Lily Tomlin

By Tom Kirvan

An award-winning actress and comedian for more than four decades, Detroit native Lily Tomlin grew up in a working-class neighborhood of the Motor City, developing a certain street cred that has made her a “national treasure,” according to the late Richard Pryor, the stand-up comic known for his unfiltered look at life in America.

“That old apartment house I grew up in was filled with the most eccentric cross section of culture types imaginable and I was madly in love with all of them,” said Tomlin, who was born on September 1, 1939, and originally planned to pursue a career in medicine before she opted for the theater arts instead. “Every apartment was a different class, a different story, a different accent, different politics, and philosophy.”

Tomlin made her television debut in 1966 on “The Garry Moore Show,” which led to periodic appearances on “The Merv Griffin Show.” Tomlin then was invited to join the cast of “Rowan Martin’s Laugh-In” in 1969 where she rose to fame with her characterizations of Ernestine, the power-mad telephone operator, and the philosophical Edith Ann, a 6-year-old who waxed poetic in a big rocking chair with such witticisms as “No sooner did I learn to tell time than I began showing up late everywhere.”

Renowned for her witty, observational, and often cynical humor regarding modern life, Tomlin has uttered such memorable quotes as:

Lily Tomlin*

“Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it.”
“For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.”
“Sometimes I feel like a figment of my own imagination.”
“We are all in this together – by ourselves.”

Tomlin has guest starred on countless television shows, including “The Carol Burnett Show,” “X-Files,” “Desperate Housewives,” “NCIS,” “Murphy Brown,” “The West Wing,” and the Netflix series “Grace and Frankie” with Jane Fonda. She also teamed with Fonda and Dolly Parton in the hit movie, “9 to 5,” and “I Heart Huckabees” with Dustin Hoffman.

The 2003 recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, Tomlin has won seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, a Grammy, and two Peabody Awards, making her one of the most celebrated comedians in history, to which she says:

“The road to success is always under construction.”

^*^{Joe Seer (2019 June 9). LOS ANGELES -}^{Lily Tomlin at The Actors Fund's 23rd Annual Tony Awards Viewing Gala honoring Lily Tomlin at the Skirball Cultural Center on June 9, 2019 in Los Angeles, CA}^{[Photograph]. Shutterstock. Retrieved August 27, 2026 from}^Shutterstock