Mary Jean “Lily” Tomlin (born September 1, 1939) is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer….who began her career as a stand-up comic….while performing Off-Broadway during the 1960’s. Her breakout role was on the variety show Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In from 1969 until 1973. She currently stars on the Netflix series Grace and Frankie as Frankie Bergstein….a role that has garnered her four consecutive Emmy nominations since 2015. In 1974, Tomlin was cast by Robert Altman in her first film…where her performance as Linnea Reese in Nashville won her several awards and nominations for the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
In 1977, her performance as Margo Sperling in The Late Show won her the Best Actress Award at the Berlin International Film Festival….and nominations for the Golden Globe and BAFTA Award for Best Lead Actress. Her other notable films include 9 to 5 (1980), All of Me (1984), Big Business (1988), Flirting with Disaster (1996), Tea with Mussolini (1999), I Heart Huckabees (2004), and Grandma (2015).
Her signature role was written by her then partner (now wife), Jane Wagner, in a show titled The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe….which opened on Broadway in 1985 and won Tomlin the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play. She is also known as the voice of Ms. Frizzle on the children’s series The Magic School Bus. She won her first Emmy Awards in 1974 for writing and producing her own television special, Lily. Tomlin won a Grammy Award for her 1972 comedy album This Is a Recording. In 2014, she was given Kennedy Center Honors….and in 2017 she received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achivement Award.
So, any way you cut the pie….Lily Tomlin has vast talents….as we at ImaSportsphile are “tickled pink” to have as much of her work in our vintage video library….and consider each piece a “nugget of gold” in our treasure chest of memories….and this skit with Lorraine Newman is living proof of it all.
