Quotes:
"I have always wanted to be somebody, but I see now I should have been more specific."
"The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win you're still a rat."
"Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain."
"Reality is the crutch for people who can't cope with drugs."
"We're all in this alone."
"If love is the answer, could you please rephrase the question?"
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Lily Tomlin
Lily Tomlin
| Quotes By: Lily Tomlin |
| Artist: Lily Tomlin |
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- Born: September 01, 1939, Detroit, MI
- Active: '70s, '80s
- Genres: Comedy
- Instrument: Vocals, Main Performer, Performer
- Representative Albums: "This Is a Recording," "Modern Scream," "Lily Tomlin"
- Representative Songs: "Ernestine," "Mr. Veedle," "Obscene Phone Call"
Biography
She has been on the cover of Time, People, American Film, and The Advocate. She's been on the silver screen, the little screen, in comedy clubs, and onstage for over four decades. Lily Tomlin is a staple of American comedy. Best known for her larger-than-life and still-believable characters, many remember her from Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In TV, where Tomlin introduced viewers to Ernestine, the snappy telephone operator, and Edith Ann, the little girl who sits in the big chair and tells it like she sees it. Her ingenuity and knack for creating such loveable, laughable characters have rendered her a following that will last a lifetimeAnother highlight of Tomlin's career (look up the word "longevity"), and perhaps one that most comprehensively captures her talents, is her long-running off-Broadway show The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, on which she collaborated with partner in showbiz and life, Jane Wagner, and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in 1986. The show was so celebrated, in fact, that it was revived for a second run in the year 2000. It was also made into a movie (which the making of was made into a documentary, simply titled Lily Tomlin, in 1986) and published as a book. In the show, Tomlin plays a host of characters, from bag lady to angst-ridden punk rock teen.
Not a conventional leading lady, Lily Tomlin has still managed to capture the hearts and imagination of millions of Americans in such box-office hits as 9 to 5 with Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda, All of Me with Steve Martin, and Big Business with Bette Midler. And who can forget Lily Tomlin in the '80s remake of The Incredible Shrinking Woman, in which she played both a disappearing housewife and the incorrigible super-consumer woman Mrs. Judy Beasley?
Before her string of box-office comedies, Tomlin was nominated for an Oscar for her dramatic role in Nashville, directed by Robert Altman. Later, Tomlin would team up again with Altman for a part in his award-winning Short Cuts, playing opposite Tom Waits. Additionally, Lily Tomlin played the character of Miss Jane in the remake of The Beverly Hillbillies, produced two animated specials revolving around the character of Edith Ann (who also made her own guest appearances on Sesame Street and Saturday Night Live), and had a regular role on Murphy Brown as Kay Carter-Shepley, the new FYI producer.
Throughout the '70s, when Tomlin was touring her act in nightclubs, she made a series of sound recordings, including This Is a Recording, That's the Truth, and Modern Scream. Before pursuing a career in comedy, Lily Tomlin (born Mary Jean) was premed at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. ~ Sandy Lawson, All Music Guide
| Discography: Lily Tomlin |
| Actor: Lily Tomlin |
- Born: Sep 01, 1939 in Detroit, Michigan
- Occupation: Actor
- Active: '70s-2000s
- Major Genres: Comedy
- Career Highlights: Flirting With Disaster, The Late Show, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe
- First Major Screen Credit: Nashville (1975)
Biography
She is 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, but let it not be forgotten that Lily Tomlin is also a talented dramatic actress, something she has thus far only demonstrated in two films. She was born Mary Tomlin in Detroit, MI. She was studying premed at Wayne State University when she heard the stage calling and so dropped out to perform skits and characterizations in cabarets and coffeehouses.Tomlin made her television debut on The Garry Moore Show but didn't get her first real break until she became a regular on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In in 1970 and stayed through 1973. The series' machine gun pace proved the perfect outlet for Tomlin's offbeat 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), winning an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress and a New York Film Critics award for the same category.
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 has been of uneven quality ranging from the entertaining All of Me (1984) to the abysmal Big Business (1988). But while her film career has never quite taken flight, Tomlin remained successful on-stage, in clubs, and on television. On Broadway, Tomlin has had two successful one-woman shows, Appearing Nitely (1976) and The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (1986), which Tomlin made into a film in 1991.
In 1996, Tomlin became a regular on the cast of the long-running sitcom Murphy Brown playing a canny news producer and foil for Candice Bergan's Murphy. That same year she would work for the first time with director David O. Russell on the film Flirting With Disaster. After returning to film with the demise of Murphy Brown, Tomlin took on supporting roles in a variety of films, such as Tea with Mussolini and Disney's The Kid. But television soon came calling again in the form of a recurring role on NBC's The West Wing as The President's eccentric personal secretary.
In 2004, Tomlin teamed with Russell again for the ensemble comedy I Heart Huckabees. A subsequent visit to the animated town of Springfield found Tomlin dropping in on The Simpsons the following year, withg recurring roles on both Will and Grace and The West Wing preceding a turn as one-half of a sisterly singing act along with Meryl Streep in the 2006 Robert Altman radio-show adaptation A Prairie Home Companion. At the Oscar telecast in 2006 Streep and Tomlin presented Altman with a lifetime achievement award, delivering their speech in a style that emulated the distinctive rhythms of his films. That same year she leant her vocal talents to an animated film for the first time in her career providing the voice for Mommo in The Ant Bully, which coincidently also featured her Prairie Home Companion cohort Meryl Streep. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
| Filmography: Lily Tomlin |
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Saturday Night Live: 25 Years of Laughs Buy this Movie |
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The Magic School Bus Gets Ants in its Pants (Ants) Buy this Movie |
The Magic School Bus Hops Home (Habitat) Buy this Movie |
The Magic School Bus Goes to Seed (Seeds) Buy this Movie |
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The Magic School Bus Kicks Up a Storm (Weather) Buy this Movie |
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The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe Buy this Movie |
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The Incredible Shrinking Woman Buy this Movie |
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| Wikipedia: Lily Tomlin |
| Lily Tomlin | |
|---|---|
 Tomlin in 2009 |
|
| Born | Mary Jean Tomlin September 1, 1939 Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress, Comedian, Writer, Producer |
| Years active | 1965 – present |
| Domestic partner(s) | Jane Wagner (1972-present) |
| Official website | |
Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin (born September 1, 1939) is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer. She has won multiple awards from many quarters, including Tony Awards, Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award and has also been nominated for an Academy Award.
Contents |
Early life
Tomlin was born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in the Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects, the daughter of Lillie Mae (née Ford), a housewife and nurse's aide, and Guy Tomlin, a factory worker.[1] Tomlin's parents were Southern Baptists who moved to Detroit from Paducah, Kentucky during the Great Depression.[2][3][4] She is a 1957 graduate of Cass Technical High School. 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 later in New York City. Her first television appearance was on The Merv Griffin Show in 1965.
Career
In 1969, Tomlin joined the sketch comedy show Laugh-In. Some characters from the show have been associated with her throughout her career, including the wisecracking, snorting telephone operator, Ernestine; the bratty five-year-old Edith Ann, seated in an over-sized rocking chair making rude noises while telling stories about her baby brother and pet dog Buster; and the Tasteful Lady, who lives a gracious, naїve life of entitlement in the upper class and shades of whom show up in Tomlin's film role in All of Me (see below). Additional characters include Susie the Sorority Girl, who appeared on Tomlin's album Modern Scream and in her 1975 appearance on Saturday Night Live.
Tomlin was also one of the first female comedians to break out in male drag. Though drag had been around in Hollywood for some time by men, Tomlin broke new ground by not only crossing gender stereotypes, but racial ones as well. She accomplished this in the late 70's with Pervis 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 (it usually depended on stage lighting) as part of the character.
AT&T offered Tomlin US$500,000 to play her character Ernestine in a commercial, but she declined saying it would compromise her artistic integrity. However, in 1976 she did appear as Ernestine in a parody of a commercial on Saturday Night Live, in which she proclaimed, "We don't care, we don't have to...we're the phone company." The character would later make a guest appearance at The Superhighway Summit at UCLA, January 11, 1994, interrupting a speech being given on the information superhighway by then-Vice President Al Gore. In 2003, she made two commercials as Ernestine for WebEx.
Tomlin is noted for her versatility. In Robert Altman's Nashville, for which she was nominated for 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 country singer (played by Keith Carradine). The Oscar that year went to Lee Grant for her role in Shampoo. She was also a secretary named Violet Newstead in Nine to Five, performed several comedic roles in the 1981 film The Incredible Shrinking Woman, and was a sickly heiress in the Steve Martin comedy All of Me.
She and Bette Midler played two pairs of identical twins who were switched at birth in the 1989 comedy Big Business. Tomlin also played chain-smoking waitress Doreen Piggott in Altman's 1993 ensemble film Short Cuts, and, 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 ♥ Huckabees. In 2007, a video recording surfaced showing Tomlin and Russell in a heated exchange over the shooting of a scene in Huckabees.
Tomlin voiced Ms. 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 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 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, 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 brief run in 2000. In 1989, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre.
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She collaborated again with director Robert Altman, starring in the film A Prairie Home Companion, playing half of a middle-aged Midwestern singing duo with Meryl Streep.
In the 2008-2009 fifth season of Desperate Housewives she has a recurring role as Roberta, the sister of Mrs. McCluskey (played by Kathryn Joosten). Previously on The West Wing, Tomlin had played the successor to Delores Landingham, the previous secretary, who was played by Kathryn Joosten. 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." Tomlin provided a voice for the film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, which was released in August 2009.[5]
Since its launch in 2008, Tomlin has been a contributor for wowOwow.com, a new website for women to talk culture, politics and gossip.
Tomlin and Kathryn Joosten have been in talks to star in a Desperate Housewives spin-off,[6] which was given the green light in May 2009.[7]
Personal life
Tomlin met her life partner Jane Wagner in 1971. After watching an after school special written by Wagner, Tomlin invited her to Los Angeles to collaborate on a comedy album. Although Tomlin officially declared her homosexuality to the press in 2001, her sexual orientation has not really been a secret; in interviews she would often refer to Jane Wagner as her partner. As Tomlin herself stated in 2008, in an interview for Just Out magazine:
| “ | 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.[8] | ” |
Tomlin has been involved in a number of feminist and gay friendly film productions, and on her 1975 album Modern Scream she poked-fun at straight actors who make a point of distancing themselves from their homosexual characters — answering the pseudo-interview question, she replied:
| “ | 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 ...[9] | ” |
Her narration of the documentary The Celluloid Closet in 1995, a film examining Hollywood's portrayals of homosexuals, was also largely considered a nod to the open secret of her orientation. During the optional audio commentary for the documentary, Tomlin does make mention of rejecting an offer by a magazine to discuss her personal life.
Awards
Tomlin has received numerous awards,[10][11] including: six Emmys; a special 1977 Tony[12] when she was appearing in her one woman Broadway show, Appearing Nitely; a second Tony as Best Actress, two Drama Desk Awards[12] and an 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 Award for her comedy album, This is a Recording (a collection of Ernestine the Telephone Operator routines[13]) 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 Noël and the second for narrating and executive producing the HBO film, The Celluloid Closet.
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.
In March 2009, Tomlin received Fenway Health's Dr. Susan M. Love Award for her contributions to women's health.[14]
(Selected list)
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Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Program
Outstanding Writing - Comedy, Variety or Music Special
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Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In | Ernestine, the telephone operator; five-year-old Edith Ann; tasteful lady; other characters | |
| 1973-74 | Lily | Television special | |
| 1975 | The Lily Tomlin Special | ||
| Nashville | Linnea Reese | Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress | |
| 1977 | The Late Show | Margo Sperling | |
| 1978 | Moment by Moment | Trisha Rawlings | |
| 1980 | 9 to 5 | Violet Newstead | |
| 1981 | The Incredible Shrinking Woman | Pat Kramer/Judith Beasley | |
| 1984 | All of Me | Edwina Cutwater | |
| 1988 | Big Business | Rose Ratliff/Rose Shelton | |
| 1991 | The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe | Various Roles | |
| 1992 | Shadows and Fog | Prostitute | |
| 1993 | The Beverly Hillbillies | Miss Jane Hathaway | |
| And the Band Played On | Dr. Selma Dritz | ||
| Short Cuts | Doreen Piggot | ||
| 1995 | Blue in the Face | Waffle eater | |
| 1996 | Getting Away with Murder | Inga Mueller | |
| Flirting with Disaster | Mary Schlichting | ||
| 1996-98 | Murphy Brown | Kay Carter-Shepley | |
| 1998 | Krippendorf's Tribe | Prof. Ruth Allen | |
| The X-Files | Lyda on "How The Ghosts Stole Christmas" | ||
| 1999 | Tea with Mussolini | Georgie Rockwell | |
| 2000 | Disney's The Kid | Janet | |
| 2002-06 | The West Wing | Deborah Fiderer | |
| 2002 | Orange County | Charlotte Cobb | |
| 2004 | I Heart Huckabees | Vivian Jaffe | |
| 2005 | The Simpsons | Tammy | Episode:The Last of the Red Hat Mamas |
| 2005-2006 | Will & Grace | Margot | 2 episodes |
| 2006 | A Prairie Home Companion | Rhonda Johnson | |
| The Ant Bully | Mommo | Voice | |
| 2007 | The Walker | Abigail | |
| 2008-09 | Desperate Housewives | Roberta | |
| 2009 | The Pink Panther 2 | Miss Berenger | |
| Ponyo | Kayo | Voice |
References
- ^ "Lily Tomlin Biography". http://www.filmreference.com/film/5/Lily-Tomlin.html. Retrieved March 6, 2009.
- ^ Bob Fischbach (2008-10-01). "Stage holds the magic for Tomlin". Omaha World-Herald. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-18735069_ITM. Retrieved 2008-07-29.
- ^ Alonso Duralde (2005-03-15). "Thoroughly Modern Lily". The Advocate. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-131280347.html. Retrieved 2008-07-29.
- ^ Kevin Kelly (1985-08-11). "Lily Tomlin Mysterious Modest and Multifaceted". The Boston Globe. 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&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 2008-07-29.
- ^ "Exclusive News on Ponyo’s English Voice Talent Cast". Ghibli World. 2008-11-26. http://www.ghibliworld.com/news.html. Retrieved 2008-11-30.
- ^ "Wives" Spins, New York Post, May 12, 2009
- ^ Galloping "Girls", New York Post, May 18, 2009
- ^ Radosta, Jim. "Lily Tomlin Interview." Just Out.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Lily Tomlin Awards and Nominations at Entertainment Awards Database
- ^ a b Lily Tomlin Awards & Nominations at IMDB.com
- ^ a b c d Lily Tomlin Awards & Nominations at IBDB
- ^ a b Grammy Award for comedy album This is a Recording
- ^ [2]
External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Lily Tomlin |
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lily Tomlin |
- Lily Tomlin Official website
- Lily Tomlin at the Internet Movie Database
- Lily Tomlin at the Internet Broadway Database
- Lily Tomlin at the Internet off-Broadway Database
- Tomlin profile at AfterEllen.com
- Lily Tomlin at wowOwow
- AARP Magazine: Who's Lily Now?
- Time Magazine cover: March 28, 1977
- Lily Tomlin Quotes - The Quotations Page
- Lily Tomlin - BrainyQuote.com
- Metro Weekly interview
- The Advocate interview March 15, 2005
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Learn More
 | Lily Tomlin: Saturday Night Live (TV Episode) (1983 Comedy TV Episode) |
| Lily Tomlin: Saturday Night Live (TV Episode) (1976 Comedy TV Episode) |
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Mentioned in
- Lily Tomlin: Saturday Night Live (TV Episode) (1983 Comedy TV Episode)
- Lily Tomlin: Saturday Night Live (TV Episode) (1976 Comedy TV Episode)
- Cutting Edge: Maverick Comedians of the '60s & '70s (Comedy Film)
- The Lily Tomlin Special, Vol. 1 (TV Episode) (1973 Comedy TV Episode)
- Big Business (1988 Comedy Film)
- Super Stars Live (2003 Music Film)
- All of Me (2008 Comedy Film)
- Lily Tomlin: Saturday Night Live (TV Episode) (1975 Comedy TV Episode)
- Forbidden Fruit: Will & Grace (TV Episode) (2005 TV Episode)
- Lily Sold Out!: Lily Tomlin (TV Episode) (Comedy TV Episode)
- Moment by Moment (1978 Romance Film)
- God Said Ha! (1997 Album by Julia Sweeney)
- The Magic School Bus: Butterfly and the Bog Beast (Butterflies) (1995 Children's/Family Film)
- The Magic School Bus: For Lunch (Digestion) (1994 Children's/Family Film)
April 27, 2006
There's so much plastic in this culture that vinyl leopard skin is becoming an endangered synthetic.
- Lily Tomlin
