friday,
The North Avenue Irregulars,
The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again,
The Villain,
The Being,
Surf II,
The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, and a number of westerns for the European market known as the
Lucky Luke series in which she plays the mother of the
Dalton Gang. In 2021, she retired from acting. ==Personal life, illness and death==