Tomlin was born in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Lillie Mae (née Ford; January 14, 1914 – July 12, 2005),[5][6][7] a housewife and nurse's aide, and Guy Tomlin (March 3, 1913 – October 24, 1970), a factory worker. She has a younger brother named Richard Tomlin.[8][9] Tomlin's parents were Southern Baptists who moved to Detroit from Paducah, Kentucky, during the Great Depression. Although she attended a Southern Baptist church as a child, she later grew to become irreligious.[10][11][12] She is a 1957 graduate of Cass Technical High School. Tomlin attended Wayne State University and originally studied biology. She auditioned for a play, and it sparked her interest in a career in the theatre and she changed her major. After college, Tomlin began doing stand-up comedy in nightclubs in Detroit and later in New York City. She continued studying acting at the HB Studio.
Tomlin's first television appearance was on The Merv Griffin Show in 1965.[13] A year later, she became a cast member on the short-lived third and final incarnation of The Garry Moore Show
Tomlin characters In 1969, after a stint as a hostess on the ABC series Music Scene,[14] Tomlin joined NBC's sketch comedy show Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Signed as a replacement for the departing Judy Carne, Tomlin was an instant success on the already established program, in which in addition to appearing in general sketches and delivering comic gags, she began appearing as the regular characters she created; they became well known and she portrayed them outside of the show in later recordings and television specials:
Ernestine was a brash, tough and uncompromising telephone operator who generally treated customers with little sympathy. Ernestine often snorted when she let loose a barbed response or heard something salacious; she also wore her hair in a 1940s hairstyle with a hairnet, although the character was contemporary. Her opening lines were often the comical "one ringy dingy... two ringy dingy", and, "Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?" In the sketches, Ernestine was usually at her switchboard taking calls. She occasionally phoned her boyfriend, Vito, a telephone repair man, or her pal Phenicia, another operator.Tomlin as Edith Ann, 1975 Tomlin reprised the role in 2016 for a TV ad as part of PETA's campaign against SeaWorld.[15] Tomlin has also reprised the role on several episodes of Sesame Street.
Edith Ann is a precocious five-and-a-half-year-old girl who waxes philosophical on everyday life, either about life as a kid or things for which she feels she has the answers, although she is too young to fully understand. She often ends her monologues with "And that's the truth", punctuating it with a noisy raspberry. Edith Ann sits in an oversized rocking chair (to make Tomlin seem child-sized) with her rag doll, Doris, and often talks of life at home with her battling parents and bullying older sister, Mary Jean (Lily Tomlin's given birth names). Edith Ann has an oversized, playfully aggressive dog named Buster and a boyfriend named Junior Phillips, a possibly unrequited love. (Only Edith Ann and "Doris" appear in the Edith Ann sketches.) Tomlin reprised the character for a series of sketches on Sesame Street in the 1970s, and voiced her in three prime-time cartoon specials in the 1990s (including Edith Ann: A Few Pieces of the Puzzle).
Mrs. Judith Beasley is a housewife and mother from Calumet City, Illinois, who is often chosen for television commercials and offers "good consumer advice". She appears in the film The Incredible Shrinking Woman as the lead character's neighbor.
Mrs. Earbore (The Tasteful Lady) is a somewhat prudish and prissy, conservatively dressed middle-aged apolitical woman who dispenses advice on gracious living and a life of elegance.
Susie the Sorority Girl is a blonde collegiate who could be the Tasteful Lady's daughter. Humorless and melodramatic, her biggest worries are the likes of who took her missing album by The Carpenters.
The Consumer Advocate Lady is a dour, austere woman who rigidly inspects and tests products for their alleged value. The Consumer Advocate Lady is something of a variation of Mrs. Beasley.
Lucille the Rubber Freak is a woman addicted to eating rubber, whose monologue details her habit from its beginning (chewing the eraser on pencils) to her obsessive rock bottom (eating the tip off mother's cane). Tomlin performed this character as part of her Laugh-In audition.
Tess/Trudy is a homeless bag lady who accosts theater-goers and various passers-by with her offbeat observations and tales of communications with extraterrestrials. ("They don't care if you believe in 'em or not—they're different from God.")
Bobbi-Jeanine is a showbiz veteran of the lounge circuit where she sings and plays organ. She often dispenses advice. ("It's not called Show Art, it's Show Business.)
Tomlin was one of the first female comedians to break out in male drag with her characters Tommy Velour and Rick. In 1982, but later popularized by a Saturday Night Live appearance on January 22, 1983, she premiered Purvis Hawkins, a black rhythm-and-blues soul singer (patterned after Luther Vandross), with a mustache, beard, and close-cropped afro hairstyle, dressed in a three-piece suit. Tomlin used very little, if any, skin-darkening cosmetics as part of the character, instead depending on stage lighting to create the effect.
Tomlin in 1976
In 1970, AT&T offered Tomlin $500,000 to play her character Ernestine in a commercial, but she declined, saying it would compromise her artistic integrity.[16][17] In 1976, she appeared on Saturday Night Live[18] as Ernestine in a Ma Bell advertisement parody in which she proclaimed, "We don't care, we don't have to...we're the phone company." The character later made a guest appearance at The Superhighway Summit at UCLA on January 11, 1994, interrupting a speech being given on the information superhighway by then-Vice President Al Gore. She appeared as three of her minor characters in a 1998 ad campaign for Fidelity Investments that did not include Ernestine or Edith Ann.[17] In 2003, she made two commercials as an "updated" Ernestine for WebEx.[19] Tomlin brought Edith Ann to the forefront again in the 1990s with three animated prime-time television specials. She published Edith Ann's "autobiography", My Life (1995), co-written with Jane Wagner.
Tomlin released her first comedy album, This Is A Recording, on Polydor Records in March 1971 that contained Ernestine's run-ins with customers over the phone. The album hit No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 200, becoming (and remaining as of 2011[update]) the highest-charting album ever by a solo comedienne.[20] She earned a Grammy award that year for Best Comedy Recording. Tomlin's second album, 1972's And That's The Truth, featuring her character Edith Ann, was nearly as successful, peaking at No. 41 on the chart and earning another Grammy nomination. (Tomlin has two of the three top-charting female comedy albums on Billboard, sandwiching a 1983 Joan Rivers release.)[20]
Tomlin made her dramatic debut in Robert Altman's Nashville (1975), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress; she played Linnea Reese, a straitlaced, gospel-singing mother of two deaf children who has an affair with a womanizing country singer (played by Keith Carradine). The Oscar that year went to Lee Grant for her role in Shampoo. A comedy-mystery, The Late Show, teaming Tomlin with Art Carney, was a critical success in 1977. One of the few widely panned projects of Tomlin's career was 1978's Moment by Moment, directed and written by Wagner, which teamed Tomlin in a cross-generational older woman/younger man romance with John Travolta. Tomlin's third comedy album, 1975's Modern Scream, a parody of movie magazines and celebrity interviews, featured her performing as multiple characters, including Ernestine, Edith Ann, Judith, and Suzie. Her 1977 release Lily Tomlin On Stage was an adaptation of her Broadway show that year. Each of these albums earned Tomlin additional Grammy nominations. Tomlin recorded a single/EP called "The Last Duet" with Barry Manilow in 1980.[21]
In March 1977, Tomlin made her Broadway debut in the solo show Appearing Nitely, which she co-wrote and co-directed with Jane Wagner, at the Biltmore Theatre. She received a Special Tony Award for this production.[22] The same month, she made the cover of Time with the headline "America's New Queen of Comedy". Her solo show then toured the country and was made into a record album titled On Stage. In 1980, Tomlin co-starred in 9 to 5, in which she played a secretary named Violet Newstead who joins coworkers Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton in seeking revenge on their boss, Franklin M. Hart, Jr., played by Dabney Coleman. The film was one of the year's top-grossing films. Tomlin then starred in the 1981 science fiction comedy The Incredible Shrinking Woman, playing three roles (a fourth, a reprise of her Edith Ann character, was cut from the theatrical print, but footage of this character was included in some later TV showings.) The film, a send-up of consumerism, was written by Wagner and met with mixed reviews.
Tomlin bounced back with the critical and financial hit All of Me (1984), opposite Steve Martin, in which she played a sickly heiress whose spirit became trapped in Martin's body. In 1985, Tomlin starred in another one-woman Broadway show The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, written by her long-time life partner, writer/producer Jane Wagner. The show won her a Tony Award and was made into a feature film in 1991. Tomlin revived the show for a run on Broadway in 2000 which then toured the country through mid-2002. In 1989, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre. Tomlin premiered her one-woman show Not Playing with a Full Deck at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in November 2009. It was her first appearance in that city, though she did tape an Emmy-winning TV special, a spoof of Las Vegas called Lily: Sold Out which premiered on CBS in January 1981. Tomlin and Bette Midler played two pairs of identical twins who were switched at birth in the 1988 comedy Big Business.
1990–2009: Continued work and The West Wingedit
Tomlin in 2008
Tomlin also played chain-smoking waitress Doreen Piggott in Altman's 1993 ensemble film Short Cuts, based on stories by Raymond Carver. Tomlin voiced Ms. Valerie Frizzle on the animated television seriesThe Magic School Bus from 1994 to 1997. Also, in the 1990s, Tomlin appeared on the popular sitcomMurphy Brown as the title character's boss. In 1995 she appeared on an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street as a murder suspect being transported to Baltimore. She also guest starred on The X-Files in 1998, in episode 6 ("How The Ghosts Stole Christmas") of season 6 as a ghost haunting an old mansion. In 2005 and 2006, she had a recurring role as Will Truman's boss Margot on Will & Grace. She appeared on the dramatic series The West Wing for four years (2002–2006) in the recurring role of presidential secretary Deborah Fiderer. Tomlin performed in two films by director David O. Russell; she appeared as a peacenik Raku artist in Flirting with Disaster and later as an existential detective in I Heart Huckabees. In March 2007, two videos were leaked onto YouTube portraying on-set arguments between Russell and Tomlin, in which among other things he called her sexist names. When the Miami New Times asked Tomlin about the videos, she responded, "I love David. There was a lot of pressure in making the movie—even the way it came out you could see it was a very free-associative, crazy movie, and David was under a tremendous amount of pressure. And he's a very free-form kind of guy anyway."[23]
Tomlin collaborated again with director Robert Altman in what would prove to be his last film, A Prairie Home Companion (2006). She played Rhonda Johnson, one-half of a middle-aged Midwestern singing duo partnered with Meryl Streep. Tomlin provided a voice for the film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, which was released in August 2009.[24] In the 2008–2009 fifth season of Desperate Housewives, she had a recurring role as Roberta, the sister of Mrs. McCluskey (played by Kathryn Joosten who coincidentally had played Tomlin's secretarial predecessor on The West Wing). During the 2008 Emmy Awards, Tomlin appeared as part of a tribute to the influential 1960s television series Laugh-In. Tomlin voiced Tammy in the 2005 The Simpsons episode "The Last of the Red Hat Mamas".
Since its launch in 2008, Tomlin has been a contributor for wowOwow.com, a website for women to talk culture, politics, and gossip.[25]Tomlin and Kathryn Joosten were in talks to star in a Desperate Housewives spin-off,[26] which was given the green light in May 2009.[27] The series plan was scrapped due to Joosten's illness, a recurrence of lung cancer; Joosten died on June 2, 2012, twenty days after the onscreen death from cancer of her character Karen McCluskey. In 2010, Tomlin guest-starred as Marilyn Tobin in the third season of Damages opposite Glenn Close, for which she was nominated for an Emmy. She also appeared in the NCIS episode titled "The Penelope Papers", playing Penelope Langston, the grandmother of Agent Timothy McGee (Sean Murray). In 2012, Tomlin guest starred on the HBO series Eastbound and Down as Tammy Powers, mother of the main character Kenny Powers, and appeared in three episodes of Season 3. Tomlin co-starred with Reba McEntire in the TV series Malibu Country as Reba's character's mother Lillie Mae. The series started shooting in August 2012 with a premiere date of November 2, 2012, at 8:30 pm ET but was canceled in 2013 after 18 episodes.
2015–present: Grace and Frankie and resurgenceedit
From 2015 to 2022, Tomlin starred opposite Jane Fonda, Martin Sheen, and Sam Waterston in the Netflix original comedy series Grace and Frankie. Tomlin plays Frankie Bergstein, recently separated from her husband of forty years (Waterston) while Fonda plays Grace Hanson, recently separated from her husband (Sheen). Grace and Frankie become reluctant friends after learning their husbands are leaving them to be with one another. She received her first Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2015.[28] In 2015, Tomlin starred in filmmaker Paul Weitz's film Grandma,[29] which Weitz said was inspired by Tomlin. It garnered rave reviews and earned Tomlin a Golden Globe Award nomination.[30][31]
Tomlin met her future wife, writer Jane Wagner, in March 1971. After watching the after-school TV special J.T. written by Wagner, Tomlin invited Wagner to Los Angeles to collaborate on Tomlin's comedy LP album And That's The Truth.[33] The couple did not have a formal coming out. Tomlin said in 2006:
I certainly never called a press conference or anything like that. [Back in the 1970s,] people didn't write about it. Even if they knew, they would [refer to Jane as] "Lily's collaborator", things like that. Some journalists are just motivated by their own sense of what they want to say or what they feel comfortable saying or writing about. In '77, I was on the cover of Time. The same week I had a big story in Newsweek. In one of the magazines it says I live alone, and the other magazine said I live with Jane Wagner. Unless you were so really adamantly out, and had made some declaration at some press conference, people back then didn't write about your relationship. In '75 I was making the Modern Scream album and Jane and I were in the studio. My publicist called me and said, "Time will give you the cover if you'll come out." I was more offended than anything that they thought we'd make a deal. But that was '75—it would have been a hard thing to do at that time.[33]
Tomlin stated in 2008, "Everybody in the industry was certainly aware of my sexuality and of Jane ... in interviews, I always reference Jane and talk about Jane, but they don't always write about it."[34][35] In 2015, Tomlin said, "I wasn't totally forthcoming. Everybody in the business knew I was gay, and certainly everybody I worked with and everything like that." Tomlin has been generally quiet about her sexuality.[36]
On December 31, 2013, Tomlin and Wagner married in a private ceremony in Los Angeles after 42 years together.[37][38]
Beliefs and activismedit
Tomlin has been involved in a number of feminist and gay-friendly film productions, and on her 1975 album Modern Scream she pokes fun at straight actors who make a point of distancing themselves from their gay and lesbian characters—answering the pseudo-interview question, she replies: "How did it feel to play a heterosexual? I've seen these women all my life, I know how they walk, I know how they talk ..."[11] In 2013, Tomlin and Wagner worked together on the film An Apology to Elephants, which Wagner wrote and Tomlin narrated.[39]
Tomlin, Lily, and Jane Wagner. On Stage. New York, N.Y.: Arista, 1977. Recorded live at the Biltmore Theatre, New York City. Audio book on LP. OCLC 858894156.
Wagner, Jane, Elon Soltes, Wendy Apple, and Lily Tomlin. Appearing Nitely. Valley Village, Calif.: Tomlin and Wagner Theatricalz, 1992. Recorded live at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles, Calif. Originally produced for television in 1978. Video recording. OCLC 28219227.
Wagner, Jane. Edith Ann: My Life, So Far. New York: Hyperion, 1994. As told to and illustrated by Jane Wagner. ISBN978-0-786-86120-0. OCLC 31236871.
Tomlin, Lily, Jane Wagner, and Anna Deavere Smith. Conversation with Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner, October 25, 1994. San Francisco: City Arts & Lectures, Inc, 1994. Masonic Auditorium. OCLC 743427376
Wagner, Jane. J.T. New York: Carousel Films, 2000. DVD. Originally broadcast in 1969. Jeannette Du Bois, Theresa Merritt, Kevin Hooks. OCLC 63681705.
Tomlin, Lily, and Jane Wagner. And That's the Truth. United States: Universal Music Enterprises, 2003. Recorded live at The Ice House, Pasadena, March 1976. Audio book. OCLC 212930925
Tomlin, Lily, and Jane Wagner. The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. Tarzana, Calif.: Laugh.com, 2005. 1992 HBO television film. A film adaptation of the Broadway play by Jane Wagner. OCLC 63664207.
Wagner, Jane, Marilyn French, and Lily Tomlin. The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. New York, NY: ItBooks, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2012. Reprint. Originally published: New York: Harper & Row, 1986. Based on the Broadway play written by Wagner starring Lily Tomlin. Includes an Afterword by Marilyn French and Reflections by Lily Tomlin and by Jane Wagner. ISBN978-0-062-10737-4. OCLC 798732509.
Wagner, Jane C., and Tina DiFeliciantonio. Girls Like Us. New York, NY: Women Make Movies, 2013. Originally produced as a motion picture documentary film in 1997. DVD. OCLC 843761980.
^Rutenberg, Jim (January 15, 2003). "WebEx to Begin $8 Million Campaign". The New York Times. Retrieved October 16, 2012.
^ ab"Chart beat: Katy Perry, Kathy Griffin, Miley Cyrus". Billboard.com.
^Barry Manilow & Lily Tomlin - The Last Duet (Klyk's Tribal Dance Mix 09), archived from the original on December 11, 2021, retrieved September 5, 2019
^The Associated Press (August 21, 2015). "Lily Tomlin Isn't Buying Her Own Hype". The New York Times. Retrieved August 23, 2015.
^Rose, Charlie (August 16, 2015). . Charlie Rose. Archived from the original on August 22, 2015. Retrieved August 23, 2015.
^Scott, A. O. (August 19, 2015). "Review: In 'Grandma,' Lily Tomlin Energizes an Intergenerational Road Trip". The New York Times. Retrieved August 23, 2015.
^Murphy, Mekado (August 19, 2015). "'Grandma' (With Movie Trailer): Paul Weitz Narrates a Scene". The New York Times. Retrieved August 23, 2015.
^"Magic School Bus Returns With Kate McKinnon, Lin-Manuel Miranda". E! Online. September 5, 2017. Retrieved September 5, 2019.
^ abTomlin, in Shulman, Randy (April 27, 2006). "Lily Tomlin". Metro Weekly. Washington, D.C. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
^Tomlin in Radosta, Jim (May 30, 2008). "Lily Tomlin Interview". Just Out. Not online. Quote referenced in sources including Kaye, Frank (February 16, 2012). "Lily Tomlin Graces the Stage". Baltimore Gay Life. Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
^. Women In Film. Archived from the original on June 30, 2011. Retrieved May 10, 2011.
^"Past Recipients" June 30, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. WIF.org.
^ (Press release). Fenway Health. March 5, 2009. Archived from the original on August 7, 2012. Retrieved May 24, 2010.
^Brassart, Scott; Maytag, PJ (February 24, 2012). . The BottomLine Magazine. San Diego Gay and Lesbian News. Archived from the original on April 13, 2012. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
^"SAG Awards: Lily Tomlin Gives Advice-Filled Lifetime Achievement Award Speech". The Hollywood Reporter. January 29, 2017. Retrieved September 5, 2019.
^"National Recording Registry Inducts Sounds of ABBA, Blondie, The Cars, The Chicks, Juan Gabriel, Green Day, The Notorious B.I.G. and Lily Tomlin". Library of Congress. Retrieved April 16, 2024.
External linksedit
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lily, tomlin, mary, jean, lily, tomlin, born, september, 1939, american, actress, comedian, writer, singer, producer, tomlin, started, career, stand, comedy, sketch, comedy, before, transitioning, career, acting, onstage, screen, career, spanning, over, fifty,. Mary Jean Lily Tomlin born September 1 1939 1 is an American actress comedian writer singer and producer Tomlin started her career in stand up comedy and sketch comedy before transitioning her career to acting onstage and on screen In a career spanning over fifty years Tomlin has received numerous accolades including seven Emmy Awards a Grammy Award and two Tony Awards She was also awarded the Kennedy Center Honor in 2014 and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2017 2 Lily TomlinTomlin at the 2014 Kennedy Center HonorsBirth nameMary Jean TomlinBorn 1939 09 01 September 1 1939 age 84 Detroit Michigan U S MediumStand uptelevisionfilmtheatreEducationWayne State UniversityYears active1965 presentGenresObservational comedyImprovisational comedySpouseJane Wagner m 2013 wbr Websitelilytomlin wbr com Tomlin started her career as a stand up comedian as well as performing off Broadway during the 1960s Her breakout role was on the variety show Rowan amp Martin s Laugh In from 1969 until 1973 Her signature role which was written by her then partner now wife Jane Wagner was in the show The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe which opened on Broadway in 1985 and earned Tomlin the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play She won Emmy Awards for the special Lily 1973 and received a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for This Is a Recording 1972 In 1975 Tomlin made her film debut with Robert Altman s Nashville which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress 3 In 1977 her performance as Margo Sperling in The Late Show won her the Silver Bear for Best Actress and nominations for the Golden Globe and BAFTA Award for Best Actress Her other notable films include All of Me 1984 Big Business 1988 Flirting with Disaster 1996 Tea with Mussolini 1999 I Heart Huckabees 2004 A Prairie Home Companion 2006 and Grandma 2015 Tomlin is known for her collaborations with Jane Fonda starring in the films 9 to 5 1980 80 for Brady 2023 and Moving On 2023 She also starred with Fonda on the Netflix series Grace and Frankie which ran from 2015 to 2022 She earned four Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series nominations 4 From 2002 to 2006 she portrayed Deborah Fiderer on the Aaron Sorkin series The West Wing She also voiced Ms Frizzle for the children s animated series The Magic School Bus 1994 1997 and The Magic School Bus Rides Again 2017 2020 Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 2 1 1965 1974 Career beginnings and breakthrough 2 2 1975 1989 Film stardom and acclaim 2 3 1990 2009 Continued work and The West Wing 2 4 2015 present Grace and Frankie and resurgence 3 Personal life 3 1 Marriage 3 2 Beliefs and activism 4 Acting credits and accolades 5 Bibliography 6 References 7 External linksEarly life and education editTomlin was born in Detroit Michigan the daughter of Lillie Mae nee Ford January 14 1914 July 12 2005 5 6 7 a housewife and nurse s aide and Guy Tomlin March 3 1913 October 24 1970 a factory worker She has a younger brother named Richard Tomlin 8 9 Tomlin s parents were Southern Baptists who moved to Detroit from Paducah Kentucky during the Great Depression Although she attended a Southern Baptist church as a child she later grew to become irreligious 10 11 12 She is a 1957 graduate of Cass Technical High School Tomlin attended Wayne State University and originally studied biology She auditioned for a play and it sparked her interest in a career in the theatre and she changed her major After college Tomlin began doing stand up comedy in nightclubs in Detroit and later in New York City She continued studying acting at the HB Studio Career edit1965 1974 Career beginnings and breakthrough edit nbsp Tomlin as Mrs Earbore The Tasteful Lady with Rita Hayworth on Rowan amp Martin s Laugh In 1971 Tomlin s first television appearance was on The Merv Griffin Show in 1965 13 A year later she became a cast member on the short lived third and final incarnation of The Garry Moore ShowTomlin characters In 1969 after a stint as a hostess on the ABC series Music Scene 14 Tomlin joined NBC s sketch comedy show Rowan and Martin s Laugh In Signed as a replacement for the departing Judy Carne Tomlin was an instant success on the already established program in which in addition to appearing in general sketches and delivering comic gags she began appearing as the regular characters she created they became well known and she portrayed them outside of the show in later recordings and television specials Ernestine was a brash tough and uncompromising telephone operator who generally treated customers with little sympathy Ernestine often snorted when she let loose a barbed response or heard something salacious she also wore her hair in a 1940s hairstyle with a hairnet although the character was contemporary Her opening lines were often the comical one ringy dingy two ringy dingy and Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking In the sketches Ernestine was usually at her switchboard taking calls She occasionally phoned her boyfriend Vito a telephone repair man or her pal Phenicia another operator nbsp Tomlin as Edith Ann 1975 Tomlin reprised the role in 2016 for a TV ad as part of PETA s campaign against SeaWorld 15 Tomlin has also reprised the role on several episodes of Sesame Street Edith Ann is a precocious five and a half year old girl who waxes philosophical on everyday life either about life as a kid or things for which she feels she has the answers although she is too young to fully understand She often ends her monologues with And that s the truth punctuating it with a noisy raspberry Edith Ann sits in an oversized rocking chair to make Tomlin seem child sized with her rag doll Doris and often talks of life at home with her battling parents and bullying older sister Mary Jean Lily Tomlin s given birth names Edith Ann has an oversized playfully aggressive dog named Buster and a boyfriend named Junior Phillips a possibly unrequited love Only Edith Ann and Doris appear in the Edith Ann sketches Tomlin reprised the character for a series of sketches on Sesame Street in the 1970s and voiced her in three prime time cartoon specials in the 1990s including Edith Ann A Few Pieces of the Puzzle Mrs Judith Beasley is a housewife and mother from Calumet City Illinois who is often chosen for television commercials and offers good consumer advice She appears in the film The Incredible Shrinking Woman as the lead character s neighbor Mrs Earbore The Tasteful Lady is a somewhat prudish and prissy conservatively dressed middle aged apolitical woman who dispenses advice on gracious living and a life of elegance Susie the Sorority Girl is a blonde collegiate who could be the Tasteful Lady s daughter Humorless and melodramatic her biggest worries are the likes of who took her missing album by The Carpenters The Consumer Advocate Lady is a dour austere woman who rigidly inspects and tests products for their alleged value The Consumer Advocate Lady is something of a variation of Mrs Beasley Lucille the Rubber Freak is a woman addicted to eating rubber whose monologue details her habit from its beginning chewing the eraser on pencils to her obsessive rock bottom eating the tip off mother s cane Tomlin performed this character as part of her Laugh In audition Tess Trudy is a homeless bag lady who accosts theater goers and various passers by with her offbeat observations and tales of communications with extraterrestrials They don t care if you believe in em or not they re different from God Bobbi Jeanine is a showbiz veteran of the lounge circuit where she sings and plays organ She often dispenses advice It s not called Show Art it s Show Business Tomlin was one of the first female comedians to break out in male drag with her characters Tommy Velour and Rick In 1982 but later popularized by a Saturday Night Live appearance on January 22 1983 she premiered Purvis Hawkins a black rhythm and blues soul singer patterned after Luther Vandross with a mustache beard and close cropped afro hairstyle dressed in a three piece suit Tomlin used very little if any skin darkening cosmetics as part of the character instead depending on stage lighting to create the effect nbsp Tomlin in 1976 In 1970 AT amp T offered Tomlin 500 000 to play her character Ernestine in a commercial but she declined saying it would compromise her artistic integrity 16 17 In 1976 she appeared on Saturday Night Live 18 as Ernestine in a Ma Bell advertisement parody in which she proclaimed We don t care we don t have to we re the phone company The character later made a guest appearance at The Superhighway Summit at UCLA on January 11 1994 interrupting a speech being given on the information superhighway by then Vice President Al Gore She appeared as three of her minor characters in a 1998 ad campaign for Fidelity Investments that did not include Ernestine or Edith Ann 17 In 2003 she made two commercials as an updated Ernestine for WebEx 19 Tomlin brought Edith Ann to the forefront again in the 1990s with three animated prime time television specials She published Edith Ann s autobiography My Life 1995 co written with Jane Wagner Tomlin released her first comedy album This Is A Recording on Polydor Records in March 1971 that contained Ernestine s run ins with customers over the phone The album hit No 15 on the Billboard Hot 200 becoming and remaining as of 2011 update the highest charting album ever by a solo comedienne 20 She earned a Grammy award that year for Best Comedy Recording Tomlin s second album 1972 s And That s The Truth featuring her character Edith Ann was nearly as successful peaking at No 41 on the chart and earning another Grammy nomination Tomlin has two of the three top charting female comedy albums on Billboard sandwiching a 1983 Joan Rivers release 20 1975 1989 Film stardom and acclaim edit nbsp Lilian Gish Robert Altman and Tomlin in 1976 Tomlin made her dramatic debut in Robert Altman s Nashville 1975 for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress she played Linnea Reese a straitlaced gospel singing mother of two deaf children who has an affair with a womanizing country singer played by Keith Carradine The Oscar that year went to Lee Grant for her role in Shampoo A comedy mystery The Late Show teaming Tomlin with Art Carney was a critical success in 1977 One of the few widely panned projects of Tomlin s career was 1978 s Moment by Moment directed and written by Wagner which teamed Tomlin in a cross generational older woman younger man romance with John Travolta Tomlin s third comedy album 1975 s Modern Scream a parody of movie magazines and celebrity interviews featured her performing as multiple characters including Ernestine Edith Ann Judith and Suzie Her 1977 release Lily Tomlin On Stage was an adaptation of her Broadway show that year Each of these albums earned Tomlin additional Grammy nominations Tomlin recorded a single EP called The Last Duet with Barry Manilow in 1980 21 In March 1977 Tomlin made her Broadway debut in the solo show Appearing Nitely which she co wrote and co directed with Jane Wagner at the Biltmore Theatre She received a Special Tony Award for this production 22 The same month she made the cover of Time with the headline America s New Queen of Comedy Her solo show then toured the country and was made into a record album titled On Stage In 1980 Tomlin co starred in 9 to 5 in which she played a secretary named Violet Newstead who joins coworkers Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton in seeking revenge on their boss Franklin M Hart Jr played by Dabney Coleman The film was one of the year s top grossing films Tomlin then starred in the 1981 science fiction comedy The Incredible Shrinking Woman playing three roles a fourth a reprise of her Edith Ann character was cut from the theatrical print but footage of this character was included in some later TV showings The film a send up of consumerism was written by Wagner and met with mixed reviews nbsp Dolly Parton Tomlin and Jane Fonda starred in 9 to 5 1980 Tomlin bounced back with the critical and financial hit All of Me 1984 opposite Steve Martin in which she played a sickly heiress whose spirit became trapped in Martin s body In 1985 Tomlin starred in another one woman Broadway show The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe written by her long time life partner writer producer Jane Wagner The show won her a Tony Award and was made into a feature film in 1991 Tomlin revived the show for a run on Broadway in 2000 which then toured the country through mid 2002 In 1989 she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre Tomlin premiered her one woman show Not Playing with a Full Deck at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in November 2009 It was her first appearance in that city though she did tape an Emmy winning TV special a spoof of Las Vegas called Lily Sold Out which premiered on CBS in January 1981 Tomlin and Bette Midler played two pairs of identical twins who were switched at birth in the 1988 comedy Big Business 1990 2009 Continued work and The West Wing edit nbsp Tomlin in 2008 Tomlin also played chain smoking waitress Doreen Piggott in Altman s 1993 ensemble film Short Cuts based on stories by Raymond Carver Tomlin voiced Ms Valerie Frizzle on the animated television series The Magic School Bus from 1994 to 1997 Also in the 1990s Tomlin appeared on the popular sitcom Murphy Brown as the title character s boss In 1995 she appeared on an episode of Homicide Life on the Street as a murder suspect being transported to Baltimore She also guest starred on The X Files in 1998 in episode 6 How The Ghosts Stole Christmas of season 6 as a ghost haunting an old mansion In 2005 and 2006 she had a recurring role as Will Truman s boss Margot on Will amp Grace She appeared on the dramatic series The West Wing for four years 2002 2006 in the recurring role of presidential secretary Deborah Fiderer Tomlin performed in two films by director David O Russell she appeared as a peacenik Raku artist in Flirting with Disaster and later as an existential detective in I Heart Huckabees In March 2007 two videos were leaked onto YouTube portraying on set arguments between Russell and Tomlin in which among other things he called her sexist names When the Miami New Times asked Tomlin about the videos she responded I love David There was a lot of pressure in making the movie even the way it came out you could see it was a very free associative crazy movie and David was under a tremendous amount of pressure And he s a very free form kind of guy anyway 23 Tomlin collaborated again with director Robert Altman in what would prove to be his last film A Prairie Home Companion 2006 She played Rhonda Johnson one half of a middle aged Midwestern singing duo partnered with Meryl Streep Tomlin provided a voice for the film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea which was released in August 2009 24 In the 2008 2009 fifth season of Desperate Housewives she had a recurring role as Roberta the sister of Mrs McCluskey played by Kathryn Joosten who coincidentally had played Tomlin s secretarial predecessor on The West Wing During the 2008 Emmy Awards Tomlin appeared as part of a tribute to the influential 1960s television series Laugh In Tomlin voiced Tammy in the 2005 The Simpsons episode The Last of the Red Hat Mamas Since its launch in 2008 Tomlin has been a contributor for wowOwow com a website for women to talk culture politics and gossip 25 Tomlin and Kathryn Joosten were in talks to star in a Desperate Housewives spin off 26 which was given the green light in May 2009 27 The series plan was scrapped due to Joosten s illness a recurrence of lung cancer Joosten died on June 2 2012 twenty days after the onscreen death from cancer of her character Karen McCluskey In 2010 Tomlin guest starred as Marilyn Tobin in the third season of Damages opposite Glenn Close for which she was nominated for an Emmy She also appeared in the NCIS episode titled The Penelope Papers playing Penelope Langston the grandmother of Agent Timothy McGee Sean Murray In 2012 Tomlin guest starred on the HBO series Eastbound and Down as Tammy Powers mother of the main character Kenny Powers and appeared in three episodes of Season 3 Tomlin co starred with Reba McEntire in the TV series Malibu Country as Reba s character s mother Lillie Mae The series started shooting in August 2012 with a premiere date of November 2 2012 at 8 30 pm ET but was canceled in 2013 after 18 episodes 2015 present Grace and Frankie and resurgence edit From 2015 to 2022 Tomlin starred opposite Jane Fonda Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston in the Netflix original comedy series Grace and Frankie Tomlin plays Frankie Bergstein recently separated from her husband of forty years Waterston while Fonda plays Grace Hanson recently separated from her husband Sheen Grace and Frankie become reluctant friends after learning their husbands are leaving them to be with one another She received her first Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2015 28 In 2015 Tomlin starred in filmmaker Paul Weitz s film Grandma 29 which Weitz said was inspired by Tomlin It garnered rave reviews and earned Tomlin a Golden Globe Award nomination 30 31 Tomlin reprised her role as Professor Frizzle in the 2017 Netflix sequel The Magic School Bus Rides Again a continuation of the original series 32 In 2018 she had a small role voicing Aunt May in the critically acclaimed animated film Spider Man Into the Spider Verse Personal life edit nbsp Tomlin in April 2013 Marriage edit Tomlin met her future wife writer Jane Wagner in March 1971 After watching the after school TV special J T written by Wagner Tomlin invited Wagner to Los Angeles to collaborate on Tomlin s comedy LP album And That s The Truth 33 The couple did not have a formal coming out Tomlin said in 2006 I certainly never called a press conference or anything like that Back in the 1970s people didn t write about it Even if they knew they would refer to Jane as Lily s collaborator things like that Some journalists are just motivated by their own sense of what they want to say or what they feel comfortable saying or writing about In 77 I was on the cover of Time The same week I had a big story in Newsweek In one of the magazines it says I live alone and the other magazine said I live with Jane Wagner Unless you were so really adamantly out and had made some declaration at some press conference people back then didn t write about your relationship In 75 I was making the Modern Scream album and Jane and I were in the studio My publicist called me and said Time will give you the cover if you ll come out I was more offended than anything that they thought we d make a deal But that was 75 it would have been a hard thing to do at that time 33 Tomlin stated in 2008 Everybody in the industry was certainly aware of my sexuality and of Jane in interviews I always reference Jane and talk about Jane but they don t always write about it 34 35 In 2015 Tomlin said I wasn t totally forthcoming Everybody in the business knew I was gay and certainly everybody I worked with and everything like that Tomlin has been generally quiet about her sexuality 36 On December 31 2013 Tomlin and Wagner married in a private ceremony in Los Angeles after 42 years together 37 38 Beliefs and activism edit Tomlin has been involved in a number of feminist and gay friendly film productions and on her 1975 album Modern Scream she pokes fun at straight actors who make a point of distancing themselves from their gay and lesbian characters answering the pseudo interview question she replies How did it feel to play a heterosexual I ve seen these women all my life I know how they walk I know how they talk 11 In 2013 Tomlin and Wagner worked together on the film An Apology to Elephants which Wagner wrote and Tomlin narrated 39 Acting credits and accolades editMain articles Lily Tomlin filmography and List of awards and nominations received by Lily Tomlin nbsp Alan Alda Tomlin and Richard Pryor in Lily 1973 Tomlin has received numerous accolades throughout her career 40 41 including seven Emmy Awards two Tony Awards and a Grammy Award in addition to a nomination for an Academy Award Her first two Emmy Awards were for her 1973 special Lily followed by another three for the specials Lily Tomlin 1976 The Paul Simon Special 1978 and Lily Sold Out 1981 a fifth for narrating the 2013 documentary An Apology to Elephants and a Daytime Emmy for voicing Miss Frizzle in the animated childrens series The Magic School Bus 1994 1997 Tomlin won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording in 1972 for This Is a Recording 1971 42 She received a Special Tony Award in 1977 43 and later won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in the one woman play The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe 1986 Tomlin s performance of a gospel singer in the musical satire film Nashville 1975 earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress making her one of few artists to receive nominations for all four major American entertainment awards EGOT Additionally having won the Emmy Grammy and Tony Tomlin is just the Oscar away from achieving both the Triple Crown of Acting and EGOT Tomlin s performance in the mystery film The Late Show 1977 earned her nominations for the BAFTA and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress She received another two nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for her performances in All of Me 1984 and Grandma 2015 Tomlin s critically acclaimed role as quirky artist Frankie Bergstein in the Netflix comedy series Grace and Frankie 2015 2022 earned her nominations for another Golden Globe Award four consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards and three consecutive SAG Awards In 1992 she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award 44 Tomlin was inducted into the Michigan Women s Hall of Fame in 1998 In 2003 she was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and was recognized again by Women in Film with the Lucy Award in recognition of her excellence and innovation in her creative works that have enhanced the perception of women through the medium of television 45 In March 2009 Tomlin received Fenway Health s Dr Susan M Love Award for her contributions to women s health 46 On March 16 2012 Tomlin and her partner Jane Wagner received a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars 47 In December 2014 she was one of five honorees for the annual Kennedy Center Honors In January 2017 Tomlin won the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award at the 23rd SAG Awards ceremony 48 In 2022 Tomlin received the Career Achievement Peabody Award Tomlin s 1971 album This Is a Recording was selected for the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2024 49 Bibliography editTomlin Lily and Jane Wagner On Stage New York N Y Arista 1977 Recorded live at the Biltmore Theatre New York City Audio book on LP OCLC 858894156 Wagner Jane Elon Soltes Wendy Apple and Lily Tomlin Appearing Nitely Valley Village Calif Tomlin and Wagner Theatricalz 1992 Recorded live at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles Calif Originally produced for television in 1978 Video recording OCLC 28219227 Wagner Jane Edith Ann My Life So Far New York Hyperion 1994 As told to and illustrated by Jane Wagner ISBN 978 0 786 86120 0 OCLC 31236871 Tomlin Lily Jane Wagner and Anna Deavere Smith Conversation with Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner October 25 1994 San Francisco City Arts amp Lectures Inc 1994 Masonic Auditorium OCLC 743427376 Wagner Jane J T New York Carousel Films 2000 DVD Originally broadcast in 1969 Jeannette Du Bois Theresa Merritt Kevin Hooks OCLC 63681705 Tomlin Lily and Jane Wagner And That s the Truth United States Universal Music Enterprises 2003 Recorded live at The Ice House Pasadena March 1976 Audio book OCLC 212930925 Tomlin Lily and Jane Wagner The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe Tarzana Calif Laugh com 2005 1992 HBO television film A film adaptation of the Broadway play by Jane Wagner OCLC 63664207 Wagner Jane Marilyn French and Lily Tomlin The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe New York NY ItBooks an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 2012 Reprint Originally published New York Harper amp Row 1986 Based on the Broadway play written by Wagner starring Lily Tomlin Includes an Afterword by Marilyn French and Reflections by Lily Tomlin and by Jane Wagner ISBN 978 0 062 10737 4 OCLC 798732509 Wagner Jane C and Tina DiFeliciantonio Girls Like Us New York NY Women Make Movies 2013 Originally produced as a motion picture documentary film in 1997 DVD OCLC 843761980 References edit Monitor Entertainment Weekly No 1275 September 6 2013 p 25 Lily Tomlin Lifetime Achievement SAG accessed 9 2 2016 Lily Tomlin IMDb Retrieved September 5 2019 Carden Andrew March 19 2018 Emmys 2018 Keep an eye on Grace and Frankie in Best Comedy Series GoldDerby Retrieved September 5 2019 Obituary for Lillie Mae Tomlin 1914 2005 Aged 91 The Desert Sun July 14 2005 p 14 Cleveland Evans With Tomlin s help Lily blossoms again September 2015 Lillie M Tomlin United States Social Security Death Index FamilySearch Retrieved August 24 2015 LilyTomlin gt Biography FilmReference com Retrieved March 6 2009 Mary Jean Tomlin United States Census 1940 FamilySearch Retrieved August 24 2015 Fischbach Bob October 1 2008 Stage holds the magic for Tomlin Omaha World Herald Retrieved July 29 2008 a b Duralde Alonso March 15 2005 Thoroughly modern Lily The Advocate Kelly Kevin August 11 1985 Lily Tomlin Mysterious Modest and Multifaceted The Boston Globe Retrieved July 29 2008 Lily Tomlin at the Paley Center Archived January 2 2016 at the Wayback Machine accessed 8 24 2015 Music Scene retrieved September 5 2019 Kelli Bender Lily Tomlin Reprises Ernestine Role for PETA s New Ad Blasting SeaWorld People 14 April 2016 Chambliss John January 7 2010 Lily Tomlin Playing Lakeland Next Week Dishes on Her Act Sexuality and Retiring The Ledger Lakeland FL Archived from the original on May 2 2014 Retrieved October 16 2012 a b Elliott Stuart September 4 1998 Lily Tomlin in Madison Ave debut with Peter Lynch The New York Times Retrieved October 16 2012 Season 2 Episode 1 September 18 1976 Rutenberg Jim January 15 2003 WebEx to Begin 8 Million Campaign The New York Times Retrieved October 16 2012 a b Chart beat Katy Perry Kathy Griffin Miley Cyrus Billboard com Barry Manilow amp Lily Tomlin The Last Duet Klyk s Tribal Dance Mix 09 archived from the original on December 11 2021 retrieved September 5 2019 Lily Tomlin Broadway Cast amp Staff IBDB www ibdb com Retrieved May 19 2022 Houston Frank April 12 2007 What a Character She s had her brush with online infamy Now Lily Tomlin is ready to make you laugh again Archived from the original on December 1 2008 Retrieved December 9 2016 Exclusive News on Ponyo s English Voice Talent Cast Ghibli World November 26 2008 Archived from the original on December 6 2008 Retrieved November 30 2008 Wood Molly November 14 2008 Check it out I m a Woman on the Web CNET Retrieved September 5 2019 Wives Spins New York Post May 12 2009 Galloping Girls New York Post May 18 2009 The Associated Press August 21 2015 Lily Tomlin Isn t Buying Her Own Hype The New York Times Retrieved August 23 2015 Rose Charlie August 16 2015 Grandma A look at the film Grandma with director Paul Weitz and actor Lily Tomlin Charlie Rose Archived from the original on August 22 2015 Retrieved August 23 2015 Scott A O August 19 2015 Review In Grandma Lily Tomlin Energizes an Intergenerational Road Trip The New York Times Retrieved August 23 2015 Murphy Mekado August 19 2015 Grandma With Movie Trailer Paul Weitz Narrates a Scene The New York Times Retrieved August 23 2015 Magic School Bus Returns With Kate McKinnon Lin Manuel Miranda E Online September 5 2017 Retrieved September 5 2019 a b Tomlin in Shulman Randy April 27 2006 Lily Tomlin Metro Weekly Washington D C Retrieved January 7 2014 Tomlin in Radosta Jim May 30 2008 Lily Tomlin Interview Just Out Not online Quote referenced in sources including Kaye Frank February 16 2012 Lily Tomlin Graces the Stage Baltimore Gay Life Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland Retrieved January 7 2014 Smith Liz January 3 2014 Was life a Cabaret for Bob Fosse Yes no maybe Tribune Content Agency Retrieved January 7 2014 dead link Josh Jackman January 16 2019 Lily Tomlin explains why she refused to come out on the cover of Time PinkNews Silverman Stephen M January 7 2014 Lily Tomlin Marries Jane Wagner After 42 Years Together People Retrieved January 7 2014 Takeda Allison January 7 2014 Lily Tomlin Marries Girlfriend Jane Wagner After 42 Years Together They Are Very Happy Rep Says Fall Season 2013 Episode 6 In the Mixx Inthemixxshow com October 17 2013 Retrieved June 29 2014 The Envelope Entertainment Awards Database search for Lily Tomlin Los Angeles Times Retrieved September 25 2011 Lily Tomlin Awards amp Nominations IMDB com Grammy Past Winners Search for Comedy Album This is a Recording Grammy com Retrieved September 25 2011 Lily Tomlin Awards amp Nominations IBDB Past Recipients Crystal Award Women In Film Archived from the original on June 30 2011 Retrieved May 10 2011 Past Recipients Archived June 30 2011 at the Wayback Machine WIF org Women s Dinner Party 2009 Press release Fenway Health March 5 2009 Archived from the original on August 7 2012 Retrieved May 24 2010 Brassart Scott Maytag PJ February 24 2012 Honoring Lily and Jane A lifetime of love and companionship The BottomLine Magazine San Diego Gay and Lesbian News Archived from the original on April 13 2012 Retrieved October 28 2012 SAG Awards Lily Tomlin Gives Advice Filled Lifetime Achievement Award Speech The Hollywood Reporter January 29 2017 Retrieved September 5 2019 National Recording Registry Inducts Sounds of ABBA Blondie The Cars The Chicks Juan Gabriel Green Day The Notorious B I G and Lily Tomlin Library of Congress Retrieved April 16 2024 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lily Tomlin nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to Lily Tomlin Official website nbsp Lily Tomlin at IMDb nbsp Lily Tomlin at the TCM Movie Database nbsp Lily Tomlin at the Internet Broadway Database nbsp Lily Tomlin at the Internet Off Broadway Database nbsp Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Lily Tomlin amp oldid 1221367806, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
