Marlo Thomas | |
|---|---|
 Thomas in 2008 | |
| Born | Margaret Julia Thomas (1937-11-21)November 21, 1937 (age 88) Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Southern California |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1960–present |
| Spouse | |
| Father | Danny Thomas |
| Relatives | Tony Thomas (brother) |
Margaret Julia"Marlo"Thomas (born November 21, 1937)[1] is an American actress, producer, author, and social activist. She is best known for starring as Ann Marie in a sitcom seriesThat Girl (1966–1971) and herchildren's franchiseFree to Be... You and Me. She has received threePrimetime Emmy Awards, aDaytime Emmy Award, aGolden Globe Award, and aPeabody Award for her work in television and was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame. She also received aGrammy Award for herchildren's albumMarlo Thomas and Friends: Thanks & Giving All Year Long. She was married to Irish-American television daytime talk show host presenter and writerPhil Donahue from May 1980 until his death in August 2024.
In 2014, Thomas received thePresidential Medal of Freedom, given by then-American PresidentBarack Obama.[2]
Thomas served as a National Outreach Director forSt. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which was founded by her fatherDanny Thomas in 1962. She created the Thanks & Giving campaign in 2004 to support the hospital.
Thomas was born on November 21, 1937 inDetroit,Michigan, and raised inBeverly Hills,Los Angeles,California, the eldest child of Rose Marie Cassaniti and comedianDanny Thomas.[3] She has a sister, Terre, and a brother, producerTony Thomas. Her father was a Catholic Lebanese American and her mother was Sicilian American.[4][5] Hergodmother wasLoretta Young.[6] The name "Marlo" came from her childhood mispronunciation of the name Margo, as Thomas was called by her family.[7]
Thomas attendedMarymount High School and graduated from theUniversity of Southern California with a teaching degree: "I wanted a piece of paper that said I was qualified to do something in the world". She was a member of the sororityKappa Alpha Theta.[7][8]
Thomas appeared in many television programs includingBonanza,McHale's Navy,Ben Casey,Arrest and Trial,The Joey Bishop Show,The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,My Favorite Martian,77 Sunset Strip, andThe Donna Reed Show. Her big break came in 1965 when she was cast byMike Nichols in the London production of Neil Simon'sBarefoot in the Park, co-starringDaniel Massey,Kurt Kasznar, andMildred Natwick. (In 1986, she was once again cast by Nichols on Broadway inAndrew Bergman'sSocial Security, co-starringRon Silver andOlympia Dukakis.)
Thomas and her father, Danny, were cast as Laurie and Ed Dubro in a 1961 episode, "Honor Bright", of CBS'Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre.
Thomas starred in anABC pilot calledTwo's Company in 1965. Although it did not sell, it caught the attention of a network programming executive. He met with Thomas, and expressed interest in casting her in her own series. With their encouragement, Thomas came up with her own idea for a show about a young woman who leaves home, moves to New York City, and struggles to become an actress. The network was initially hesitant, fearing audiences would find a series centering on a single female uninteresting or unrealistic.
The concept eventually evolved into the sitcom entitledThat Girl, in which Thomas played Ann Marie, a beautiful, up-and-coming actress with a writer boyfriend, played byTed Bessell. The series told the daily struggles of Ann holding different temporary jobs while pursuing her dream of a career onBroadway.That Girl was one of the first television shows to focus on a working, single woman who did not live with her parents, and it paved the way for many shows to come.[citation needed] Thomas was the fourth woman to produce her own series, followingGertrude Berg,Lucille Ball, andBetty White.That Girl aired from 1966 to 1971, producing 136 episodes, and was a solid performer in theNielsen ratings.
In 1971, Thomas chose to end the series after five years. Both ABC and the show's sponsor,Clairol, wanted the series finale to be a wedding between the two central characters, but Thomas rebuffed them, saying that she felt it was the wrong message to send to her female audience, because it would give the impression that the only happy ending ismarriage.That Girl has since become popular insyndication.[citation needed]
Clairol was our sponsor and they wanted to end the show with a wedding. I said, "I just can't do that to these women and girls who followed Ann Marie's adventure. I can't now say that the only happy ending is a wedding, because I don't believe it." There was a big ruckus about it, but I wouldn't do it. The last show, Ann Marie took Donald to a women's lib meeting, which made nobody happy but me. I loved it.
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AfterThat Girl, eager to expand her horizons, Thomas attended theActors Studio,[10] where she studied withLee Strasberg until his death in 1982, and subsequently with his discipleSandra Seacat. When she won herBest Dramatic Actress Emmy in 1986 for the television filmNobody’s Child, she thanked both individuals.
In 1972, she released a children's book,Free to Be... You and Me, which was inspired by her young niece Dionne (née Gordon) Kirchner.[11][12][13] She went on to create multiple recordings and television specials of and related to that title:Free to Be... You and Me (1972, 1974) andFree to Be... A Family (1987), withChristopher Cerf. Also in 1972, she served as a California delegate to theDemocratic National Convention[3] in Miami Beach, Florida. She helped theGeorge McGovern presidential campaign in October 1972 atStar-Spangled Women for McGovern–Shriver, reciting a parody ofErich Segal'sLove Story for 19,000 people atMadison Square Garden.[14]
In 1973, Thomas joinedGloria Steinem,Patricia Carbine, andLetty Cottin Pogrebin as the founders of theMs. Foundation for Women, the first women's fund in the US. The organization was created to deliver funding and other resources to organizations that were presenting liberal women's voices in communities nationwide.
In 1976, Thomas made a guest appearance on theNBCsituation comedyThe Practice as a stubborn patient of her father Danny Thomas' character Dr. Jules Bedford, and the chemistry of father and daughter acting together made for touching hospital-room scenes.
She has made guest appearances on several television series, includingLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit (as Judge Mary Conway Clark, a mentor of ADACasey Novak),Ballers,The New Normal,Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later. She also narrated the seriesHappily Never After onInvestigation Discovery.
From 1996 to 2002, Thomas had a reoccurring role on the television showFriends.[15] She playedRachel Green's mother, Sandra Green, in three episodes.[16] The role was poignant because of parallels toThat Girl.[according to whom?] Both shows were comedies about being young and single in New York City. Like Ann Marie three decades earlier, Rachel Green had left the suburbs for independence as a single woman in Manhattan.[improper synthesis?] Thomas's first appearance onFriends was in Season 2 when her character went looking for her daughter, who had run off to Manhattan after abandoning her fiancé, Barry, at the altar.[17] Sandra confessed to Rachel that she was leaving her husband and expressed interest in being one of the girls, marijuana and what is new in sex.[18][unreliable source][user-generated source] Sandra envied her daughter's lifestyle, which she never experienced due to taking a more traditional path.[19][unreliable source][user-generated source] When Rachel became upset at her mother's frankness, Sandra explained that she thought Rachel especially would understand because "you didn't marry your Barry, honey, but I married mine."[20][unreliable source][user-generated source] In 2019, Thomas described her on-screen daughter, Rachel, as the "That Girl" of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Thomas compared the on-air standards 30 years apart, noting that inThat Girl, Donald never spent the night at Ann's apartment, but onFriends, sex was more openly spoken about.[21] Thomas also spoke of the great respect theFriends cast showed her when they worked together; they were familiar with her work and yielded to her comedic expertise.[21]
Thomas appeared in films such asJenny (1970),Thieves (1977),In The Spirit (1990),The Real Blonde (1997),Starstruck (1998),Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999),Playing Mona Lisa (2000),LOL (2012) withDemi Moore andMiley Cyrus, andCardboard Boxer (2014). She also starred in television films, includingIt Happened One Christmas (1977; also produced) (a remake ofIt's a Wonderful Life),[22]The Lost Honor of Kathryn Beck (1984; also produced),Consenting Adult (1985),Nobody's Child (1986; Best Dramatic Actress Emmy),Held Hostage: The Sis and Jerry Levin Story (1991; also produced),Reunion (1994; also produced),Deceit (2004; also produced), andUltimate Betrayal (1994).Thomas'Broadway theatre credits includeThieves (1974),Social Security (1986), andThe Shadow Box (1994), and in 2011, she starred as Doreen inElaine May's comedyGeorge Is Dead inRelatively Speaking during a set of three one-act plays (The New York Times called Thomas' performance "sublime").[23][peacock prose] The other two plays were written byWoody Allen andEthan Coen.
Off-Broadway, Thomas has appeared inThe Guys,The Exonerated (in which she also appeared in Chicago and Boston, co-starring withBrian Dennehy),The Vagina Monologues andLove, Loss, and What I Wore. Also off-Broadway, she appeared oppositeGreg Mullavey in the 2015 New York debut ofJoe DiPietro's playClever Little Lies at theWestside Theatre.[24] Regional theatre productions include:Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Hartford Stage;Woman In Mind at the Berkshire Theatre Festival;Paper Doll, with F. Murray Abraham at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre; andThe Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds at the Cleveland Playhouse. In 1993, she toured in the national company ofSix Degrees of Separation. In the spring of 2008, she starred in Arthur Laurents' last play,New Year's Eve withKeith Carradine, at the George Street Playhouse.
Thomas has published seven best-selling books (three of them #1 best-sellers):[citation needed][which?][peacock prose]Free to Be... You and Me;Free to Be... A Family;The Right Words at the Right Time;The Right Words at the Right Time, Volume 2: Your Turn;Marlo Thomas and Friends: Thanks & Giving All Year Long (the CD version of which won the 2006Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children); her 2009 memoir,Growing Up Laughing; andIt Ain't Over...Till It's Over: Reinventing Your Life and Realizing Your Dreams Anytime, At Any Age.
Thomas serves as the National Outreach Director forSt. Jude Children's Research Hospital inMemphis, Tennessee, which was founded by her father, Danny Thomas. She donated all royalties from her 2004 book and CDMarlo Thomas and Friends: Thanks & Giving All Year Long (also produced withChristopher Cerf) and her twoRight Words at the Right Time books to the hospital.
In 2010, Thomas created MarloThomas.com,[25] a website for women aged 35 and older, associated withAOL and theHuffington Post.[citation needed]
Thomas is the recipient of fourEmmy Awards, aGolden Globe Award, aGrammy Award, aJefferson Award, and thePeabody Award.[This paragraph needs citation(s)]
In 1979, theSupersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Thomas' name and picture.[26]
In 1996, she was awarded theWomen in Film Lucy Award in recognition of her excellence and innovation in her creative works that have enhanced the perception of women through the medium of television.[27]
On November 20, 2014, the Marlo Thomas Center for Global Education and Collaboration was opened as part of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.[28]Hillary Clinton presided over the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
On November 24, 2014, PresidentBarack Obama awarded Thomas thePresidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, at a White House ceremony.[2]
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Thomas was in a long relationship with playwrightHerb Gardner.[3]
In 1977, Thomas was a guest on the televisiontalk showThe Phil Donahue Show, when she and hostPhil Donahue first met.[29] According toPeople, "they later described the meeting as 'love at first sight.'"[30] They were married on May 21, 1980, and Donahue moved from Chicago to New York City with some of his sons and his daughter to live with Thomas and to produce his talk show there.[31] Thomas is the stepmother to Donahue's four sons and daughter from his first marriage. Concerning her relationship with her stepchildren, Thomas toldAARP: The Magazine in May 2011:
From the very first day, I decided that I was not going to try to be a "mother" to Phil's children in the traditional sense — they already had a mom — but, instead, to be their friend...I'm proud to say that the friendships I established with them are as strong today as they were 30 years ago — even stronger.[5]
Donahue died ofnatural causes on August 18, 2024, at the age of 88.[32]
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | Jenny | Jenny | Nominated –Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress |
| 1977 | Thieves | Sally Cramer | |
| 1990 | In the Spirit | Reva Prosky | |
| 1993 | Falling Down | KTLA Reporter | |
| 1997 | The Real Blonde | Blair | |
| 1998 | Starstruck | Linda Phaeffle | |
| 1999 | Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo | Margaret | Uncredited cameo |
| 2000 | Playing Mona Lisa | Shelia Goldstein | |
| 2012 | LOL | Gran | |
| 2017 | The Female Brain | Lynne | |
| 2018 | Ocean's 8 | Rene | |
| 2023 | Bella! | Self |
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis | Frank's Girlfriend | Episode: "The Hunger Strike" |
| 1960 | 77 Sunset Strip | Amina | Episode: "The Fanatics" |
| 1961 | Zane Grey Theatre | Laurie Dubro | Episode: "Honor Bright"[33] |
| 1961 | Thriller | Susan Baker | Episode: "The Ordeal of Dr. Cordell" |
| 1961 | The Danny Thomas Show | Stella | Episode: "Everything Happens to Me" Backdoor pilot for The Joey Bishop Show |
| 1961–1962 | The Joey Bishop Show | Stella | 22 episodes |
| 1962 | Insight | Jeanne Brown | Episode: "The Sophomore" |
| 1964 | Arrest and Trial | Angela Tucci | Episode: "Tigers Are for Jungles" |
| 1964 | Bonanza | Tai Lee | Episode: "A Pink Cloud Comes from Old Cathay" |
| 1964 | My Favorite Martian | Paula Clayfield | Episode: "Miss Jekyll and Hyde" |
| 1964 | Wendy and Me | Carol | Episode: "Wendy's Anniversary for —?" |
| 1964 | McHale's Navy | Cynthia Prentice | Episode: "The Missing Link" |
| 1965 | What's My Line? | Herself | Panelist |
| 1965 | The Donna Reed Show | Louise Bissell | Episode: "Guests, Guests, Who Needs Guests?" |
| 1965 | Two's Company | Caroline Sommers | Unsold pilot |
| 1965 | Ben Casey | Claire Schaeffer | Episode: "Three Li'l Lambs" |
| 1966–1971 | That Girl | Ann Marie | 136 episodes Golden Globe Award for Best Actress on Television (1967) TV Land Award for Favorite Fashion Plate – Female (2004) Nominated –Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (1967-1971) Nominated –TV Land Award for Hippest Fashion Plate – Female (2003) |
| 1967 | Cricket on the Hearth | Bertha | Voice, television film |
| 1973 | The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie | Ann Marie | Voice, episode: "That Girl in Wonderland" |
| 1973 | Acts of Love and Other Comedies | Various | Television film |
| 1976 | The Practice | Judy Sinclair | Episode: "Judy Sinclair" |
| 1977 | It Happened One Christmas | Mary Bailey Hatch | Television film; also producer |
| 1980 | The Body Human: The Facts for Girls | Host | TV documentary |
| 1984 | The Lost Honor of Kathryn Beck | Kathryn Beck | Television film; also producer |
| 1985 | Consenting Adult | Tess Lynd | Television film Nominated –Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film |
| 1986 | Nobody's Child | Marie Balter | Television film Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie Nominated –Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film |
| 1991 | Held Hostage: The Sis and Jerry Levin Story | Lucille 'Sis' Levin | Television film; also producer |
| 1994 | Ultimate Betrayal | Adult Sharon Rodgers | Television film |
| 1994 | Reunion | Jessie Yates | Television film; also producer |
| 1996 | Roseanne | Tina Beige | Episode: "Satan, Darling" |
| 1996, 2002 | Friends | Sandra Green | 3 episodes Nominated –Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series (1996) |
| 1999 | Frasier | Sophie | Voice, 3 episodes |
| 2000 | Ally McBeal | Lynnie Bishop | 2 episodes |
| 2002 | Two Against Time | Julie Portman | Television film |
| 2004 | Deceit | Ellen McCarthy | Television film; also producer |
| 2004 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Judge Mary Clark | 4 episodes |
| 2007 | Ugly Betty | Sandra Winthrop | Episode: "Something Wicked This Way Comes" |
| 2012 | The New Normal | Nancy Niles | Episode: "Baby Proofing" |
| 2015 | Ballers | Jason's Mother | Episode: "Ends" |
| 2017 | Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later | Vivian | TV miniseries |
| 2020 | The Rocketeer | Sitti / Mrs. Abboud | Voice, 2 episodes |
| 2022 | A Magical Christmas Village | Vivian Todd | Television film (Hallmark Channel) |
