Connie Sawyer

Connie Sawyer was born as Rosie Cohen on November 27, 1912 in Pueblo, Colorado, to Orthodox Jewish parents. Her father, Samuel Cohen, and mother, Dora Inger, were from Romania.{{Cite book|title=I Never Wanted to Be a Star - and I Wasn't|last=Sawyer|first=Connie|year=2017}}{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/obituaries/connie-sawyer-films-oldest-working-actress-dies-at-105.html|title=Connie Sawyer, Film's Oldest Working Actress, Dies at 105|work=The New York Times|date=January 31, 2018|author=Roberts, Sam}} Both of her parents came from the same village in Romania, but her mother arrived first in the United States. When she was 7, the family moved to Oakland, California, where her father opened an army-navy store.{{Cite news|url=http://jewishjournal.com/mobile_20111212/101161/connie-sawyer-the-worlds-eldest-working-actress/|title=Connie Sawyer: The world's eldest working actress — Jewish Journal|last=Berrin|first=Danielle|date=February 15, 2012|work=Jewish Journal|access-date=January 23, 2018|language=en-US}}[http://www.jewishjournal.com/hollywoodjew/item/the_99-year-old_actress_20120215 Connie Sawyer: The world’s eldest working actress], Jewishjournal.com; accessed January 22, 2018.

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.{{Cite news|url=https://uk.movies.yahoo.com/connie-sawyer-oldest-working-actress-hollywood-dies-105-080705011.html|title=Connie Sawyer, the oldest working actress in Hollywood, dies at 105|access-date=January 23, 2018|language=en-GB}}

In the late 1950s, agent Lillian Small, who worked for Frank Sinatra, saw Sawyer in the Broadway show A Hole in the Head, playing "Miss Wexler". Sinatra later optioned the rights for a film version and hired Sawyer to reprise her role in the 1959 film production, which starred Sinatra, Edward G. Robinson, and Eleanor Parker. Sawyer 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.{{Cite news|url=http://www.legacy.com/news/celebrity-deaths/notable-deaths/article/connie-sawyer-1912-2018-known-as-hollywoods-oldest|title=Connie Sawyer (1912 – 2018), known as Hollywood's oldest working actress|last=Staff|first=Legacy|date=January 22, 2018|work=Legacy.com|access-date=January 23, 2018|language=en}} In 2007, Sawyer appeared in the HBO series Tell Me You Love Me with Jane Alexander; however, Sawyer, later expressed regret as she considered the show to be pornographic. In 2012, the year of her centenary, she appeared on 2 Broke Girls, and, in recognition of her birthday, she was a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.{{Cite news|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/hollywood-star-connie-sawyer-dead-11898071|title=Hollywood star Connie Sawyer dies aged 105 after glittering acting career|last=Saunders|first=Emmeline|date=January 23, 2018|work=mirror|access-date=January 23, 2018}} Past 100 years of age, she appeared on television in NCIS: Los Angeles (2013), and, opposite Zooey Deschanel, in New Girl (2014), as "the Oldest Woman in the World". In 2014, she also appeared in two films: Lovesick and the short film [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3632856/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_1 Entanglement].{{cite web|url=http://popculture.com/celebrity/2018/01/22/connie-sawyer-oldest-working-actress-dies-105/|title=Connie Sawyer, Hollywood's Oldest Working Actress, Dies at 105|date=January 22, 2018 |accessdate=January 13, 2021}}

In September 2017, Sawyer self-published an autobiography, I Never Wanted to Be a Star — and I Wasn't, describing her life in Hollywood.

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 was married to film distributor Marshall Schacker for ten years, later separating. They had two daughters together, Lisa and Julie.{{cite web|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/obituaries/2018/02/01/connie-sawyer-film-oldest-working-actress-dies/F3UaZcK4DGUli0eu3Tk74L/story.html|title=Connie Sawyer, 105, Hollywood's oldest working actress|publisher=The Boston Globe|date=February 1, 2018|author=Roberts, Sam}}

Sawyer suffered a heart attack{{cite web|url=http://ktla.com/2018/02/01/connie-sawyer-oldest-working-actress-in-hollywood-dies-at-105/|title=Connie Sawyer, Oldest Working Actress in Hollywood, Dies at 105|author=Quednow, Cindy von|date=February 1, 2018|publisher=KTLA5}} and later died at her home at the Motion Picture & Television Fund’s retirement community in Woodland Hills, California on January 21, 2018, aged 105.[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/connie-sawyer-dead-actress-was-105-781684 Connie Sawyer, Late-Blooming Comic Actress, Dies at 105]{{cite web|url=http://jewishbreakingnews.com/2018/01/25/rosie-cohen-aka-connie-sawyer-oldest-working-actress-hollywood-dies-105/|title=Rosie Cohen AKA Connie Sawyer, Oldest Working Actress in Hollywood, Dies at 105 (VIDEO)|publisher=Jewish Breaking News|date=January 25, 2018}}

• List of centenarians (actors, filmmakers and entertainers)

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Becker (TV series)

• {{IMDb name|0768145|Connie Sawyer}}
• {{tcmdb name|id=170737|name=Connie Sawyer}}
• [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/186811055/connie-sawyer Connie Sawyer] at Find a Grave
• [http://www.aveleyman.com/ActorCredit.aspx?ActorID=52746 Connie Sawyer] (Aveleyman)

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Category:1912 births

Category:2018 deaths

Category:American film actresses

Category:American television actresses

Category:Actresses from Colorado

Category:Jewish American actresses

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:21st-century American actresses

Category:American people of Romanian-Jewish descent

Category:Actresses from Oakland, California

Category:People from Pueblo, Colorado

Category:Burials at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery

Category:American women centenarians

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:Jews from Colorado

Category:Jewish centenarians