Marlo Thomas
Marlo Thomas is an actor, born 1937.
That Girl is why Marlo Thomas matters to television. From 1966 to 1971 she played Ann Marie, and the premise did the arguing: a network sitcom built around a single woman in New York whose story did not depend on a husband. She had already been on television before it, with Wendy and Me and Valentine's Day in 1964.
She then did what few stars of her era attempted and built a second career off camera, as a producer, author and social activist. Free to Be... You and Me grew into a children's franchise, and the album Marlo Thomas and Friends: Thanks & Giving All Year Long won her a Grammy. Her shelf also holds three Primetime Emmys, a Daytime Emmy, a Golden Globe and a Peabody, and she was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame.
The film credits are a light, late scattering: Blair in The Real Blonde, Gran in LOL, Lynne in The Female Brain and Rene in Ocean's Eight. Her book Growing Up Laughing sits among them. She was married to the broadcaster Phil Donahue from May 1980 until his death. Much of her television career is not among the credits listed here, so treat this page as a summary rather than a complete record.
Movies (4)
TV (5)
Books (1)
Where to start with Marlo Thomas
There is only one real starting point, That Girl, and it survives its era better than the reputation of 1960s sitcoms suggests. Watch a first-season episode and notice how much of the comedy is coming from Thomas's face rather than from the script.
For a modern audience, Ocean's Eight is the easiest sighting, a small late-career appearance in a big film. The Real Blonde is the sharpest of her film roles, while The Female Brain and LOL are pleasant without asking much of her. Readers should go to Growing Up Laughing, her book about comedy and family, which is closer to her actual subject than any of the films.