Lily Tomlin

Biography: A Master of the Dramatic and Comedic Arts

Lily Tomlin was born as Mary Jean Tomlin in 1939 in Detroit, Michigan.

Tomlin grew up admiring female comics of  her  time  such  as  Lucille  Ball, though she describes herself as an unfunny child (2). Rather than pursuing comedy at an early age, she initially planned  to pursue  a  career in medicine. She attended college at Wayne State University with a  major in biology but changed her major to theater after trying out for  a play. She began performing stand-up comedy at various locations in Detroit and soon moved  to New York to pursue a career in entertainment. (1)

By the mid 1960’s, Tomlin was performing in various New York comedy clubs such as the Improv, the Upstairs at the Downstairs, Cafe Au Go Go, and the Downstairs Room. It was at the Downstairs Room where Tomlin opened for the famous Mabel Mercer. (1)

Pictured: A headshot of Tomlin from the 1960’s

Tomlin’s first television appearance was in 1966 on The Gary Moore Show. She soon moved to California and made several appearances on Music Scene and The Merv Griffin Show. In 1969, Tomlin began appearing on the popular show Laugh-In, where she became famous for her characters such as Ernestine and Edith Ann. (2)

After Laugh-In‘s cancellation, Tomlin went on to star in several comedy television specials. The specials included The Lily Tomlin Show, Lily (1973), Lily (1975), Lily Tomlin, Lily: Sold Out, and Lily for President. She co-wrote many of these with her close friend Jane Wagner, who Tomlin would go on to marry later in life. (2)

Pictured: Lily Tomlin outside of her dressing room sometime in the 1970’s

Tomlin was no stranger to the theater, appearing in Jane Wagner’s Broadway play Appearing Nitely in 1977. This was the first instance of a woman appearing solo in a Broadway show. There she played a multitude of characters including Crystal the hang-gliding quadriplegic and Sister Boogie Woman. Tomlin also appeared in Jane Wagner’s Broadway production of The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe in 1985. This play was a commercial success and toured across the country for nearly five years. (2)

Tomlin made her film debut in Robert Altman’s Nashville in 1975 as a gospel singer and mother. She went on to star as an aspiring actress in Robert Benton’s The Late Show in 1977. She also starred in Jane Wagner’s Moment by Moment (1978), Colin Higgins’ 9 to 5 (1980), Jane Wagner’s The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981), Carl Reiner’s All of Me (1984), and a multitude of films from the 90’s and 21st century. Her most recent film is Grandma, which was specifically written for Tomlin to star in. With such a variety of roles, is clear that Tomlin was a master of both the comedic and dramatic arts.

Pictured: Tomlin’s popular Magic School Bus character Ms. Frizzle

Tomlin was awarded many accolades and nominations throughout her career. She won three Emmy Awards and a Writers Guild of America Award for Lily for President, an Emmy for her voice acting as Ms. Frizzle in The Magic School Bus, a Screen Actor’s Guild nomination for her role as Debbie Fiderer in The West Wing, an Emmy nomination for her role in Damages, an Emmy for An Apology to Elephants, and a Golden Globe nomination for her role as Frankie in Grace and Frankie. She was also nominated for an Academy Award for her role in Robert Altman’s Nashville, which she also received awards from the New York Film Critics and the National Society of Film Critics. Recently, she was awarded a Golden Globe for Grandma, a Crystal Award from Women in Film, and a Kennedy Center Honor. (2)

Pictured: Lily Tomlin receiving her Kennedy Center Honor

Tomlin supports a variety of philanthropic causes ranging from animal welfare to civil rights. She fund-raises for a variety of of organizations such as The Ann Richard’s School for Young Women Leaders and Fenway Health Center. She has also founded the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center. (2)

Most recently, Tomlin has starred on Netflix’s Grace and Frankie as Frankie, an older woman who divorces her husband after learning that he is sleeping with her best friend’s (Jane Fonda’s Grace) husband. The show deals with topical issues such as elderly women’s lowered social status and sexuality. It has received critical acclaim and Tomlin was nominated for multiple awards for her role as Frankie.

Tomlin’s Experiences as a Woman in Comedy:

In an interview with The Smith Center, Lily Tomlin addresses the concern of many female actresses from the 60’s and 70’s: that comedy made women ugly.

“To be a woman and do comedy, you had to be homely or overweight, or ditzy or a screwball. Something had to be wrong with you.” (3)

The female comedians that preceded Tomlin fit this stereotype. For example, both Moms Mabley and Minnie Pearl dressed in “homely” outfits onstage to appear less threatening to audiences. But Lily Tomlin wanted to break the stereotype of the homely comedienne.

“I was never inhibited (by stereotypes),” she says. “I was just on fire to perform and share these ideas.” (3)

Later in her Smith Center interview, Tomlin explains that when she first started doing stand up, audiences did not understand her characters- characters that would go on to be classics. She attributes this to the idea that “You just didn’t see a woman standing up and telling jokes.” (3)

People eventually came around to Tomlin’s sense of humor, which she attributes to opportunities for women in comedy getting better. Additionally, according to Jennifer Reed’s Lily: Sold Out! The Queer Feminism of Lily Tomlin, Tomlin’s national popularity “allowed her to create the work that she wanted to create on her own terms.” (4)

Impacts and Influences:

As Tomlin said, opportunities for female comedians grew over time. With Tomlin’s groundbreaking and edgy performances, it makes sense that she was a huge part of the effort to make funny women the norm. Her status as the first woman to perform solo on Broadway likely opened the door for other women to do so, for example.

Pictured: Lily Tomlin on the cover of Time Magazine in 1977

In her old age, Tomlin continues to push the envelope of what is acceptable for women to joke about. In her Netflix series Grace and Frankie, Tomlin addresses topics such as elderly women’s erasure from society. She even goes so far as to portray elderly women’s sexuality, a taboo subject even by today’s standards.

Lily Tomlin and Feminism:

Lily Tomlin has been a vocal feminist for much of her life. She is a public face for the National Organization for Women, she campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment, and even walked off the set of the Dick Cavett Show after a fellow entertainer made a sexist remark. (4)

“I was interested in having been a feminist in that era, I still consider myself a feminist, knowing what it is to be a person who’s lived a long time, with core beliefs, a philosophy — clinging to it, trying to be absolutely true and not betray it when there are a lot of things going on around you.” (5)

Tomlin’s characters often criticized various social ills such as sexism, racism, ageism, and ableism. One famous skit that depicted racism was the Juke and Opal skit, which Tomlin performed with Richard Pryor.

Recently, Tomlin has attacked ageism in her Netflix show Grace and Frankie, which I discuss in the section above.

(1) “Lily Tomlin.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 16 Jan. 2019, http://www.biography.com/people/lily-tomlin-9508630.

(2) “Lily Tomlin.” LILY, http://www.lilytomlin.com/wordpress2/.

(3) “From Stand-Up to Netflix, Lily Tomlin Helping Women in Comedy.” The Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas, http://www.thesmithcenter.com/blog/from-stand-up-to-netflix-lily-tomlin-helping-women-in-comedy/.

(4) Reed, Jennifer. Lily: Sold Out! The Queer Feminism of Lily Tomlin. Genders, 49. June 2009.

(5) Silverstein, Melissa, and Kerensa Cadenas. “Lily Tomlin on Feminism, Humor and Girls.” IndieWire, 28 Mar. 2013, http://www.indiewire.com/2013/03/lily-tomlin-on-feminism-humor-and-girls-209627/.

(Photo Credits 1-4: http://www.lilytomlin.com/wordpress2/lilylive/)

(Photo Credit 5: Wikipedia Commons)

(Photo Credit 6: http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19770328,00.html)