Lily Tomlin
Birthday:
Birthplace:
Detroit, Michigan, USA
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. She had a major role in Paul Schrader's The Walker, and provided a voice in the English-language version of Ponyo. She joined the cast of the award-winning cable series Damages in 2010 for that show's third season and was a series regular on Malibu Country in 2012-13, playing Reba McEntire's mother.
Photos
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | One World: Together at Home |
|
— | 2020 |
No Score Yet | The Madness Within |
|
— | 2019 |
No Score Yet | The Madness Within |
|
— | 2019 |
No Score Yet | Still Laugh-in: The Stars Celebrate |
|
— | 2019 |
97% | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse |
|
— | 2018 |
80% | Feminists: What Were They Thinking? |
|
— | 2018 |
No Score Yet | Spider-Man: Kohti Hämähäkkiversumia |
|
— | 2018 |
73% | The Final Girls |
|
— | 2015 |
91% | Grandma |
|
— | 2015 |
70% | Altman |
|
— | 2014 |
No Score Yet | An Apology To Elephants |
|
— | 2013 |
39% | Admission |
|
$18.1M | 2013 |
100% | Vito |
|
— | 2013 |
86% | Richard Pryor: Omit The Logic |
|
— | 2013 |
90% | Carol Channing: Larger Than Life |
|
$16k | 2012 |
No Score Yet | The Procession |
|
— | 2012 |
No Score Yet | Why We Laugh: Funny Women |
|
— | 2012 |
92% | Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work |
|
$3M | 2010 |
No Score Yet | Teach Your Children Well |
|
— | 2010 |
91% | Ponyo |
|
$15.2M | 2009 |
12% | Pink Panther 2 |
|
$36M | 2009 |
No Score Yet | Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business Of America |
|
— | 2008 |
53% | The Walker |
|
$43.7k | 2007 |
No Score Yet | Kate Clinton: The 25th Anniversary Tour |
|
— | 2007 |
62% | The Ant Bully |
|
$28.1M | 2006 |
81% | A Prairie Home Companion |
|
— | 2006 |
No Score Yet | The Last Guy on Earth |
|
— | 2006 |
No Score Yet | Happy Birthday Oscar Wilde |
|
— | 2004 |
No Score Yet | Goodnight, We Love You: The Life and Legend of Phyllis Diller |
|
— | 2004 |
63% | I Heart Huckabees |
|
$12.8M | 2004 |
100% | Superstar in a Housedress |
|
— | 2004 |
No Score Yet | Helen's War |
|
— | 2004 |
No Score Yet | Magic School Bus, The - Bugs, Bugs, Bugs! |
|
— | 2004 |
No Score Yet | Peter Allen: The Boy from Oz |
|
— | 2004 |
46% | Orange County |
|
$41.1M | 2002 |
49% | The Kid |
|
$68.5M | 2000 |
No Score Yet | Picking Up the Pieces |
|
— | 2000 |
71% | Get Bruce |
|
— | 1999 |
67% | Tea with Mussolini |
|
— | 1999 |
16% | Krippendorf's Tribe |
|
— | 1998 |
0% | Getting Away with Murder |
|
— | 1996 |
87% | Flirting With Disaster |
|
— | 1996 |
97% | The Celluloid Closet |
|
— | 1996 |
41% | Blue in the Face |
|
— | 1995 |
19% | Even Cowgirls Get the Blues |
|
— | 1994 |
No Score Yet | Saturday Night Live - Best of the Coneheads |
|
— | 1994 |
22% | The Beverly Hillbillies |
|
— | 1993 |
95% | Short Cuts |
|
— | 1993 |
100% | And the Band Played On |
|
— | 1993 |
No Score Yet | Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In: 25th Anniversary Reunion |
|
— | 1993 |
52% | Shadows and Fog |
|
— | 1992 |
No Score Yet | The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe |
|
— | 1991 |
44% | Big Business |
|
— | 1988 |
No Score Yet | Lily Tomlin |
|
— | 1986 |
85% | All of Me |
|
— | 1984 |
22% | The Incredible Shrinking Woman (La IncreÃble Mujer Diminuta) |
|
— | 1981 |
83% | 9 to 5 |
|
— | 1980 |
20% | Moment by Moment |
|
— | 1978 |
90% | The Late Show |
|
— | 1977 |
91% | Nashville |
|
— | 1975 |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
91% |
Damages
2007-2012
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
2003
|
|
|
88% |
Grace and Frankie
2015-2020
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Jimmy Kimmel Live
2003
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Late Late Show With James Corden
2015
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Murphy Brown
1988-2019
|
|
|
98% |
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver
2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
1973
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen
2009
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Today
2017-2019
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
2015
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The View
1997
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Sunday Morning
2011-2018
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Graham Norton Show
2007
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Close Up With the Hollywood Reporter
2015
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Variety Studio: Actors on Actors
2015-2019
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Late Night With Seth Meyers
2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Charlie Rose
2013-2017
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Web Therapy
2011-2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
American Masters
2001
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Inside Comedy
2012-2015
|
|
|
22% |
Malibu Country
2012-2013
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Talk
2010
|
|
|
91% |
Eastbound & Down
2009-2013
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
NCIS
2003
|
|
|
83% |
RuPaul's Drag Race
2009
|
|
|
72% |
Desperate Housewives
2004-2012
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Bonnie Hunt Show
2008-2010
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Great Performances
2000
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
1999-2015
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Will & Grace
1998-2006
|
|
|
75% |
The West Wing
1999-2006
|
|
|
85% |
The Simpsons
1989
|
|
|
74% |
The X-Files
1993-2018
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Magic School Bus
1994-1997
|
|
|
91% |
Homicide: Life on the Street
1993-1999
|
|
|
93% |
Frasier
1993-2004
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Saturday Night Live
1975
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Woman Alive!
2000
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Flip Wilson Show
1970-1974
|
|
|
Quotes from Lily Tomlin's Characters
Mary Schlicting: | I was relieved when you came out in the hospital and you only had one head. |
Roger Cobb: | Tell the truth, I kind a miss the old girl. |
Edwina Cutwater: | Who are you calling old?! |
Roger Cobb: | That's not funny, Ty. |
Edwina Cutwater: | It is not Mr. Wattell. It is I. |
Roger Cobb: | ...Edwina?? |
Tyrone Wattell: | Yeah. When you gave me that pitcher & told me to take care of it, I thought it was gin & drank some. |
Roger Cobb: | Edwina, I gotta kiss you! |
Tyrone Wattell: | That's MY side, stupid! |
Vivian Jaffe: | ...most people prefer to remain on the surface of things. |
Vivian Jaffe: | Most people prefer to remain on the surface of things. |
Sadie Shelton/ Sadie Ratliff: | "Isn't it exciting?" (Referring to New York City as they drive into Manhattan) |
Sadie Shelton/ Sadie Ratliff: | Isn't it exciting? [referring to New York City as they drive into Manhattan] |
Rose Shelton: | /Rose Ratliff "Oh yeah, the noise, the smog, the crowds, the muggers, sex fiends, white slavers, politicians, it's a pistol. I got about as much use for it as a toad has for spit curls!" |
Rose Shelton: | Oh yeah, the noise, the smog, the crowds, the muggers, sex fiends, white slavers, politicians, it's a pistol. I got about as much use for it as a toad has for spit curls! |
Violet Newstead: | I'm no fool. I've killed the boss, you think they're not gonna fire me for a thing like that? |
Rose Shelton: | Damn Sadie, good bread. - Rose Raliff |
Rose Shelton: | Damn Sadie, good bread. |
Violet Newstead: | "We're gonna need a special locker for the hat". |
Violet Newstead: | We're gonna need a special locker for the hat. |