:Lily Tomlin

Tomlin was born in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Lillie Mae (née Ford; January 14, 1914{{snds}}July 12, 2005),{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/55137761/obituary-for-lillie-mae-tomlin/|title=Obituary for Lillie Mae Tomlin, 1914-2005 (Aged 91)|newspaper=The Desert Sun|date=July 14, 2005|page=14|access-date=March 25, 2022|archive-date=March 25, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220325065831/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/55137761/obituary-for-lillie-mae-tomlin/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://omaha.com/lifestyles/cleveland-evans-with-tomlin-s-help-lily-blossoms-again/article_02b1773e-1c94-539e-8c2f-6eaa3b3f0c5e.html|title=Cleveland Evans: With Tomlin's help, Lily blossoms again|date=September 2015|access-date=March 25, 2022|archive-date=July 11, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240711041019/https://omaha.com/lifestyles/cleveland-evans-with-tomlin-s-help-lily-blossoms-again/article_02b1773e-1c94-539e-8c2f-6eaa3b3f0c5e.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Lillie M Tomlin - United States Social Security Death Index|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VM3P-P6P|website=FamilySearch|access-date=24 August 2015}} a housewife and nurse aide, and Guy Tomlin (March 3, 1913{{snds}}October 24, 1970), a factory worker. She has a younger brother named Richard Tomlin.{{cite web|title=Mary Jean Tomlin - United States Census, 1940|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KHMT-1V3|website=FamilySearch|access-date=24 August 2015|archive-date=September 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904123122/https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KHMT-1V3|url-status=live}} 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.{{cite news | first=Bob | last=Fischbach | title=Stage holds the magic for Tomlin | url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-18735069_ITM | work=Omaha World-Herald | date=October 1, 2008 | access-date=July 29, 2008 | archive-date=January 12, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090112030449/http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-18735069_ITM | url-status=live }}{{Citation

| last = Duralde

| first = Alonso

| author-link = Alonso Duralde

| title = Thoroughly modern Lily

| journal = The Advocate

| date = March 15, 2005

| url = http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Thoroughly+modern+Lily:+Lily+Tomlin%27s+living+large+at+65+with+work+on...-a0131280347

| access-date = October 28, 2009

| archive-date = May 2, 2014

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140502012101/http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Thoroughly+modern+Lily:+Lily+Tomlin%27s+living+large+at+65+with+work+on...-a0131280347

| url-status = live

}}{{cite web | first=Kevin | last=Kelly | title=Lily Tomlin Mysterious Modest and Multifaceted | url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BG&p_theme=bg&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EADEB0558702B80&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D | work=The Boston Globe | date=August 11, 1985 | access-date=July 29, 2008 | archive-date=October 29, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181029071536/http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BG&p_theme=bg&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EADEB0558702B80&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D | url-status=live }} 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.

File:Lilly Tomlin Rita Hayworth Laugh-In 1971.JPG on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1971) ]]

Tomlin's first television appearance was on The Merv Griffin Show in 1965.[http://www.shemadeit.org/meet/biography.aspx?m=120 Lily Tomlin at the Paley Center] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102231906/http://www.shemadeit.org/meet/biography.aspx?m=120 |date=January 2, 2016 }} accessed 8-24-2015 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,{{Citation|title=Music Scene|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063932/|access-date=2019-09-05|archive-date=May 29, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190529223108/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063932/|url-status=live}} 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.File:Lilly Tomlin Edith Ann 1975.JPG Tomlin reprised the role in 2016 for a TV ad as part of PETA's campaign against SeaWorld.Kelli Bender, "Lily Tomlin Reprises Ernestine Role for PETA's New Ad Blasting SeaWorld," [https://www.ew.com/article/2016/04/14/lily-tomlin-ernestine-peta-seaworld People] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227062520/https://ew.com/article/2016/04/14/lily-tomlin-ernestine-peta-seaworld/ |date=December 27, 2021 }}, 14 April 2016. Tomlin has also reprised the role on several episodes of Sesame Street.
• {{anchor|Edith_Ann}} 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.

File:LilyTomlin1976.jpg

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.{{cite web |last=Chambliss |first=John |title=Lily Tomlin, Playing Lakeland Next Week, Dishes on Her Act, Sexuality and Retiring |url=http://www.theledger.com/article/20100107/entertainment/100109893?p=2&tc=pg |url-status=dead |work=The Ledger |location=Lakeland, FL |date=January 7, 2010 |access-date=October 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502012416/http://www.theledger.com/article/20100107/entertainment/100109893?p=2&tc=pg |archive-date=May 2, 2014}}{{cite news |last=Elliott |first=Stuart |title=Lily Tomlin in Madison Ave. debut with Peter Lynch |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/04/business/the-media-business-advertising-lily-tomlin-in-madison-ave-debut-with-peter-lynch.html |work=The New York Times |date=September 4, 1998 |access-date=October 16, 2012 |archive-date=June 17, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130617130844/http://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/04/business/the-media-business-advertising-lily-tomlin-in-madison-ave-debut-with-peter-lynch.html |url-status=live }} In 1976, she appeared on Saturday Night LiveSeason 2 Episode 1, September 18, 1976 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. In 2003, she made two commercials as an "updated" Ernestine for WebEx.{{cite news |title=WebEx to Begin $8 Million Campaign |work=The New York Times |first=Jim |last=Rutenberg |date=January 15, 2003 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/15/business/the-media-business-advertising-addenda-webex-to-begin-8-million-campaign.html |access-date=October 16, 2012 |archive-date=May 21, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521111423/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/15/business/the-media-business-advertising-addenda-webex-to-begin-8-million-campaign.html |url-status=live }} 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|lc=y}}) the highest-charting album ever by a solo comedienne.[https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1044968/chart-beat-katy-perry-kathy-griffin-miley-cyrus "Chart beat: Katy Perry, Kathy Griffin, Miley Cyrus"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091218094050/http://www.billboard.com/ |date=December 18, 2009 }}. Billboard.com. 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.)

File:Robert Altman - 1976.jpg, 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.{{Citation|title=Barry Manilow & Lily Tomlin - The Last Duet (Klyk's Tribal Dance Mix 09)| date=June 22, 2009 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75v2bsMpbX4 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/75v2bsMpbX4| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live|language=en|access-date=2019-09-05}}{{cbignore}}

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.{{Cite web |title=Lily Tomlin – Broadway Cast & Staff {{!}} IBDB |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/lily-tomlin-7337 |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=www.ibdb.com |archive-date=July 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240711040011/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/lily-tomlin-7337 |url-status=live }} 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.

File:Dolly Parton Lily Tomlin Jane Fonda (48591893841).jpg, 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.

File:Lily Tomlin (2008).jpg

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 & 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."{{cite web|title=What a Character. She's had her brush with online infamy. Now Lily Tomlin is ready to make you laugh again|first=Frank|last=Houston|date=April 12, 2007|url=http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2007-04-12/culture/what-a-character/|access-date=December 9, 2016|archive-date=December 1, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201124710/http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2007-04-12/culture/what-a-character/|url-status=dead}}

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.{{cite web |date=November 26, 2008 |title=Exclusive News on Ponyo's English Voice Talent Cast |url=http://www.ghibliworld.com/news.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206090310/http://www.ghibliworld.com/news.html |archive-date=December 6, 2008 |access-date=November 30, 2008 |publisher=Ghibli World}} 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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnet.com/news/check-it-out-im-a-woman-on-the-web/|title=Check it out! I'm a Woman on the Web!|last=Wood|first=Molly|website=CNET|date=November 14, 2008|language=en|access-date=2019-09-05|archive-date=September 5, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190905100120/https://www.cnet.com/news/check-it-out-im-a-woman-on-the-web/|url-status=live}} Tomlin and Kathryn Joosten were in talks to star in a Desperate Housewives spin-off,[http://www.nypost.com/seven/05122009/tv/wives_spins_168753.htm "Wives" Spins] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090515131405/http://www.nypost.com/seven/05122009/tv/wives_spins_168753.htm |date=May 15, 2009 }}, New York Post, May 12, 2009 which was given the green light in May 2009.[http://www.nypost.com/seven/05182009/tv/galloping_girls_169862.htm Galloping "Girls"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090521095208/http://www.nypost.com/seven/05182009/tv/galloping_girls_169862.htm |date=May 21, 2009 }}, New York Post, May 18, 2009 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.

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.{{cite news|last1=The Associated Press|title=Lily Tomlin Isn't Buying Her Own Hype|url=https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/08/21/us/ap-us-people-lily-tomlin.html|access-date=23 August 2015|work=The New York Times|date=21 August 2015|archive-date=August 25, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150825030845/http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/08/21/us/ap-us-people-lily-tomlin.html?|url-status=live}} In 2015, Tomlin starred in filmmaker Paul Weitz's film Grandma,{{cite news|last1=Rose|first1=Charlie|title=Grandma: A look at the film "Grandma" with director Paul Weitz and actor Lily Tomlin.|url=http://www.charlierose.com/watch/60605521|access-date=23 August 2015|work=Charlie Rose|date=16 August 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150822001344/http://www.charlierose.com/watch/60605521|archive-date=August 22, 2015|df=mdy-all}} which Weitz said was inspired by Tomlin. It garnered rave reviews and earned Tomlin a Golden Globe Award nomination.{{cite news|last1=Scott|first1=A. O.|title=Review: In 'Grandma,' Lily Tomlin Energizes an Intergenerational Road Trip|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/21/movies/review-in-grandma-lily-tomlin-energizes-an-intergenerational-road-trip.html|access-date=23 August 2015|work=The New York Times|date=19 August 2015|archive-date=January 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170101075342/http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/21/movies/review-in-grandma-lily-tomlin-energizes-an-intergenerational-road-trip.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last1=Murphy|first1=Mekado|title='Grandma' (With Movie Trailer): Paul Weitz Narrates a Scene|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/21/movies/grandma-with-movie-trailer-paul-weitz-narrates-a-scene.html|access-date=23 August 2015|work=The New York Times|date=19 August 2015|archive-date=August 23, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150823010528/http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/21/movies/grandma-with-movie-trailer-paul-weitz-narrates-a-scene.html|url-status=live}}

Tomlin reprised her role as Professor Frizzle in the 2017 Netflix sequel The Magic School Bus Rides Again, a continuation of the original series.{{Cite web|url=https://www.eonline.com/news/877737/the-magic-school-bus-rides-again-with-lily-tomlin-kate-mckinnon-and-a-lin-manuel-miranda-theme-song|title=Magic School Bus Returns With Kate McKinnon, Lin-Manuel Miranda|date=2017-09-05|website=E! Online|language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-05|archive-date=July 11, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240711040011/https://www.eonline.com/news/877737/the-magic-school-bus-rides-again-with-lily-tomlin-kate-mckinnon-and-a-lin-manuel-miranda-theme-song|url-status=live}} In 2018, she had a small role voicing Aunt May in the critically acclaimed animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

File:LilyTomlinApr2013.jpg

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.Tomlin, in {{cite news | url = http://www.metroweekly.com/feature/?ak=2088 | title = Lily Tomlin | first = Randy | last = Shulman | work = Metro Weekly | location = Washington, D.C. | date = April 27, 2006 | access-date = January 7, 2014 | archive-date = April 12, 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140412222426/http://metroweekly.com/feature/?ak=2088 | url-status = live }} The couple did not have a formal coming out. Tomlin said in 2006:

{{blockquote|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.}}

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."{{cite news|last=Smith|first=Liz|author-link=Liz Smith (journalist)|title=Was life a 'Cabaret' for Bob Fosse? Yes, no, maybe|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-201401021600–tms–lizsmittr–x-a20140103-20140103,0,6831114.story|publisher=Tribune Content Agency|date=January 3, 2014|access-date=January 7, 2014|df=mdy-all}}{{dead link|date=July 2019|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} 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.{{cite web |author1=Josh Jackman |title=Lily Tomlin explains why she refused to come out on the cover of Time |url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/01/16/lily-tomlin-cover-time-magazine/ |website=PinkNews |date=January 16, 2019 |access-date=July 3, 2021 |archive-date=July 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240711040011/https://www.thepinknews.com/2019/01/16/lily-tomlin-cover-time-magazine/ |url-status=live }} On December 31, 2013, Tomlin and Wagner married in a private ceremony in Los Angeles after 42 years together.{{cite news | title = Lily Tomlin Marries Jane Wagner After 42 Years Together | url = https://people.com/celebrity/lily-tomlin-marries-jane-wagner-after-42-years-together/ | first = Stephen M. | last = Silverman | work = People | date = January 7, 2014 | access-date = January 7, 2014 | archive-date = January 8, 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140108013351/http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20772649,00.html | url-status = live }}{{cite web|last1=Takeda|first1=Allison|title=Lily Tomlin Marries Girlfriend Jane Wagner After 42 Years Together: "They Are Very Happy," Rep Says|date=January 7, 2014|url=http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/lily-tomlin-marries-girlfriend-jane-wagner-after-42-years-201471|access-date=October 19, 2015|archive-date=September 10, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910093500/http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/lily-tomlin-marries-girlfriend-jane-wagner-after-42-years-201471|url-status=live}}

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{{mdash}}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 ..." In 2013, Tomlin and Wagner worked together on the film An Apology to Elephants, which Wagner wrote and Tomlin narrated.{{cite web |url=http://inthemixxshow.com/3555/fall-season-2013-episode-6 |title=Fall Season 2013: Episode 6 | In the Mixx |publisher=Inthemixxshow.com |date=2013-10-17 |access-date=2014-06-29 |archive-date=November 6, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106215213/http://inthemixxshow.com/3555/fall-season-2013-episode-6 |url-status=dead }}

{{main|Lily Tomlin filmography|List of awards and nominations received by Lily Tomlin}}

File:Alan Alda Lily Tomlin Richard Pryor 1973.jpg, Tomlin and Richard Pryor in Lily (1973)]]

Tomlin has received numerous accolades throughout her career,[http://theenvelope.latimes.com/factsheets/awardsdb/env-awards-db-search,0,7169155.htmlstory?searchtype=all&query=Lily+tomlin&x=0&y=0 "The Envelope: Entertainment Awards Database" search for Lily Tomlin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110527020455/http://theenvelope.latimes.com/factsheets/awardsdb/env-awards-db-search,0,7169155.htmlstory?searchtype=all&query=Lily+tomlin&x=0&y=0 |date=May 27, 2011 }}. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 25, 2011.[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005499/awards "Lily Tomlin Awards & Nominations"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170203033549/http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005499/awards? |date=February 3, 2017 }}. IMDB.com. 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 children's series The Magic School Bus (1994{{ndash}}1997). Tomlin won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording in 1972 for This Is a Recording (1971).[http://www.grammy.com/nominees/search?artist=&title=This+is+a+Recording&year=All&genre=All "Grammy Past Winners Search" for Comedy Album This is a Recording] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120930201608/http://www.grammy.com/nominees/search?artist=&title=This+is+a+Recording&year=All&genre=All |date=September 30, 2012 }}. Grammy.com. Retrieved September 25, 2011. She received a Special Tony Award in 1977[http://ibdb.com/awardperson.asp?id=7337 "Lily Tomlin Awards & Nominations"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240711041035/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/lily-tomlin-7337 |date=July 11, 2024 }}. IBDB. 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{{emdash}}having won the Emmy, Grammy and Tony{{emdash}}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 {{ndash}} 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{{ndash}}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.{{cite web|title=Past Recipients: Crystal Award |url=http://wif.org/past-recipients |work=Women In Film |access-date=May 10, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110630083646/http://wif.org/past-recipients |archive-date=June 30, 2011}} 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.[http://wif.org/past-recipients "Past Recipients"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110630083646/http://wif.org/past-recipients |date=June 30, 2011 }}. WIF.org. In March 2009, Tomlin received Fenway Health's Dr. Susan M. Love Award for her contributions to women's health.{{Cite press release|title=Women's Dinner Party 2009|publisher=Fenway Health|date=March 5, 2009|url=http://www.fenwayhealth.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=6823|access-date=May 24, 2010|archive-date=August 7, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120807143500/http://www.fenwayhealth.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=6823|url-status=dead}} On March 16, 2012, Tomlin and her partner Jane Wagner received a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.{{cite web |url=http://sdgln.com/bottomline/2012/02/24/lily-tomlin-and-jane-wagner |access-date=October 28, 2012 |title=Honoring Lily and Jane: A lifetime of love and companionship |publisher=San Diego Gay and Lesbian News |first1=Scott |last1=Brassart |first2=PJ |last2=Maytag |work=The BottomLine Magazine |date=February 24, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120413160544/http://sdgln.com/bottomline/2012/02/24/lily-tomlin-and-jane-wagner |archive-date=April 13, 2012 |df=mdy-all }} 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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/lily-tomlin-gets-lifetime-achievement-award-at-sag-awards-2017-watch-969744|title=SAG Awards: Lily Tomlin Gives Advice-Filled Lifetime Achievement Award Speech|website=The Hollywood Reporter|date=January 29, 2017|language=en|access-date=2019-09-05|archive-date=July 11, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240711040012/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/lily-tomlin-gets-lifetime-achievement-award-at-sag-awards-2017-watch-969744/|url-status=live}} 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.{{cite web |title=National Recording Registry Inducts Sounds of ABBA, Blondie, The Cars, The Chicks, Juan Gabriel, Green Day, The Notorious B.I.G. and Lily Tomlin |url=https://newsroom.loc.gov/news/national-recording-registry-inducts-sounds-of-abba--blondie--the-cars--the-chicks--juan-gabriel/s/29ee4224-3060-4247-a7a4-7deea2c2f816 |website=Library of Congress |access-date=16 April 2024 |language=en |archive-date=April 16, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240416113310/https://newsroom.loc.gov/news/national-recording-registry-inducts-sounds-of-abba--blondie--the-cars--the-chicks--juan-gabriel/s/29ee4224-3060-4247-a7a4-7deea2c2f816 |url-status=live }}

• 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. {{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 & 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. {{ISBN|978-0-062-10737-4}}. {{OCLC|798732509}}.
• Wagner, Jane C., and Tina DiFeliciantonio. [http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c399.shtml Girls Like Us]. New York, NY: Women Make Movies, 2013. Originally produced as a motion picture documentary film in 1997. DVD. {{OCLC|843761980}}.

{{reflist}}

{{Commons category}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• {{Official website}}
• {{IMDb name}}
• {{IBDB name}}
• {{iobdb name}}

{{Navboxes

|title = Awards for Lily Tomlin

|list =

{{AARP Movies for Grownups Award for Best Actress}}

{{DramaDesk PlayOutstandingActress 1975-2000}}

{{Daytime Emmy Award Outstanding Performer In An Animated Program}}

{{EmmyAward VoiceOver 2001–2025}}

{{EmmyAward VarietySpecialWriting}}

{{Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album}}

{{Kennedy Center Honorees 2010s}}

{{Mark Twain Prize for American Humor}}

{{Michigan Women's Hall of Fame}}

{{National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress}}

{{New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress}}

{{Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award}}

{{Silver Bear for Best Actress}}

{{TCA Career Achievement Award}}

{{Special Tony Award}}

{{TonyAward PlayLeadActress 1976-2000}}

{{American Comedy Award for Best Female Stand-Up Comic}}

}}

{{The West Wing}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomlin, Lily}}

Category:1939 births

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people

Category:21st-century American actresses

Category:21st-century American LGBTQ people

Category:Actresses from Detroit

Category:Actresses from Los Angeles

Category:American film actresses

Category:American lesbian actresses

Category:American LGBTQ comedians

Category:American sketch comedians

Category:American stand-up comedians

Category:American television actresses

Category:American voice actresses

Category:American women comedians

Category:Audiobook narrators

Category:Cass Technical High School alumni

Category:Comedians from Detroit

Category:Comedians from Los Angeles

Category:Drama Desk Award winners

Category:American feminist artists

Category:Feminist comedians

Category:Grammy Award winners

Category:Kennedy Center honorees

Category:Lesbian comedians

Category:LGBTQ people from California

Category:LGBTQ people from Michigan

Category:LGBTQ rights activists from California

Category:LGBTQ rights activists from Michigan

Category:Living people

Category:Mark Twain Prize recipients

Category:Primetime Emmy Award winners

Category:Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award

Category:Silver Bear for Best Actress winners

Category:Special Tony Award recipients

Category:Tony Award winners

Category:Volpi Cup winners

Category:Wayne State University alumni

Category:Writers Guild of America Award winners