| Connie Sawyer | |
 | |
| Birth: | 27 November 1912 Pueblo, Colorado, USA |
| Death: | 21 January 2018 Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA |
| Age: | 105 years, 55 days |
| Country: |  USA
|
| Centenarian | |
Connie Sawyer (née Rosie Cohen; 27 November 1912 – 21 January 2018) was an American stage, film, and television actress, affectionately nicknamed "The Clown Princess of Comedy". She had over 140 film and television credits to her name, but was best known for her appearances in Pineapple Express, Dumb and Dumber, and When Harry Met Sally.... At the time of her death at age 105, she was the oldest working actress in Hollywood, with a career spanning an impressive 85 years, and was the oldest member of the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Sawyer was born in Pueblo, Colorado, USA on 27 November 1912 to Orthodox Jewish parents. Her father, Samuel Cohen, was an immigrant from Romania, and her mother, Dora Inger, also from Romania, had been living in Denver, Colorado, until their marriage. Both of her parents came from the same village in Romania, but her mother arrived first in the United States. When she was age 7, the family moved to Oakland, California, where her father opened an army-navy store.
Professional career[]
Sawyer's mother loved showbusiness and encouraged Sawyer to learn singing and dancing, and entered her into talent competitions as a child. In her first competition, a song and dance routine, at the age of 8, she won third prize and was given a stack of pies. She attended Roosevelt High School in Oakland and was the first woman to be senior class president. Following graduation, Sawyer won a radio contest (first place this time) which came with a chance to perform on a radio variety show in San Francisco titled “Al Pearce and His Gang,” a show which gave her the opportunity to develop her own comedy routine.
At the age of 19, Sawyer moved to New York and performed in nightclubs and vaudeville theaters. Sawyer and a few friends worked their way across the country (literally), staying in each city along the way and performing for several weeks. Once in New York she met Sophie Tucker, who connected Sawyer with a comedy writer, and she began to travel with her show.In the 1950s she began to appear on television, including The Milton Berle Show and The Jackie Gleason Show.
In the late 1950s, agent Lillian Small, who worked for Frank Sinatra, saw Sawyer in the Broadway show A Hole in the Head as the character Miss Wexler. Sinatra later optioned the rights for a film version and hired Sawyer to repeat her role in the 1959 film production, which starred Sinatra, Edward G. Robinson, and Eleanor Parker.
She continued to appear regularly on television, in such series as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Laverne & Shirley, The Rockford Files, Hawaii Five-O, Dynasty, Murder, She Wrote, Home Improvement, Seinfeld, Boy Meets World, Will & Grace, Welcome Back, Kotter, ER, How I Met Your Mother, and Ray Donovan. When she turned 100, in 2012, she was a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.In 2012 she appeared on 2 Broke Girls, in 2013 she appeared on NCIS: Los Angeles and in 2014 she appeared opposite Zooey Deschanel in New Girl as "the Oldest Woman in the World".
Personal life[]
Sawyer was married to film distributor Marshall Schacker for ten years, later separating. They had two daughters together, Lisa and Julie.
For 12 years Sawyer lived at the Motion Picture & Television Fund’s residential complex for entertainment industry retirees in Los Angeles, where she remained an active member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, continuing to watch all Oscar-nominated films before placing her votes each year.
Sawyer suffered a heart attack and later died at her home at the Motion Picture & Television Fund’s retirement community in Woodland Hills, California on 21 January 2018 at the age of 105 years, 55 days.
Gallery[]
External links[]
- Connie Sawyer IMDb
- Connie Sawyer the TCM Movie Database
- Connie Sawyer Find A Grave
- Connie Sawyer (Aveleyman)
References[]
- Connie Sawyer: The world’s eldest working actress Jewish Journal, 15 February 2012
- Connie Sawyer Dies: Hollywood’s Oldest Working Actress Was 105 MSN, 21 January 2018 (Archived)
- Connie Sawyer, Hollywood's Oldest Working Actress, Dies at 105 People, 22 January 2018
- Connie Sawyer, Hollywood's Oldest Working Actress, Dies at 105 Pop Culture, 22 January 2018
- Connie Sawyer, Late-Blooming Comic Actress, Dies at 105 Hollywood Reporter, 22 January 2018
- Hollywood's oldest working actress, born in Pueblo, dies at 105 Montrose Press, 23 January 2018 (Archived)
- Connie Sawyer (1912 – 2018), known as Hollywood’s oldest working actress Legacy, 23 January 2018
- Hollywood star Connie Sawyer dead at 105: Star of Will & Grace, Hawaii Five-O and Seinfield dies after glittering six-decade career The Mirror, 23 January 2018
- Rosie Cohen AKA Connie Sawyer, Oldest Working Actress in Hollywood, Dies at 105 (VIDEO) Jewish Breaking News, 25 January 2018
- Connie Sawyer, Film’s Oldest Working Actress, Dies at 105 New York Times, 31 January 2018
- Connie Sawyer, 105, Hollywood's oldest working actress The Boston Globe, 1 February 2018
- Connie Sawyer, Oldest Working Actress in Hollywood, Dies at 105 KTLA, 1 February 2018