Man in Black Tequila and Tamale awards party saturday Nov.4

after SATURDAYS screening Come celebrate the 5th BTKFF at our Latest venue-HICO HALL

Come join us in awards and celebration and imbibe on free tamales and cash bar at the newest venue to open in Hico, Hico Hall.

Ruth Buzzi BTKFF Award

Annual Award presented to best Comedy in the Festival

Ruth Ann Buzzi is an American actress, comedian, and singer. Ruth has been the “guiding force” as Film Festival Ambassador Emeritus to the BTKFF. She and her husband Kent Perkins have advised the festival ensuring its place in the film festival community.

She has appeared on stage, in films, and on television. She is best known for her performances on the comedy-variety show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In from 1968–73, for which she won a Golden Globe Award and received five Emmy nominations.

Buzzi was Born July 24, 1936 in South County (Westerly), Rhode Island to Rena Pauline and Angelo Peter Buzzi, a nationally recognized stone sculptor. She Raised in Wequetequock, Connecticut, and attended Stonington High School. She Gained experience as a cheerleader performing before crowds at athletic events. At 17, she enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse for the Performing Arts, among her classmates were the immeasurable talents of Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman. She graduated with honors. Ruth went on to Act in a wide variety of revues throughout New England, and worked alongside other young and talented performers who were just beginning their careers at the time. Including the legendary Barbra Streisand, Joan Rivers, Dom DeLuise, Bernadette Peters and Carol Burnett. She came to national recognition when she teamed up with Dom DeLuise in an act in which he played an incompetent magician and she was his "sidekick" named "Shakuntala" who never spoke but sported a wide grin. The audiences demanded more of them and they eventually played several 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. She was hired by Bob Fosse to perform in his then wife Gwen Verdon's hit Broadway musical "Sweet Charity". During that time she auditioned for and received a permanent place in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967), on which she played everything from deadpan old woman, to hard-bitten drunks, to southern belles to hookers. Memorable characters include Busy-Buzzi, a Hollywood gossip columnist; Doris Sidebottom, the hard-bitten drunk; and a stewardess (who she teamed up with Debbie Reynolds). The two played inconsiderate flight attendants.

Buzzi was featured as a semi-regular on the comedy That Girl as Marlo Thomas's friend 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). Buzzi also guest starred as Chloe, the wife of phone company worker Henry Beesmeyer (Marvin Kaplan) on Alice in 1981. She was also a guest star on Down to Earth in 1985. 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. was a guest star on many television series, including 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 by Glen Campbell. She also appeared occasionally on game shows and was a celebrity judge on The Gong Show. She appeared on Lucille Ball's last comedy 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 and has made more than 200 other television guest appearances. Buzzi voiced the character Nose Marie in the Hanna-Barbera animated series Pound Puppies (1986). She also voiced Mama Bear in Berenstain Bears (1985) and performed hundreds of guest voices for many other cartoon series, including The Smurfs, The Angry Beavers, and Mo Willems' Sheep in the Big City. She appeared frequently on Sesame Street in comedy sketch clips from her six years on that show, and is often heard as the voice of failed torch singer Suzie Kabloozie. Buzzi performed in numerous national television commercials, most notably for Clorox 2, Clairol, Ban roll-on deodorant, and Santa Anita Park, and she voiced Granny Goodwitch in television commercials for Sugar Crisp cereal. She originated the Goodwitch character in the animated TV series Linus the Lionhearted (1964–65).

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, You Can't Do That on Television, 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.

Buzzi had a successful nightclub act across the United States, including at Las Vegas' Sahara and at the MGM Grand hotels. She performed the act for one year. Her shows all sold out and she was reportedly offered an extended stay but declined. 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 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.

Today, Buzzi has operated a 600-acre cattle and horse ranch in the Lone Star state with husband, Kent Perkins since 1980. Kent Perkins is an former actor and writer, known for Drive-In (1976), Lone Star Bar & Grill (1983) and The Nashville Palace (1980). Kent did several dozen national commercials, starred in five TV pilots and was a regular in three television series (Including the aforementioned first Showtime series, Lonestar bar and Grill filmed in Houston!) and Nashville Palace on NBC. After that Kent founded a corporate private investigation agency that was eventually the largest on the West Coast. Kent and Ruthie both retired in 2005 and moved from LA to Texas where Kent grew up. They have been married since December 10, 1979. Ruth and Kent have been instrumental in the continued success of the BTKFF.