Profile of Lily Tomlin on Famous Like Me

Lily Tomlin (born Mary Jean Tomlin on September 1, 1939 in Detroit, Michigan), 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. In 2003 she did film two commercials as Ernestine for the company WebEx.

Tomlin is noted for her wide range. For example, in Nashville, she played Linnea Reese, a strait-laced mother of two deaf children who has an affair with a country singer played by Keith Carradine. She has also played secretary Violet Newstead in Nine to Five, starred in the 1981 comedy film The Incredible Shrinking Woman, and was a sickly heiress in the Steve Martin comedy All of Me. Tomlin also voiced the Ms. Frizzle character on the animated television series The Magic School Bus from 1994 to 1998. Also in the 1990s, due entirely to financial reverses, Tomlin appeared 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 life 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. In 1989 she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre.

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.

Selected Filmography

• Nashville (1975)
• Moment by Moment (1978)
• 9 to 5 (1980)
• The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981)
• All of Me (1984)
• Big Business (1988)
• Shadows and Fog (1992)
• The Player (1992) (cameo)
• Short Cuts (1993)
• The Beverly Hillbillies (1993)
• The Celluloid Closet (1995) (narrator)
• Blue in the Face (1995)
• Flirting with Disaster (1996)
• Getting Away with Murder (1996)
• Tea with Mussolini (1999)
• The Kid (2000)
• Orange County (2002)
• Superstar in a Housedress (2004) (documentary)
• I Heart Huckabees (2004)
• The Last Broadcast (2006) (currently in post-production)
• Ant Bully (2006) (voice) (currently filming)
• Seniors (2006) (currently in pre-production)
• The Last Guy on Earth (2006) (currently in pre-production)

Selected TV Work

• Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1969–1973)
• And the Band Played On (1993)
• The Magic School Bus (1994–1998) (voice)
• Murphy Brown (1996–1998)
• The West Wing (2002—)

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