Connie Sawyer

Acting

1912-11-27 · Pueblo, Colorado, USA

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).