Margaret Julia "Marlo" Thomas (born November 21, 1937) is an American actress, producer, author, and social activist. She is best known for starring on the sitcom '' That Girl'' (1966–1971) and her children's franchise '' Free to Be... You and Me''. She received three

Primetime Emmy Awards The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Owned and operated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the P ...

, a

Daytime Emmy Award The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NA ...

, a

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are awards presented for excellence in both international film and television. It is an annual award ceremony held since 1944 to honor artists and professionals and their work. The ceremony is normally held every Janua ...

, and a Peabody Award for her work in television and was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame. She also received a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

for her children's album '' Marlo Thomas and Friends: Thanks & Giving All Year Long''. In 2014, she was awarded the

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, alongside the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by decision of the president of the United States to "any person recommended to the President ...

. Thomas serves as National Outreach Director for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which was founded by her father

Danny Thomas Amos Muzyad Yaqoob Kairouz, (born January 6, 1912 – February 6, 1991) known professionally as Danny Thomas, was an American comedian, actor, singer, producer, and philanthropist. He created and starred in ''The Danny Thomas Show''. In additio ...

in 1962. She created the Thanks & Giving campaign in 2004 to support the hospital.

Early life

Thomas was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

and raised in

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hills ...

, the eldest child of Rose Marie Cassaniti and comedian

. She has a sister, Terre, and a brother, producer Tony Thomas. Her father was a Catholic

Lebanese American Lebanese Americans () are Americans of Lebanese descent. This includes both those who are native to the United States of America, as well as immigrants from Lebanon and Latin America. Lebanese Americans comprise 0.79% of the American populatio ...

and her mother was Sicilian American. Her godmother was

Loretta Young Loretta Young (born Gretchen Michaela Young; January 6, 1913 – August 12, 2000) was an American actress. Starting as a child, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1989. She received numerous honors including an Academy Awards ...

. The name "Marlo" came from her childhood mispronunciation of the name Margo, as Thomas was called by her family. Thomas attended Marymount High School and graduated from the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

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 sorority Kappa Alpha Theta.

Career

Early career

Thomas appeared in many television programs including ''

Bonanza ''Bonanza'' is an American Western television series that ran on NBC from September 12, 1959, to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 431 episodes, ''Bonanza'' is NBC's longest-running Western, the second-longest-running Western series on ...

'', ''

McHale's Navy ''McHale's Navy'' is an American sitcom starring Ernest Borgnine that aired 138 half-hour episodes over four seasons, from October 11, 1962, to April 12, 1966, on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television network. The series was filmed i ...

'', '' Ben Casey'', '' Arrest and Trial'', '' The Joey Bishop Show'', '' The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis'', ''

My Favorite Martian ''My Favorite Martian'' is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from September 29, 1963, to May 1, 1966, for 107 episodes. The show stars Ray Walston as "Uncle Martin" (the Martian) and Bill Bixby as Tim O'Hara. ''My Favorite Martian'' was th ...

'', '' 77 Sunset Strip'', and '' The Donna Reed Show''. Her big break came in 1965 when she was cast by

Mike Nichols Mike Nichols (born Igor Mikhail Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theatre director and comedian. He worked across a range of genres and had an aptitude for getting the best out of actors regardless of ...

in the London production of Neil Simon's '' Barefoot in the Park,'' co-starring Daniel Massey, Kurt Kasznar, and Mildred Natwick. (In 1986, she was once again cast by Nichols on Broadway in Andrew Bergman's ''

Social Security Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance ...

,'' co-starring Ron Silver and

Olympia Dukakis Olympia Dukakis (June 20, 1931 – May 1, 2021) was an American actress. She performed in more than 130 stage productions, in some 60 films, and in approximately 50 television series. Best known as a screen actress, she started her career in the ...

.) 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''.

''That Girl''

Thomas starred in an ABC pilot called ''Two'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 entitled '' That Girl'', in which Thomas played Ann Marie, a beautiful, up-and-coming actress with a writer boyfriend, played by Ted Bessell. The series told the daily struggles of Ann holding different temporary jobs while pursuing her dream of a career on Broadway. ''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. Thomas was only the fourth woman to produce her own series, following

Gertrude Berg Gertrude Berg (born Tillie Edelstein; October 3, 1899 – September 14, 1966) was an American actress, screenwriter, and producer. A pioneer of classic old-time radio, radio, she was one of the first women to create, write, produce, and star in a ...

Lucille Ball Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedian, producer, and studio executive. She was recognized by ''Time (magazine), Time'' in 2020 as one of the most influential women of the 20th century for h ...

, and Betty White. ''That Girl'' aired from 1966 to 1971, producing 136 episodes, and was a solid performer in the

Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

. 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 is

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

. ''That Girl'' has since become popular in syndication.

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.

Later career

After ''That Girl'', eager to expand her horizons, Thomas attended the

Actors Studio The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights located on West 44th Street in Hell's Kitchen in New York City. The studio is best known for its work refining and teaching method actin ...

, where she studied with

Lee Strasberg Lee Strasberg (born Israel Strassberg; November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was an American acting coach and actor. He co-founded, with theatre directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed ...

until his death in 1982, and subsequently with his disciple Sandra Seacat. When she won her Best Dramatic Actress Emmy in 1986 for the television film ''Nobody’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 Gordon. She went on to create multiple recordings and television specials of and related to that title: ''Free to Be... You and Me'' (1972, 1974) and '' Free to Be... A Family'' (1987), with Christopher Cerf. Also in 1972, she served as a California delegate to the

Democratic National Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 18 ...

in Miami Beach, Florida. She helped the

George McGovern George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American politician, diplomat, and historian who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator from South Dakota, and the Democratic Party (United States), Democ ...

presidential campaign in October 1972 at Star-Spangled Women for McGovern–Shriver, reciting a parody of Erich Segal's '' Love Story'' for 19,000 people at

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

. In 1973, Thomas joined

Gloria Steinem Gloria Marie Steinem ( ; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social movement, social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. ...

, Patricia Carbine, and Letty Cottin Pogrebin as the founders of the Ms. 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 the NBC

situation comedy A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

The Practice ''The Practice'' is an American legal drama television series created by David E. Kelley centering on partners and associates at a Boston law firm. The show ran for eight seasons on ABC, from March 4, 1997, to May 16, 2004. It won an Emmy i ...

'' 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, including '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' (as Judge Mary Conway Clark, a mentor of ADA Casey Novak), '' Ballers'', '' The New Normal'', '' Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later''. She also narrated the series ''Happily Never After'' on

Investigation Discovery Investigation Discovery (stylized and branded on-air as ID since 2008) is an American multinational pay television network dedicated to true crime documentaries, similar to corporate sibling HLN. It is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery's netw ...

. From 1996 to 2002, Thomas had a reoccurring role on the hit TV show, ''

Friends ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane (producer), David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting List of Friends episodes, ten seasons. With an ensemble cast ...

''. She played Rachel Green's mother, Sandra Green, in three episodes. The role was poignant because of parallels to ''That Girl''. 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. However, Thomas's first appearance on ''Friends'' was in Season 2 when her character goes looking for her daughter, who had run off to Manhattan after ditching her fiancé, Barry, at the altar. Sandra confesses to Rachel that she is leaving her husband, expresses interest in being one of the girls, marijuana and what is new in sex. Sandra envies her daughter's lifestyle, which she missed out on due to taking a more traditional path. When Rachel becomes upset at her mom's frankness, Sandra explains that she thought Rachel of all people would understand because "you didn't marry your Barry, honey, but I married mine." In 2019, Thomas described her on-screen daughter, Rachel, as the "That Girl" of the late 90s and early 2000s. Thomas compared the on-air standards 30 years apart, noting that in ''That Girl'', Donald could not even spend the night at Ann's apartment, but on ''Friends'', they were much more open about sex. Thomas also spoke of the great respect the ''Friends'' cast showed her when they worked together; they were familiar with her work and yielded to her comedic expertise. Thomas appeared in films such as '' Jenny'' (1970), '' Thieves'' (1977), '' In The Spirit'' (1990), '' The Real Blonde'' (1997), '' Starstruck'' (1998), '' Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo'' (1999), '' Playing Mona Lisa'' (2000), '' LOL'' (2012) with

Demi Moore Demi Gene Moore ( ; née Guynes; born November 11, 1962) is an American actress. After rising to prominence in the early 1980s, she became the world's highest-paid actress by 1995. List of awards and nominations received by Demi Moore, Her acc ...

and

Miley Cyrus Miley Ray Cyrus ( , born Destiny Hope Cyrus, November 23, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, actress and director. Regarded as a contemporary pop icon, Cyrus has been recognized for her evolving artistry and image reinventions. She is ...

, and ''Cardboard Boxer'' (2014). She also starred in television films, including '' It Happened One Christmas'' (1977; also produced) (a remake of '' It's a Wonderful Life''), '' 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), and ''Ultimate Betrayal'' (1994). Thomas'

Broadway theatre Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), many of the List of ...

credits include '' Thieves'' (1974), ''

'' (1986), and '' The Shadow Box'' (1994), and in 2011, she starred as Doreen in Elaine May's comedy ''George Is Dead'' in ''Relatively Speaking'' during a set of three one-act plays (''The New York Times'' called Thomas' performance "sublime"). The other two plays were written by

Woody Allen Heywood Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many List of awards and nominations received by Woody Allen, accolade ...

and Ethan Coen.

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

, Thomas has appeared in '' The Guys'', '' The Exonerated'' (in which she also appeared in Chicago and Boston, co-starring with Brian Dennehy), '' The Vagina Monologues'' and '' Love, Loss, and What I Wore''. Also off-Broadway, she appeared opposite Greg Mullavey in the 2015 New York debut of Joe DiPietro's play ''Clever Little Lies'' at the Westside Theatre. 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; and '' The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds'' at the Cleveland Playhouse. In 1993, she toured in the national company of ''Six Degrees of Separation.'' In the spring of 2008, she starred in Arthur Laurents' last play, ''New Year's Eve'' with Keith Carradine, at the George Street Playhouse. Thomas has published seven best-selling books (three of them #1 best-sellers): '' 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 2006

for Best Spoken Word Album for Children); her 2009 memoir, ''Growing Up Laughing''; and ''It 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 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

, which was founded by her father, Danny Thomas. She donated all royalties from her 2004 book and CD '' Marlo Thomas and Friends: Thanks & Giving All Year Long'' (also produced with Christopher Cerf) and her two ''Right Words at the Right Time'' books to the hospital. In 2010, Thomas create
MarloThomas.com
a website for women aged 35+, associated with AOL and the ''

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers ...

''.

Honors

Thomas is the recipient of four

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

, a

, a Jefferson Award, and the

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...

. In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Thomas' name and picture. In 1996, she was awarded the Women 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. On November 20, 2014, the Marlo Thomas Center for Global Education and Collaboration was opened as part of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

presided over the ribbon-cutting ceremony. On November 24, 2014, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

awarded Thomas the

, the nation's highest civilian honor, at a White House ceremony.

Personal life

Thomas was in a long relationship with playwright Herb Gardner. In 1977, Thomas was a guest on '' Donahue'', the television

talk show A talk show is a television programming, radio programming or podcast genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show', pp.3-4Erler, Robert (201 ...

, when she and host Phil Donahue fell in "

love at first sight Love at first sight is a personal experience and a common theme in creative works: a person or character feels an instant, extreme, and ultimately long-lasting romantic attraction for a stranger upon first seeing that stranger. It has been desc ...

". 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. Thomas is the stepmother to Donahue's four sons and daughter from his first marriage. Concerning her relationship with her stepchildren, Thomas told '' AARP Magazine'' in May 2011: Donahue died on August 18, 2024.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

MarloThomas.com
() * * * * * * *
All About Marlo Thomas
at StJude.org
Marlo Thomas
��Video produced by '' Makers: Women Who Make America''
Marlo Thomas at the Comedy Hall of Fame
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Marlo 1937 births Living people 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses Activists from Detroit Activists from Los Angeles Actresses from Los Angeles Actors Studio alumni Actresses from Detroit American film actresses American people of Lebanese descent American people of Italian descent American stage actresses American television actresses Audiobook narrators A&M Records artists Bell Records artists Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (television) winners Grammy Award winners Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute alumni Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients St. Jude Children's Research Hospital USC Rossier School of Education alumni