American comedian and actress Lily Tomlin was BOTD in 1939. Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, she studied biology at Wayne State University, before switching to theatre. After graduation, she moved to New York City, performing as a stand-up comic before joining TV sketch comedy show Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In in 1969. Her gallery of characters, including the uncompromising telephone operator Ernestine, made her a star. Her 1972 comedy record This Is A Recording was a national bestseller and won a Grammy award. She transitioned successfully to feature filmmaking, with vivid appearances in Robert Altman’s Nashville, the feminist revenge comedy 9 to 5 with Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton, and voiced Steve Martin’s love interest in body-swap comedy All of Me. She stormed Broadway with her 1985 one-woman show The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, written by her girlfriend Jane Wagner. A critical and commercial hit, it won Tomlin a Tony Award and was filmed in 1991. In 1992, she reunited with Altman for his films The Player and Short Cuts, and appeared in the TV film And the Band Played On, based on Randy Shilts‘ book about the HIV/AIDS crisis. In 1996, she narrated The Celluloid Closet, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman‘s documentary about LGBTQ misrepresentation in Hollywood, based on Vito Russo‘s book. The filmmakers later outed her as a lesbian, reputedly after Tomlin reneged on a deal to come out as part of the film’s promotion. The news surprised precisely no one, and her career continued unabated, with roles in David O. Russell’s films Flirting With Disaster and I Heart Huckabees, and regular roles in TV comedies Murphy Brown, Will and Grace, The West Wing and Will & Grace. In 2015, she reunited with Fonda to star in Grace & Frankie, a TV comedy about two women who become friends after their husbands come out as gay. Their winning chemistry made the show a critical and rating success, earning multiple industry awards and praise for its positive depiction of older women. The winner of multiple lifetime achievement awards, including a Kennedy Centre Honour in 2014, Tomlin is credited with inspiring generations of female comedians. Partners for over 50 years, Tomlin and Wagner were married in 2013.