Lily Tomlin Biography

LILY TOMLIN

Date of Birth: September 1, 1939

Best known for creating a multitude of memorable comic characters, including Ernestine the telephone operator and the rotten five-year-old rugrat Edith Ann on television and in her stage shows, Lily Tomlin is also a talented dramatic actress.

Born Mary Tomlin in Detroit, Michigan, she was studying pre-med at Wayne State University when she heard the stage calling and dropped out to perform skits and characterizations in cabarets and coffee houses. She made her television debut on The Garry Moore Show, but did not get her first real break until she became a regular on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In from 1970 through 1973. The series machine-gun pace proved the perfect outlet for Tomlin's off-beat humor and gave her the opportunity to hone her skills and develop her characters.

She made an auspicious film debut with a touching dramatic role as a troubled gospel singer trying to deal with her hearing-impaired children and a womanizing Keith Carradine in Robert Altman's Nashville (1975) and received a New York Film Critics award and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Her next film, The Late Show (1977), was also more dramatic than comic and Tomlin again won kudos, though not in the form of awards, for her work. While she started off strongly in films, her subsequent output was of uneven quality ranging from the entertaining Nine to Five (1980) and All of Me (1984) to the abysmal Big Business (1988).

Though her film career has never quite taken flight, Tomlin remains successful on stage, in clubs and on television. On Broadway, Tomlin has had two successful one-woman-shows, Appearing Nitely (1976) and The Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (1986) which Tomlin made into a film in 1991.

She appeared in Orange County with Catherine O'Hara and John Lithgow. She also played the regular role of Deborah Fiderer on the hit TV series The West Wing in 2002 before returning to the big screen with a role in I Heart Huckabees (2004), starring Jude Law. More recently, she starred in Grandma (2015).

In 2003, Tomlin won the Kennedy Center's prestigious Mark Twain Prize for Humor. Other awards include Tony Awards in 1977 and 1986; A 2002 Career Tribute from the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival; a shared Golden Globe with the cast of Short Cuts (1993); four Emmy Awards, five American Comedy Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987) and a Grammy award in 1971 for her comedy album "This is a Recording."

Filmography:

Grandma (2015)
Admission (2013)
Ponyo (2009) (voice)
The Pink Panther 2 (2009)
The Walker (2007)
The Ant Bully (2006) (voice)
A Prairie Home Companion (2006)
I Heart Huckabees (2004)
Orange County (2002)
The Kid (2000)
Picking Up the Pieces (2000)
Tea with Mussolini (1999)
Get Bruce (1999)
Krippendorf's Tribe (1998)
Reno Finds Her Mom (1997)
Getting Away with Murder (1996)
Flirting with Disaster (1996)
The Celluloid Closet (1995)
The Beverly Hillbillies (1993)
Short Cuts (1993)
Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert Altman In Carver Country (1993)
Shadows and Fog (1992)
The Player (1992)
The Search for Signs of Inteligent Life in the Universe (1991)
Big Business (1988)
Lily Tomlin (1986)
All of Me (1984)
The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981)
Nine to Five (1980)
Moment by Moment (1978)
The Late Show (1977)
Nashville (1975)