Lily Tomlin (born Mary Jean Tomlin),
is an American actress and comedian. She first became
well-known for her character skits on television's
Laugh-In, in which she created several indelible characters
that have stayed with her and become associated with
her throughout her career, including the gum-chewing,
wisecracking, snorting telephone operator Ernestine
(famous for her lines "One ringy dingy, two ringy
dingy" and "A gracious good morning to you
... Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?")
and the bratty five-year-old Edith Ann, rocking in
her oversized rocking chair and making rude noises
(famous for her line "And that's the truth!").
Tomlin was the daughter of a factory worker and a
housewife who moved to Detroit from Paducah, Kentucky
during the Great Depression. Tomlin attended Wayne
State University, where her interest in the theater
and performing arts began. After college, Tomlin began
doing stand-up comedy in nightclubs in Detroit and
then New York City. Her first television appearance
was on The Merv Griffin Show in 1965. Tomlin joined
the Laugh-In cast in 1969. AT&T offered Tomlin
$500,000 to film a commercial using her character Ernestine,
but Tomlin turned the offer down because she thought
the commercial would compromise her artistic integrity.
Tomlin is noted for her wide range. For example,
she played Linnea Reese, a strait-laced mother of two
deaf children who has an affair with a country singer
played by Keith Carradine, in Nashville; secretary
Violet Newstead in Nine to Five; and a sickly heiress
in All of Me. Tomlin also voiced the Ms. Frizzle character
on the television series The Magic School Bus from
1994 to 1998. Also in the 1990s, Tomlin appeared as
a regular on the popular sitcom Murphy Brown. Tomlin
currently plays presidential assistant Deborah Fiderer
on the TV show The West Wing.
Tomlin starred in the 1985 hit one-woman Broadway
show The Search For Signs of Intelligent Life in the
Universe, written by her long-time romantic partner,
Jane Wagner. The show won Tomlin a Tony Award. It was
made into a feature film in 1991. Tomlin revived the
show for a brief run in 2000.
Though Tomlin is now open about being lesbian, the
media doesn't focus on this aspect of her personal
life. In fact, many of her fans are unaware of her
sexual orientation. Tomlin came out in 2000 on the
New York City cable-access TV program Gay USA. Actually,
Tomlin frequently referred to Wagner, but avoided saying
point-blank that she herself was, in fact, gay.
Tomlin was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall
of Fame in 1998. In 2003 she won the Mark Twain Prize
for American Humor. |
