Connie Sawyer
- Acting
- November 27, 1912 · Pueblo, Colorado, USA
- January 22, 2018
Biography
Connie Sawyer (born Rosie Cohen, November 27, 1912, in Pueblo, Colorado; died January 21, 2018, in Woodland Hills, California) was an American stage, film, and television actress of Romanian-Jewish descent, affectionately nicknamed "The Clown Princess of Comedy." She grew up in Oakland, California, began performing in vaudeville as a child, and appeared on variety television in the late 1940s and 1950s. Her first film role came at age 46 as Miss Wexler in Frank Capra's A Hole in the Head (1959, with Frank Sinatra and Edward G. Robinson), a part she had originated on Broadway. Over her nine-decade career she accumulated more than 140 credits and was still working past the age of 100, appearing on NCIS: Los Angeles (2013) and opposite Zooey Deschanel in New Girl (2014). Her most notable film credits include Mrs. McBee in The Way West (1967), a Woman at the Hanging in True Grit (1969, with John Wayne), a role in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969), Mrs. Levi in The Man in the Glass Booth (1975, with Max von Sydow), a heavenly customer in Oh, God! (1977, with Goldie Hawn), Gitel in And Justice for All (1979, with Al Pacino), a Documentary Couple in When Harry Met Sally... (1989, with Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan), the woman who steals Jim Carrey's wallet in Dumb and Dumber (1994), a role in Out of Sight (1998, with George Clooney and Steve Martin), Faye Belogus in Pineapple Express (2008, with Seth Rogen and James Franco), and Nana Bebe in Lovesick (2014, with Matt LeBlanc). On television she appeared in Seinfeld (1989), Will & Grace, ER (2006), The Office (2005), How I Met Your Mother (2007), 2 Broke Girls (2012), and Ray Donovan (2013, as James Woods's mother), with earlier credits in The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970, 1975), Hawaii Five-O, Dynasty (1981), Murder, She Wrote (1986, 1991), Home Improvement (1991), and Archie Bunker's Place (1979).
Known for
Filmography
- Sunset over Mulholland Drive · Self
- Showfolk · Self
- Lovesick · Bebe
- New Girl · Oldest Woman in the World
- 2 Broke Girls · Elderly Lady
- Up All Night · Shopper
- Troupers
- Due Date · Elderly Airport Passenger (uncredited)
- NCIS: Los Angeles · Ida
- Pineapple Express · Faye Belogus
- Relative Strangers · Old Lady
- How I Met Your Mother · Old Lady
- The Office · Nana
- Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide · June
- Promised Land · Hazel
- Something's Gotta Give · Lady in Market
- View from the Top · Grandma Stewart
- 8 Simple Rules · Louise's Mother
- The Michael Richards Show · Old Woman
- CSI: Crime Scene Investigation · Old Lady
- Girlfriends · Martha
- Becker · Mrs. Yudelson
- Will & Grace · Old Woman
- L.A. Doctors · Mrs. Connor
- That '70s Show · Aunt Pearl
- Out of Sight · Old Elevator Lady
- Veronica's Closet · Margaret
- Scorpion Spring · Diner Waitress
- It Came from Outer Space II · Mrs. Otis
- Sliders · Winifred
- Abandoned and Deceived · Rose
- Unhappily Ever After · Old Woman
- Dumb and Dumber · Elderly Lady
- Roseanne and Tom: Behind the Scenes · Motel Clerk
- ER · Kathy Brennan, Second Old Lady
- Boy Meets World · Foofie
- Dave's World · Mrs. Bondurant
- The Opposite Sex and How to Live with Them · Waitress from Hell
- Majority Rule · Mary
- Something to Live for: The Alison Gertz Story · Elderly Woman
- Home Improvement · Old Lady
- Blue Desert · Elderly Lady 1
- The Bonfire of the Vanities · Ruskin Family Member
- The End of Innocence · Grandma
- True Colors · Rita
- Dream On · Aunt Ruth
- When Harry Met Sally... · Documentary Couple
- Seinfeld · Old Woman
- Far from Home · Viney Hunt
- That's Adequate · Mrs. Duke Thorpe
- Murphy Brown · Woman on Elevator
- Jake and the Fatman · Helen
- Nights in White Satin · Martha the Bag Lady
- Matlock · Mrs. Kowalski
- 227
- Hot Chili · Mrs. Houston
- Do You Remember Love · Joan
- The Rosebud Beach Hotel · Carlotta
- V · Old Woman
- Murder, She Wrote · Ethel, Elderly Lady
- Just Our Luck
- Silver Spoons · Miss Bushmill
- Hill Street Blues · Bag Lady, Tessie
- Dynasty
- ...And Justice for All · Gitel
- Archie Bunker's Place
- Fast Break · Mom
- The President's Mistress · Cleaning Lady
- Oh, God! · Mrs. Green
- Big Hawaii
- Lou Grant · Woman
- Little Ladies of the Night · Female Guard (uncredited)
- Delvecchio · Judge Olsen
- Laverne & Shirley
- Starsky & Hutch · Nurse, Manager
- Welcome Back, Kotter · Aunt Josephine
- The Man in the Glass Booth · Mrs. Levi
- The Rockford Files · Mrs. Fornechefsky
- Good Times · Personnel Woman
- Kojak · Landlady, Mary Benson