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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.

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Federal funding is gone.

Congress has eliminated all funding for public media.

That means $2.1 million per year that Connecticut Public relied on to deliver you news, information, and entertainment programs you enjoyed is gone.

The future of public media is in your hands.

All donations are appreciated, but we ask in this moment you consider starting a monthly gift as a Sustainer to help replace what’s been lost.