Patricia Deutsch Ross (born Elaine Patricia Deutsch; December 16, 1943 – July 26, 2017) was an American actress and comedian who was well known as a recurring panelist on the 1970s game shows ''

Match Game ''Match Game'' is an American television panel game show that premiered on NBC in 1962 and has been revived several times over the course of the last six decades. The game features contestants trying to match answers given by celebrity panelis ...

'' and ''

Tattletales ''Tattletales'' is an American game show produced by Goodson- Todman Productions in association with Fremantle. The program had two runs on the CBS daytime schedule between February 1974 and June 1984. It was hosted by Bert Convy, with severa ...

''.

Early life

Deutsch was born in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

. She graduated from

Taylor Allderdice High School Taylor Allderdice High School is a public high school in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It opened in 1927 and is part of the Pittsburgh Public Schools district. It was named for industrialist and Squir ...

in 1961. She then attended

Bennington College Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont. Founded in 1932 as a women's college, it became co-educational in 1969. It claims to be the first college to include visual and performing arts as an equal partner in ...

Carnegie Mellon Carnegie may refer to: People *Carnegie (surname), including a list of people with the name *Clan Carnegie, a lowland Scottish clan Institutions Named for Andrew Carnegie * Carnegie Building (Troy, New York), on the campus of Rensselaer Polyte ...

, the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

, and the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

within a four-year period.

Career

Stage

Early in her career, Deutsch starred in local productions of Neil Simon's ''California Suite'' at

La Mirada La Mirada ( Spanish for "The Look") is a city in southeast Los Angeles County, California United States, and is one of the Gateway Cities. The population was 48,527 at the 2010 census, up from 46,783 at the 2000 census. The La Mirada Theatre ...

and

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

. She also worked alongside

Sid Caesar Isaac Sidney Caesar (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2014) was an American comic actor, comedian and writer. With a career spanning 60 years, he was best known for two pioneering 1950s live television series: ''Your Show of Shows'' (1950� ...

"as his new

Imogene Coca Imogene Coca (born Emogeane Coca; November 18, 1908 – June 2, 2001) was an American comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on ''Your Show of Shows''. Starting out in vaudeville as a child acrobat, she studied ballet and wishe ...

" at the Rainbow Grill in New York City.

Improv

In the 1960s and early 1970s, Deutsch was a member of Ace Trucking Company, an

improvisational comedy Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted: created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, a ...

group whose members also included

Bill Saluga William Saluga (born September 16, 1937), aka Ray Jay Johnson, is an American comedian and founding member of the improvisational comedy troupe Ace Trucking Company. He has appeared on several television programs, including ''Seinfeld''. Youngst ...

Fred Willard Frederic Charles Willard (September 18, 1933 May 15, 2020) was an American actor, comedian, and writer. He was best known for his roles in the Rob Reiner mockumentary film '' This Is Spinal Tap'' (1984); the Christopher Guest mockumentaries '' W ...

George Memmoli George Memmoli (August 3, 1938 – May 20, 1985) was a founding member of the Improvisational comedy, improv troupe Ace Trucking Company and an actor. He was known for his corpulent presence in his roles, weighing as much as 450 pounds. He ...

and Michael Mislove. Ace Trucking Company performed regularly on ''

This Is Tom Jones ''This Is Tom Jones'' is an ATV variety series starring Tom Jones. The series was exported to the United States by ITC Entertainment and was networked there by ABC. The series ran between 1969 and 1971 to total 65 colour episodes. Jones was no ...

'' and ''

The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' was an American late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson on NBC, the third iteration of the ''Tonight Show'' franchise. The show debuted on October 1, 1962, and aired its final episode on May 22, 1 ...

'', and also recorded a sketch album with

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

. She has stated she was the original “Truckette”.

Television

From 1972 to 1973, Deutsch was a regular cast member on the final season of ''

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' (often simply referred to as ''Laugh-In'') is an American sketch comedy television program that ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to March 12, 1973, on the NBC television network, hosted by comedians Da ...

'', where she worked with her future fellow ''Match Game'' panelist

Richard Dawson Richard Dawson (born Colin Lionel Emm; 20 November 1932 – 2 June 2012) was a British-born American actor, comedian, game-show host and panelist in the United States. Dawson was well known for playing Corporal Peter Newkirk in ''Hogan's Heroe ...

. From 1973 to 1979, Deutsch was a recurring celebrity panelist on ''

'', and became a popular fixture in the number six seat. She also occasionally appeared on ''

'' with her husband. In 1978, Deutsch appeared in the short-lived television series ''

Grandpa Goes to Washington ''Grandpa Goes to Washington'' is an American comedy-drama television series that aired on NBC on Tuesday nights from September 7, 1978 to January 16, 1979. The series was very short-lived, as it was cancelled after a run of only 11 episodes. Aft ...

''. During the 1980s, she continued to guest-star on episodes of series such as ''

Moonlighting Moonlighting may refer to: * Side job A side job, also informally called a side hustle or side gig, is an additional job that a person takes in addition to their primary job in order to supplement their income. Side jobs may be done out of nec ...

'' and ''

She's the Sheriff ''She's the Sheriff'' is an American sitcom television series that aired in first-run syndication from September 19, 1987 to April 1, 1989. Produced by Lorimar Television, the series marked the return of Suzanne Somers to television for the fi ...

''. Her final television credit was a guest role as an old lady in the ABC series '' Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23''.

Guest appearances

In addition to ''

'', Deutsch also had guest appearances on ''

The Merv Griffin Show ''The Merv Griffin Show'' is an American television talk show starring Merv Griffin. The series ran from October 1, 1962 to March 29, 1963 on NBC, May 10, 1965 to July 4, 1969 in first-run syndication, from August 18, 1969 to February 11, 1972 ...

'', ''

The Dick Cavett Show ''The Dick Cavett Show'' was the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks, including: * ABC daytime, (March 4, 1968–January 24, 1969) originally titled ''This Morning'' * ABC prime time, Tuesdays, We ...

'' and ''

The Steve Allen Show ''The Steve Allen Show'' was an American variety show hosted by Steve Allen from June 1956 to June 1960 on NBC, from September 1961 to December 1961 on ABC,

''. On March 7, 2008, she appeared as a guest on GSN's

interstitial program In television programming, an interstitial television show (or wraparound program or wraparound segment) refers to a short program that is often shown between movies or other events, e.g. cast interviews after movies on premium channels. The t ...

GSN Live ''GSN Live'' is an American live interactive show on Game Show Network that premiered on February 25, 2008, at noon ET and officially ended its 3-year run on July 29, 2011. The last "live" edition aired May 13, 2011. It lasted three hours in be ...

''. In 2009, Deutsch, along with ''Match Game'' co-panelists

Joyce Bulifant Joyce Collins Bulifant (born December 16, 1937) is an American actress and author. In addition to recurring roles on television, including ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' as Marie Slaughter, Bulifant is recognized for film roles in '' The Happiest ...

and

Nancy Dussault Nancy Dussault (born June 30, 1936) is an American actress and singer. She is best known for playing Muriel Rush in the sitcom ''Too Close for Comfort'' (1980–1987). In a career spanning over half a century, Dussault received two Tony Award n ...

, attended the GSN ''Game Show Awards'' to accept the "Favorite Classic Game Show" award on behalf of ''Match Game''. During their acceptance speeches, Deutsch, Bulifant and Dussault fondly remembered their friends, host

Gene Rayburn Gene Rayburn (born Eugene Peter Jeljenic; December 22, 1917 – November 29, 1999) was an American radio and television personality. He is best known as the host of various editions of the American television game show '' Match Game'' for over t ...

and fellow panelist

Charles Nelson Reilly Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...

Voice acting

During the early years of the show ''

The Electric Company ''The Electric Company'' is an American educational children's television series produced by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW, now known as Sesame Workshop). It was co-created by Paul Dooley, Joan Ganz Cooney, and Lloyd Morrisett. The ...

'', Deutsch did voice-over work for some of the vignette cartoons with actor and show writer

Paul Dooley Paul Dooley (born Paul Brown; February 22, 1928) is an American character actor, writer and comedian. He is known for his roles in '' Breaking Away'', '' Sixteen Candles'', and ''Popeye''. Early life Dooley was born Paul Brown on February 22, ...

. In the 1980s and 1990s, Deutsch did regular voice work for

Hanna Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

in both ''

The Smurfs ''The Smurfs'' (french: Les Schtroumpfs; nl, De Smurfen) is a Belgian comic franchise centered on a fictional colony of small, blue, humanoid creatures who live in mushroom-shaped houses in the forest. ''The Smurfs'' was first created and int ...

'' and ''

Capitol Critters ''Capitol Critters'' is an American animated sitcom about the lives of mice, rats and roaches who reside in the basement and walls of the White House in Washington, D.C. The series was produced by Steven Bochco Productions and Hanna-Barbera in ...

'' cartoon series. She provided the voice for Mrs. Dave, the mother of Dr. Dave, on the popular

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

cartoon '' As Told by Ginger''. She also had occasional voice roles in other popular cartoon series, such as ''

Darkwing Duck ''Darkwing Duck'' is an American animated superhero comedy television series produced by Disney Television Animation (formerly Walt Disney Television Animation) that first ran from 1991 to 1992 on both the syndicated programming block ''The Disn ...

''. Her later work included movie voice-overs for ''

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...

'', ''

The Emperor's New Groove ''The Emperor's New Groove'' is a 2000 American animated slapstick comedy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 40th animated film produced by the studio, it was directed by Mark Dindal and p ...

'', '' Monsters, Inc.'' and ''

Happily N'Ever After ''Happily N'Ever After'' is a 2006 computer-animated family comedy film directed by Paul J. Bolger, produced by John H. Williams, and written by Rob Moreland. It is inspired by fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen and is ...

''.

Commercials

Over the course of her career, Deutsch appeared in hundreds of local and national commercials, including classic spots for

Folgers Folgers Coffee is a brand of ground, instant, and single-use pod coffee produced and sold in the United States, with additional distribution in Asia, Canada and Mexico. It forms part of the food and beverage division of The J.M. Smucker Co ...

coffee and

Charmin Charmin ( ) is an American brand of toilet paper manufactured by Procter & Gamble. History The Charmin name was first created on April 19, 1928 by the Hoberg Paper Company in Green Bay, Wisconsin. In 1950, Hoberg changed its name to Charmin Pape ...

bathroom tissue. She also did commercials for M&M Meat Shops, a Canadian food retailer.

Movies

She made a cameo appearance in the 1983 movie '' Mr. Mom'', playing The Deli Girl.

Personal life

During her improv years, Deutsch met her future husband, comedy screenwriter and playwright Donald Ross. They married in 1968 and had three children: Max Ross, Lee Sachnoff and Alexis Hill. Both Deutsch and Ross appeared the same week as guests on ''Match Game '74''. Deutsch died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

on July 26, 2017, at age 73, at home in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. Her husband also had cancer, and died on June 1, 2018.

Selected filmography

Film

*''

Dynamite Chicken ''Dynamite Chicken'' is a 1971 American comedy film. Described in its opening credits as "an electronic magazine of American pop culture," it presents a series of interviews, stand-up comedy, countercultural sketches, documentary segments, and agi ...

'' (1971) – herself, with The Ace Trucking Company *'' Mr. Mom'' (1983) – Deli Girl *'' Jetsons: The Movie'' (1990) – Lucy-2 (voice) *''

'' (1999) – Tantor's Mother (voice) *'' The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire'' (2000) – Rainbow Face #2 (voice) *''

'' (2000) – Waitress (voice) *'' Monsters, Inc.'' (2001) – Photo Couple #1 (voice) *''

Kronk's New Groove ''Kronk's New Groove'' (also known as ''The Emperor's New Groove 2: Kronk's New Groove'') is a 2005 American direct-to-video animated musical comedy film animated by Toon City Animation and released by Walt Disney Home Entertainment on Decembe ...

'' (2005) – Waitress (voice) *''

'' (2006) – (voice) *''

Immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...

'' (2008) - Greta Knight (English version, voice)

Television

*''

'' (1969-1971) – regular performer with The Ace Trucking Company *''

Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' (often simply referred to as ''Laugh-In'') is an American sketch comedy television program that ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to March 12, 1973, on the NBC television network, hosted by comedians Da ...

'' (1972–1973) – regular performer *''

'' (1973–1979) – frequent panelist *''

'' (1974–1978, 1982–1984) – frequent panelist *''

'' (1978–1979) – Patti *''

'' (1992) – Trixie *''

The Wild Thornberrys ''The Wild Thornberrys'' is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, Steve Pepoon, David Silverman, and Stephen Sustarsic for Nickelodeon. The series portrays an American family of wildlife documentary ...

'' (1999) - Clan Hyena (voice) *'' As Told by Ginger'' (2000) - Mrs. Dave (voice) *'' The Berenstain Bears'' (2003–2004) – additional voices *''The 100 Most Unexpected TV Moments'' (2005) – herself *''

The Emperor's New School ''The Emperor's New School'' is an American animated television series created by Mark Dindal that aired on Disney Channel for two seasons between January2006 and November2008. It is the second sequel to the 2000 film ''The Emperor's New Groove ...

'' (2007-2008) – Mata, the Lunch Lady *'' Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23'' (2013) - Old lady

References

External links

* * * https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/181850209/patti-deutsch {{DEFAULTSORT:Deutsch, Patti 1943 births 2017 deaths Actresses from Pittsburgh American television personalities American voice actresses Deaths from cancer in California 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses American film actresses American television actresses