Judy Tenuta, the quirky comedian known for playing the accordion and for her colorful characters, died Thursday at her home in Studio City, California, of ovarian cancer, according to her publicist. She was 72.
She had been battling stage 4 ovarian cancer as she detailed in her video “Judy Tenuta Kicks Cancer’s Ass,” which was shot at her home during the pandemic.
Tenuta was born on Nov. 7, 1949, in Oak Park, Illinois, where she grew up in a staunchly Irish Catholic neighborhood. She attended the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she majored in theater. Her interest in comedy took hold when she took an improv comedy class with the famed Chicago group The Second City, and she began opening for other comedians.
Her mother, a fan of Lawrence Welk, encouraged her to learn to play the accordion and Tenuta began incorporating it into her act. The accordion is currently on display at the Hollywood Museum in Los Angeles.
She left Chicago and moved to New York City in the late ’80s to host an HBO comedy special with Ellen DeGeneres, Rita Rudner, Martin Short and Paula Poundstone. By the mid 1980s, Tenuta gained a degree of notoriety for a series of television ads for MTV and Diet Dr Pepper.
Her act featured her as different offbeat characters, “The Petite Flower,” “Fashion-Plate Saint,” ”Queen of Candy-Pants,” “Princess of Panty Shields,” “Empress of Elvis Impersonators” and the “Buffer of Foreheads,” as well as “The Love Goddess” and “Aphrodite of the Accordion.”
Onstage, she appeared in “The Vagina Monologues” and “Menopause the Musical” both in LA and Chicago. She had stand-up specials on Showtime, HBO and Lifetime and was the first female stand-up comic to win “Best Female Comedian” at the American Comedy Awards. She was nominated twice for Best Comedy Grammy for “Attention Butt-Pirates and Lesbetarians!” and “In Goddess We Trust.”
She produced and starred in her own film, 1998’s “Desperation Boulevard” about a former child star who stops at nothing to make a comeback. Her other film credits include “Material Girls,” “Sister Mary,” and “Going Down in LALA Land.”
She also appeared on “General Hospital” and “Corey in the House,” and voiced characters on “Cow and Chicken,” “Space Ghost Coast To Coast” and as herself in “Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist.”
Tenuta was an outspoken advocate for gay rights and frequently performed at gay bars and clubs around Chicago in her early years. She also served as Grand Marshall for numerous Gay Pride festivals and was ordained as a minister to officiate same-sex marriages
She is survived by her life partner, Vern Pang; five brothers, Daniel, John, Steven, Thomas and James; and sister Barbara, in addition to two nephews, four nieces and a grand-niece.
Although services have not been announced, Tenuta will be interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles. In lieu of flowers, she requested that donations be made to one of the following charities: Make a Wish Foundation, St. Jude Hospital, or City of Hope.
For the record: A previous version of this story misreported Tenuta’s age.