Movies

The actress was 72 – The Hollywood Reporter

October 7, 2022

Judy Tenuta, the eclectic comedian known as “The Goddess of Love” and “Aphrodite of the Accordion” to her legions of fans, has died. She was 72 years old.

Tenuta died Thursday at her home in Studio City after a battle with stage 4 ovarian cancer, publicist Harlan Boll announced.

In her first solo stand-up performance, Tenuta shocked audiences by dressing up as the Virgin Mary, and after being encouraged by her friends to incorporate an accordion into her routine – an instrument that her mother, a Lawrence Welk fan, encouraged her to learn – she developed the character in the wise “Love Goddess”.

Tenuta soon introduced audiences to other exaggerated, campy, and offbeat characters such as “The Petite Flower”, “Fashion-Plate Saint”, “Queen of Candy-Pants”, “Princess of Panty Shields”, “Empress of Elvis Impersonators ” and “Edge buffer”.

Like ‘The Goddess of Love’ and ‘Aphrodite of the Accordion’, these characters sported an array of fantastical costumes consisting of feather boots, egg bras, a nippy cup necklace and wispy capes to go with a variety of accessories, including his accordion, now on display at the Hollywood Museum.

Tenuta also portrayed dominatrix Samantha Rottweiler in Butch Camp (1996) and a former child star determined to return to boulevard of despair (1998) in a film she also produced; co-starred with Bruce Vilanch in Sister Mary (2011); and played a starring role in materialistic girls (2006), starring Hilary and Haylie Duff and directed by Martha Coolidge.

She often worked with a kindred spirit, “Weird Al” Yankovic.

Tenuta appeared on stage in Los Angeles and Chicago The Vagina Monologues and Menopause the Musical and specials on HBO, Showtime and Lifetime.

She received the Grammy Awards for Best Comedy Album for Beware of hackers and lesbians! and In goddess we trust and wrote the books The Power of Judaismpublished in 1991, and Full frontal tensionpublished in 2014.

One of nine siblings, Tenuda (named Judy Garland) was born into a Catholic family in Oak Park, Illinois on November 7, 1949. His mother, Johanna, was Polish and his father, Caesar, was Italian. She attended the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she majored in theater and was the first in her family to graduate from college.

Her interest in comedy began when she took an improv class with The Second City and she soon opened up other comics in the Windy City throughout the 1970s.

Tenuta left Chicago and moved to New York in the ’80s to co-host an HBO comedy special with Ellen DeGeneres, Rita Rudner, Martin Short and Paula Poundstone.

Tenuta achieved mainstream notoriety for a series of television commercials for MTV and Diet Dr. Pepper and traveled to Los Angeles, where she adopted a fiercely independent attitude, openly rejecting Hollywood standards of beauty and celebrity.

Tenuta was a strong advocate for gay rights and had a loyal following in the LGBTQ community. Early on, she performed in gay bars and clubs around Chicago, appeared as Grand Marshal at Gay Pride festivals, and was ordained a minister to officiate same-sex marriages.

She recently completed an inspirational video she titled Kick in the ass of cancerwho was shot during isolation and home quarantine during the months of COVID-19.

Survivors include her life partner, Vern Pang; brothers Daniel, John, Steven, Thomas and James; sister Barbara; and two nephews, four nieces and a great-niece. She will be buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Donations in his memory may be made to the Make a Wish Foundation, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or City of Hope.