Lily Tomlin (natural Mary Jean Tomlin in September 1, 1939 in Detroit, Michigan), is an American actress and comedian. She number 1 became easily-known for her character skits on television's Laugh-In, in which she created many unerasable characters that use at times stayed by having her & turn into associated sustaining her throughout her career, including a gum-chewing, wisecracking, snorting telephone operator Ernestine (famous for her lines "One ringy dingy, two ringy dingy" & "A gracious good morning to you ... Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?") & a brattish 5-month-old Edith Ann, rocking within her oversize rocking chair and making rude noises (famed for her line "And that's the truth!").

Tomlin was the girl of a factory worker and the housewife who moved to Detroit from Paducah, Kentucky during the Great Depression. Tomlin attended Wayne State University, where her interest in the theater & performing arts began. When college, Tomlin began doing stand-up comedy within nightclubs in Detroit then New York City. Her 1st television appearance was on The Merv Griffin Show in 1965. Tomlin joined a Laugh-In cast in 1969. AT&T offered Tomlin $500,000 to film a commercial using her character Ernestine, but Tomlin turned the offer down because she thought the commercial would compromise her artistic integrity. Inside 2003 she did film ii commercial message when Ernestine for the company WebEx.

Tomlin is noted for her wide range. E.g., inside Nashville, she played Linnethe Reese, a strait-straightlaced mother of ii indifferent youngsters world health organization has an affair by having a united states singer played by Keith Carradine. She has as well played secretary Violet Newstead inside Nine to Five, starred in the 1981 comedy film The Incredible Shrinking Woman, and was the sickly inheritress in the Steve Martin comedy All of Us. Tomlin as well sonant the Ms. Frizzle character on the animated television series The Magic School Bus from 1994 to 1998. Too in the Nineties, due completely to fiscal reverses, Tomlin appeared on the popular sitcom Murphy Brown. Tomlin presently plays presidential help "Deborah Fiderer" on the TV indicate The West Wing.

Tomlin starred in the 1985 hit one-one-man Broadway indicate A Seek For Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, written by her long-period life partner, Jane Wagner. the indicate won Tomlin a Tony Award. It was processed into the feature inside 1991. Tomlwithin revived the indicate for a brief begin in 2000. Inside 1989 she won a Sarah Siddons Award for her work inside Chicago theatre.

Though Tomlin is today open just about existence lesbian, the media doesn't focus on this aspect of her household life. In point of fact, several of her fans come unaware of her intimate orientation. Tomlin come call at 2000 on the New York City cable-access TV program Gay USA. Actually, Tomlin often referred to Wagner, however avoided locution point-blank that she herself was, as a matter of fact, homo.

Tomlin was inducted into a Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1998. Around 2003 she won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Selected Filmography
Nashville (1975) Moment by Moment (1978) 9 to 5 (1980) The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981) All of Me (1984) Big Business (1988) Shadows and Fog (1992) The Player (1992) (cameo) Short Cuts (1993) The Beverly Hillbillies (1993) The Celluloid Closet (1995) (narrator) Blue in the Face (1995) Flirting with Disaster (1996) Getting Away with Murder (1996) Tea with Mussolini (1999) The Kid (2000) Orange County (2002) Superstar in a Housedress (2004) (documentary) I Heart Huckabees (2004) The Last Broadcast (2006) (currently within post-production) Ant Bully (2006) (voice) (currently filming) Seniors (2006) (currently within pre-production) The Last Guy on Earth (2006) (currently within pre-production)

Selected TV Work
''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1969–1973) And the Band Played On (1993) The Magic School Bus (1994–1998) (voice) Murphy Brown (1996–1998) The West Wing'' (2002—)