Lily Tomlin
Lily Tomlin, one of America's foremost comediennes, continues to venture across
an ever-widening range of media, starring in television, theater, motion pictures,
animation, and video. Throughout her extraordinary entertainment career, Tomlin
has received numerous awards, including: six Emmys; a Tony for her one woman Broadway
show, Appearing Nitely; a second Tony as Best Actress, Drama Desk Award and Outer
Critics' Circle Award for her one woman performance in Jane Wagner's, The Search
for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe; a CableAce Award for Executive
Producing the film adaptation of The Search; a Grammy for her comedy album, This
is a Recording, as well as nominations for her subsequent albums Modern Scream,
And That's the Truth, and On Stage; and two Peabody Awards — the first for
the ABC television special, Edith Ann's Christmas: Just Say Noel and the second
for narrating and executive producing the HBO film, The Celluloid Closet.
Lily Tomlin was born in Detroit, Michigan and grew up in a working-class neighborhood
on the outskirts of one of the city's most affluent areas. Although she claims
she wasn't funny as a child, Tomlin admits she "knew who was and lifted
all their material right off the TV screen." Her favorites included Lucille
Ball, Bea Lillie, Imogene Coca, and Jean Carroll, one of the first female stand-ups
on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Lily Tomlin, one of America's foremost comediennes, continues to venture across
an ever-widening range of media, starring in television, theater, motion pictures,
animation, and video. Throughout her extraordinary entertainment career, Tomlin
has received numerous awards, including: six Emmys; a Tony for her one woman Broadway
show, Appearing Nitely; a second Tony as Best Actress, Drama Desk Award and Outer
Critics' Circle Award for her one woman performance in Jane Wagner's, The Search
for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe; a CableAce Award for Executive
Producing the film adaptation of The Search; a Grammy for her comedy album, This
is a Recording, as well as nominations for her subsequent albums Modern Scream,
And That's the Truth, and On Stage; and two Peabody Awards — the first for
the ABC television special, Edith Ann's Christmas: Just Say Noel and the second
for narrating and executive producing the HBO film, The Celluloid Closet.
Lily Tomlin was born in Detroit, Michigan and grew up in a working-class neighborhood
on the outskirts of one of the city's most affluent areas. Although she claims
she wasn't funny as a child, Tomlin admits she "knew who was and lifted
all their material right off the TV screen." Her favorites included Lucille
Ball, Bea Lillie, Imogene Coca, and Jean Carroll, one of the first female stand-ups
on The Ed Sullivan Show. After high school, Tomlin enrolled at Wayne State University
to study medicine, but her elective courses in theater arts compelled her to
leave college to become a performer in local coffee houses. She moved to New
York in 1965, where she soon built a strong following with her appearances at
landmark clubs such as The Improvisation, Upstairs at the Downstairs and Cafe
Au Go Go.
Lily Tomlin made her television debut in 1966 on The Garry Moore Show, and
later opened for the legendary Mabel Mercer in the Downstairs Room at the 'Upstairs
at the Downstairs.' She then made several memorable appearances on The Merv
Griffin Show, which led to a move to California where she appeared as a regular
on Music Scene. In December 1969, Tomlin joined the cast of the top-rated Laugh-In
and immediately rose to national prominence with her characterizations of Ernestine,
the sassy telephone operator, and Edith Ann, the devilish six year old. When
Laugh-In left the air, Tomlin went on to co-write, with Jane Wagner, and star
in six comedy television specials: The Lily Tomlin Show (1973), Lily (1973),
Lily (1974), Lily Tomlin (1975), Lily: Sold Out (1981), and Lily for President?
(1982), for which she won three Emmy Awards and a Writers Guild of America Award.
Tomlin also starred in the HBO special about the AIDS epidemic, And the Band
Played On, as San Francisco health official Selma Dritz (1993). She has guest
starred on numerous television shows, such as Homicide and The X-Files, and
played the boss for two years on the popular CBS series, Murphy Brown.She is
also heard as the voice of the science teacher Ms. Frizzle on the popular children's
animated series, The Magic School Bus, for which she was awarded an Emmy.
Lily Tomlin made her Broadway debut in the 1977 play, Appearing Nitely,
written and directed by Jane Wagner. Appearing Nitely included such favorites
as Ernestine, Edith Ann and Judith Beasley, the Calumet City housewife, and introduced
Trudy, the bag lady; Crystal, the hang-gliding quadriplegic; Rick, the singles
bar cruiser; Glenna, a child of the sixties; and Sister Boogie Woman, a 77-year-old
blues revivalist. Appearing Nitely was later adapted as both an album and
an HBO Special. Tomlin next appeared on Broadway in 1985 in a year long run of
Jane Wagner's critically-acclaimed, signature play, The Search for Signs of
Intelligent Life in the Universe. The Broadway success was followed by a coast-to-coast,
fourteen-city tour that spanned four and a half years. Ms. Tomlin brought The
Search to the Kennedy Center in 1988, where she played an unprecedented 20
sold-out weeks in the Eisenhower Theater. And she recently extended her extraordinary
theatrical career with a cross-country, 29-city revival of The Search,
a New York revival of The Search on Broadway, and a record-breaking six-month
run of The Search in San Francisco.
On film, Tomlin made her debut as Linnea, a gospel singer and mother of two deaf
children in Robert Altman's Nashville (1975); her memorable performance was nominated
for an Academy Award, and both the New York Film Critics and National Society
of Film Critics voted Tomlin Best Supporting Actress. She next starred opposite
Art Carney as a would-be actress living on the fringes of Hollywood in Robert
Benton's The Late Show (1977). She went on to star with John Travolta as
a lonely housewife in Moment By Moment (1978), and then teamed with Jane
Fonda and Dolly Parton in the late Colin Higgins' comedy, 9 to 5 (1980).
She starred as the happy homemaker who became The Incredible Shrinking Woman
(1981), written by Jane Wagner, and the eccentric rich woman whose soul invades
Steve Martin's body in Carl Reiner's popular All of Me (1984). She teamed
with Bette Midler for Big Business (1988).
In the 90's, Lily Tomlin starred in the film adaptation of The Search for Signs
of Intelligent Life In the Universe (1991); appeared as part of an ensemble
cast in Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog (1992); starred opposite Tom Waits
in Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993); and portrayed Miss Jane Hathaway
in the screen adaptation of the popular television series The Beverly Hillbillies
(1993). Tomlin also starred in the Miramax film Flirting With Disaster
(1996) and joined Jack Lemmon, Dan Akroyd and Bonnie Hunt in Getting Away with
Murder (1996). Tomlin starred opposite Richard Dreyfuss and Jenna Elfman in
Buena Vista's Krippendorf's Tribe (1998) and co-starred with Maggie Smith,
Judi Dench, Joan Plowright and Cher in the Franco Zeffirelli film, Tea With
Mussolini (1999). She most recently starred with Bruce Willis in Disney's
The Kid (2000) and appeared in a quirky cameo role in Orange County
(2002).
Tomlin recently joined the cast of the hit NBC series, The West Wing, playing
the President Bartlett's assistant, Debbie Fiderer — a role for which she
received a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best Actress in a Drama Series.
On May 21, 2003, Tomlin opened an eight-week run of her one-woman play, The
Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, at the Ahmanson Theatre
in Los Angeles, California. A collaboration between Lily Tomlin, Jane Wagner,
Allee Willis, and the zany and creative, BUBBLES the artist has produced the magical
Lily Tomlin Website.
