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February 13, 2020 -- Turner Classic Movies (TCM) today announced it will honor iconic actress and comedian Lily Tomlin with a hand and footprint ceremony at the world-famous TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX® in Hollywood during the eleventh annual TCM Classic Film Festival on Friday, April 17.
Tomlin, a Tony®, Grammy®, eight time Emmy® and two time Peabody Award®
winner, has had a remarkable career starting in the 1960s starring in
cinematic classics, television staples and on stage.
“Lily Tomlin’s talent has endured for fifty years because she knows
who she is. She’s managed to play broadly drawn roles alongside more
nuanced characters without a hint of falseness,” said Ben Mankiewicz, TCM primetime anchor and official host of the TCM Classic Film Festival.
“Not long ago, Tomlin told The New York Times, ‘I wanted people to see
the characters as human beings. And see themselves in them, too.’ The
humanity she finds in the women she plays has enabled her to transition,
seemingly with ease, from groundbreaking work on ‘Rowan & Martin’s
Laugh-In’ to four Emmy nominations for ‘Grace and Frankie,’ where she
co-stars alongside another seminal artist, Jane Fonda. There’s a
consistent richness to her work, in comedy and drama, as well as on
stage in her innovative one-woman show, ‘The Search for Signs of
Intelligent Life in the Universe,’ and on the big screen. Whether your
favorite Lily Tomlin performance is ‘The Late Show’ or ‘9 to 5’ or
‘Nashville’…wait, I’m not done. Or ‘All of Me,’ ‘Flirting with
Disaster,’ ‘I Heart Huckabees,’ or ‘A Prairie Home Companion,’ you know
all of those pictures were made more memorable because Lily Tomlin was
among the cast. It’s hard to imagine a more deserving artist to have her
hand and footprints cemented outside Hollywood’s signature classic
movie house.”
This marks the tenth consecutive year TCM has featured a hand and
footprint ceremony at the legendary TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX®. In 2011,
Peter O'Toole was the honoree, followed by Kim Novak in 2012, Jane Fonda
in 2013, Jerry Lewis in 2014, Christopher Plummer in 2015, Francis Ford
Coppola in 2016, Carl and Rob Reiner in 2017, Cicely Tyson in 2018, and
Billy Crystal in 2019.
Lily Tomlin Biography
Lily Tomlin, one of America's foremost comediennes, continues to
venture across an ever-widening range of media, starring in television,
theater, motion pictures, animation, video and social media. Throughout
her extraordinary career, Tomlin has received numerous awards,
including: eight Emmys, with 25 primetime and five daytime nominations; a
Tony for her one woman Broadway show, “Appearing Nitely”; a second Tony
for Best Actress, a Drama Desk Award 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 for her comedy
album, “This is a Recording” 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.” In 2003, she received
the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and, in December 2014, was the
recipient of the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors in Washington DC.
Television: Tomlin made her television debut in 1966
on “The Garry Moore Show” and then made several memorable appearances
on “The Merv Griffin Show,” which led to a move to California where she
appeared as a regular on “Music Scene.” In December 1969, Tomlin joined
the cast of the top-rated “Laugh-In” and immediately rose to national
prominence with her characterizations of Ernestine, the irascible
telephone operator, and Edith Ann, the devilish six year old. When
“Laugh-In” left the air, Tomlin went on to co-write, with Jane Wagner,
and star in six comedy television specials: “The Lily Tomlin Show”
(1973), “Lily” (1973), “Lily” (1975), “Lily Tomlin” (1975), “Lily: Sold
Out” (1981), and “Lily for President?” (1982) for which she won three
Emmy Awards and a Writers’ Guild of America Award. Tomlin also starred
in the HBO special about the AIDS epidemic, “And the Band Played On”
(1993). She has guest starred on numerous television shows, such as
“Saturday Night Live,” “Homicide,” “X-Files” and “Will and Grace,” and
played the boss on the popular CBS series, “Murphy Brown.” She is also
heard as the voice of the science teacher Ms. Frizzle on the popular
children’s animated series, “The Magic School Bus,” for which she was
awarded an Emmy.
In 2002, Tomlin joined the cast of the hit NBC series, “The West
Wing,” playing President Bartlett’s assistant, Debbie Fiderer--a role
for which she received a 2003 Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best
Actress in a Drama Series. Tomlin continued in the role of Debbie
through 2006, the final season of “West Wing.” In the past few years,
Tomlin has made several guest appearances on “Desperate Housewives,”
“NCIS,” “Eastbound and Down,” and guest starred in the acclaimed FX
series, “Damages,” in the Emmy-nominated role of matriarch of a wealthy
New York family accused of financial fraud. In 2012, Tomlin co-starred
with Reba McEntire on the ABC series, “Malibu Country,” and was seen on
the Showtime series, “Web Therapy,” as Lisa Kudrow's narcissistic
mother. She also produced, with Jane Wagner, and narrated the HBO
documentary, “An Apology to Elephants,” for which Tomlin received an
Emmy Award for Narration. Tomlin is currently co-starring with Jane
Fonda in the widely popular Netflix series, “Grace and Frankie,” which
premiered in May 2015. The sixth season recently premiered in January
2020 and the seventh and final season will premiere in 2021. In the
first four seasons, Tomlin has been nominated for an Emmy for Best
Actress in a Comedy Series and in the first season a Golden Globe for
Best Actress in a Comedy Series. Tomlin was recently honored with the
Career Achievement Award from the Television Critics Association and the
Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild.
Stage: Tomlin made her Broadway debut in the 1977
play, “Appearing Nitely,” written and directed by Jane Wagner.
“Appearing Nitely” included such favorites as Ernestine and Judith
Beasley, the Calumet City housewife, and also introduced Trudy the bag
lady, Crystal the hang-gliding quadriplegic, Rick the singles bar
cruiser, Glenna as a child of the sixties, and Sister Boogie Woman, a
77-year-old blues revivalist who preaches cheap thrills for the elderly.
“Appearing Nitely” was later adapted as both an album and an HBO
Special. Tomlin next appeared on Broadway in 1985 in a year-long, SRO
run of Jane Wagner’s critically acclaimed play, “The Search for Signs of
Intelligent Life in the Universe.” The Broadway success was followed by
a coast-to-coast, 14-city tour that spanned four and a half years.
Tomlin extended this extraordinary theatrical career with a
cross-country, 29-city tour of “The Search,” a new production of “The
Search” on Broadway, a record-breaking, six-month run of the production
in San Francisco, and a six week run as part of the 2004 season at the
Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.
Movies: On film, Tomlin made her debut as Linnea, a
gospel singer and mother of two deaf children in Robert Altman's
“Nashville” (1975); her memorable performance was nominated for an
Academy Award, and she also won the New York Film Critics and National
Society of Film Critics Awards for Best Supporting Actress. She next
starred opposite Art Carney as a would-be actress living on the fringes
of Hollywood in Robert Benton's “The Late Show” (1977). She went on to
star with John Travolta as a lonely housewife in Jane Wagner’s “Moment
By Moment” (1978), and then teamed with Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton in
the late Colin Higgins' comedy, “9 to 5” (1980). She starred as the
happy homemaker who became “The Incredible Shrinking Woman” (1981),
written by Jane Wagner, and the eccentric rich woman whose soul invades
Steve Martin's body in Carl Reiner's popular “All of Me” (1984). She
then teamed with Bette Midler for “Big Business” (1988).
In the 90’s, Tomlin starred in the film adaptation of “The Search for
Signs of Intelligent Life In the Universe” (1991); appeared as part of
an ensemble cast in Woody Allen's “Shadows and Fog” (1992); starred
opposite Tom Waits in Robert Altman's “Short Cuts” (1993); and portrayed
Miss Jane Hathaway in the screen adaptation of the popular television
series “The Beverly Hillbillies” (1993). Tomlin also played a cameo role
in “The Player” (1992) and “Blue in the Face” (1995), starred in the
David O. Russell film “Flirting With Disaster” (1996) and joined Jack
Lemmon, Dan Akroyd and Bonnie Hunt in “Getting Away with Murder” (1996).
Tomlin starred opposite Richard Dreyfuss and Jenna Elfman in Buena
Vista’s “Krippendorf’s Tribe” (1998) and co-starred with Maggie Smith,
Judi Dench, Joan Plowright and Cher in the Franco Zeffirelli film “Tea
with Mussolini” (1999).
Tomlin then starred with Bruce Willis in “Disney’s The Kid” (2000)
and appeared in a quirky cameo role in “Orange County” (2002). Tomlin
co-starred with Dustin Hoffman in “I Heart Huckabee’s,” a David O.
Russell comedy that explores the emotional idiosyncrasies of life
(2004). She was seen in “A Prairie Home Companion” (2006), written by
Garrison Keillor and directed by Robert Altman, in which she and Meryl
Streep appear as a sister-singing act. Tomlin appeared in Paul
Schrader's film, “The Walker” (2007), co-starring with Woody Harrelson,
Kristin Scott-Thomas and Lauren Bacall. Tomlin played a
sensitivity-training expert assigned to instruct employees on social and
political correctness with Steve Martin as Inspector Clousseau in “Pink
Panther II” (2009). Tomlin starred in a Paul Weitz movie with Tina Fey
and Paul Rudd, “Admission” (2013), and stars in a second movie which
Paul Weitz specifically wrote for Tomlin, “Grandma” (2015). “Grandma,”
which received substantial critical and audience praise, brought Tomlin a
Golden Globe nomination for best actress in a movie comedy. For her
extensive work in film, Tomlin has received the Crystal Award from Women
in Film.
Philanthropy: Tomlin is well-known for supporting
philanthropic organizations, particularly those focused on animal
welfare, civil rights, health care, protection of elephants, women’s
issues, AIDS-related organizations, environmental concerns, overcoming
homelessness and supporting the LGBTQ community in all aspects of life.
She has given countless fund-raising performances for organizations
across the country, including The Ann Richards School for Young Women
Leaders, Rosie's Place in Boston, Project Home in Philadelphia, Fenway
Health Center, One Fair Wage, and many community action groups. Tomlin
has contributed in other ways to improve conditions for all living
things, such as founding the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane
Wagner Cultural Arts Center. Tomlin and Wagner together also founded the
Goosebump Garden at the internationally known LGBT Fenway Health Center
in Boston and have been involved in its growth for over 25 years.
As part of her concern for animals, Tomlin earned an Emmy for her
narration of the documentary “An Apology to Elephants.” She has worked
with elephant activists all over the country to take elephants out of
zoos, is on the boards of Actors and Others for Animals and the Shambala
Sanctuary. She also works with PAWS Elephant Sanctuary in California.
She has received the Petco Foundation’s Hope Award for being a leader in
animal welfare, and she established the Voice for the Animals
Foundation’s ‘Lily Award’. Tomlin's humanitarian efforts earned her the
Honickman Foundation’s Golden Heart Award for her impact in breaking the
cycle of homelessness and poverty.
On New Year's Eve 2013, Tomlin and Wagner were married in a private
ceremony with friends.
