© 2025 | Jefferson Public Radio
Southern Oregon University
1250 Siskiyou Blvd.
Ashland, OR 97520
541.552.6301 | 800.782.6191
Listen | Discover | Engage a service of Southern Oregon University
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Actress Connie Sawyer Dies At 105

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Let's take a chance now to remember Hollywood's oldest working film actress.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "NEW GIRL")

CONNIE SAWYER: (As Oldest Woman in the World) Wait. I forgot Bernie. Hold the elevator. Bernie, Bernie - where are you, you idiot?

(LAUGHTER)

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

That's actress Connie Sawyer in a recent appearance on the show "New Girl." She passed away last week at the age of 105. In her eight-decade-long career, Sawyer was known for comedic roles from vaudeville acts to parts in "When Harry Met Sally" and "Dumb And Dumber."

GREENE: As for why her career was so long - I mean, that's the question we all want to know - right? - well, she credits her genes and also something else. She gave away the secret to her longevity in an interview with NPR's Susan Stamberg in 2016.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

SAWYER: Move. Don't sit on the couch. All my life, I played golf, I swam, and even here, I go to the exercise class.

GREENE: Now, by here, she meant the Motion Picture and Television Fund retirement center, where she had lived since 2004, exercising and working as an actress and - you know, in her spare time - writing a memoir, which she self-published. It was called "I Never Wanted To Be A Star - And I Wasn't."

MARTIN: We're not so sure she was right about that (laughter).

GREENE: I - exactly. I think she wasn't right about that.

(SOUNDBITE CIRCADIAN EYES' "GOODBYE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Recent threats to federal funding are challenging the way stations like JPR provide service to small communities in rural parts of the country.
Your one-time or sustaining monthly gift is more important than ever.