Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin (born September 1, 1939)[1] is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer.

Her signature role, which was written by her then partner (now wife) Jane Wagner, was in the show The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, which opened on Broadway in 1985 and earned Tomlin the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

In 1975, Tomlin made her film debut with Robert Altman's Nashville, which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Her other notable films include All of Me (1984), Big Business (1988), Flirting with Disaster (1996), Tea with Mussolini (1999), I Heart Huckabees (2004), A Prairie Home Companion (2006), and Grandma (2015).

She earned four Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series nominations.

[12] A year later, she became a cast member on the short-lived third and final incarnation of The Garry Moore Show Tomlin characters In 1969, after a stint as a hostess on the ABC series Music Scene,[13] Tomlin joined NBC's sketch comedy show Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.

Signed as a replacement for the departing Judy Carne, Tomlin was an instant success on the already established program, in which in addition to appearing in general sketches and delivering comic gags, she began appearing as the regular characters she created; they became well known and she portrayed them outside of the show in later recordings and television specials: Tomlin was one of the first female comedians to break out in male drag with her characters Tommy Velour and Rick.

In 1982, but later popularized by a Saturday Night Live appearance on January 22, 1983, she premiered Purvis 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 as part of the character, instead depending on stage lighting to create the effect.

In 1970, AT&T offered Tomlin $500,000 to play her character Ernestine in a commercial, but she declined, saying it would compromise her artistic integrity.

She appeared as three of her minor characters in a 1998 ad campaign for Fidelity Investments that did not include Ernestine or Edith Ann.

)[19] Tomlin made her dramatic debut in Robert Altman's Nashville (1975), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and 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 womanizing country singer (played by Keith Carradine).

Tomlin's third comedy album, 1975's Modern Scream, a parody of movie magazines and celebrity interviews, featured her performing as multiple characters, including Ernestine, Edith Ann, Judith, and Suzie.

[20] In March 1977, Tomlin made her Broadway debut in the solo show Appearing Nitely, which she co-wrote and co-directed with Jane Wagner, at the Biltmore Theatre.

Tomlin premiered her one-woman show Not Playing with a Full Deck at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in November 2009.

It was her first appearance in that city, though she did tape an Emmy-winning TV special, a spoof of Las Vegas called Lily: Sold Out which premiered on CBS in January 1981.

Tomlin and Bette Midler played two pairs of identical twins who were switched at birth in the 1988 comedy Big Business.

Tomlin also played chain-smoking waitress Doreen Piggott in Altman's 1993 ensemble film Short Cuts, based on stories by Raymond Carver.

She appeared on the dramatic series The West Wing for four years (2002–2006) in the recurring role of presidential secretary Deborah Fiderer.

Tomlin performed 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 Heart Huckabees.

In March 2007, two videos were leaked onto YouTube portraying on-set arguments between Russell and Tomlin, in which among other things he called her sexist names.

She played Rhonda Johnson, one-half of a middle-aged Midwestern singing duo partnered with Meryl Streep.

In 2010, Tomlin guest-starred as Marilyn Tobin in the third season of Damages opposite Glenn Close, for which she was nominated for an Emmy.

From 2015 to 2022, Tomlin starred opposite Jane Fonda, Martin Sheen, and Sam Waterston in the Netflix original comedy series Grace and Frankie.

[29][30] Tomlin reprised her role as Professor Frizzle in the 2017 Netflix sequel The Magic School Bus Rides Again, a continuation of the original series.

[35][36] Tomlin has been involved in a number of feminist and gay-friendly film productions, and on her 1975 album Modern Scream she pokes fun at straight actors who make a point of distancing themselves from their gay and lesbian characters—answering the pseudo-interview question, she replies: "How did it feel to play a heterosexual?

Tomlin's performance in the mystery film The Late Show (1977) earned her nominations for the BAFTA and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress.

She received another two nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical for her performances in All of Me (1984) and Grandma (2015).