The Renaissance Woman
Actress, writer, philanthropist and feminist Marlo Thomas likes to read the sports pages. Even though she’s an avid baseball fan she’ll read about any sport. What she loves are the athlete’s interviews, and she combs through the section regularly for any pearls of wisdom.
“Athletes have a whole other way of thinking,” she says. “They have a goal; they have their asses kicked, they get disappointed, but they learn from every game. After a game you’ll hear them analyze what went wrong and what went right. It’s so completely personal to them. Just like my work is personal to me. I always feel I learn something from their challenges that help me with mine.”
Maybe it’s something about those challenges, and those reversals of narrative that resonate with Thomas. When she was in her 20s and charging hard to become an actress, Thomas pitched network executives a mold-breaking series around a single young woman looking to, well, make her break as an actress. “That Girl” ran from 1966 to 1971 and featured sharp departures from traditional female roles in both tone and fashion. As opposed to her conservative, apron-clad contemporaries like Donna Reed, Jane Cleaver or Lucille Ball, Thomas wore the psychedelic, ‘it girl’ fashion of the day on her show. Rather than spend her on-screen time working to find a man, she played the first single working woman on TV, and pushed back against the idea that her character should get married — a belief she held in real life as well. In fact, as the series came to an end, the sponsor and the network wanted to finish with a wedding between her character, Ann Marie and her boyfriend, Donald Hollinger. But Thomas nixed it:
“I felt I’d be letting down my mostly female audience with the message that a wedding was the only happy ending to Ann Marie’s story.”
“People try to tell you who you are, and where you fit. And I just think, you can’t listen,” she told me. “You have to create your own facts, your own reality. Because people are too unimaginative.”
It’s no surprise, then, to find Thomas, more than 40 years later at 79, launching a new online fashion collection, working in the theater, palling around with old friend Gloria Steinem and continuing to avidly fundraise for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the free cancer research and treatment center for children founded by her father, comedian Danny Thomas.
A couple of years ago, she wrote a book, It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over, in which she interviewed more than 60 women about a subject we at AGEIST have come to champion: redefining later life. It landed on The New York Times bestseller list. One story in particular resonated with her, of a graphic designer in her early 40s who had always dreamed of being a doctor — but felt it was too late. Thomas just didn’t understand the hold up around age. “I never think to myself, ‘Oh I’m in my 70s, is it too late to fulfill this dream or the other?’ ” she says. “I remember [the actress] Ruth Gordon saying something that became my favorite mantra: ‘Never face the facts. If you face the facts you’ll never get out of bed in the morning.’ And I just love that. There’s a million people who will give you a million reasons why you can’t do something.”
For the past 37 years she’s been married to a man – TV talk show host Phil Donahue — who loves to relax and spend his retirement the traditional way. It’s something Thomas respects but hasn’t been able to manage herself. “I have a need to constantly be creative,” she says. “For me, it’s life-giving: creativity, purposefulness, having something to solve. I think life is about solving problems.”
Nowadays, Marlo Thomas spreads that creativity across a variety of outlets.
“I love working as an actor, but I also love being creative in many ways,” she told me. “Yes, above all, I want to work as an actor, but when you can’t find just the job that you want to do, that’s when I think your creativity needs to kick in and you do something else. For me, it’s writing a book, or creating a podcast or a fashion line. Something that’s creative and that puts me together with a community of creative people.”
And I think that’s something that’s stuck with me about how Marlo Thomas works. It’s not simply about pursuing other interests, it’s about pursuing them with purpose; with the idea that you’re going to make something of it. When we spoke, she dropped a line about why she wanted to get into acting — but in retrospect, it really could apply to everything else in her life as well: “People ask me: ‘If you weren’t an actress, what would you have been?’ and I say, ‘I would’ve been a pain in the ass!’ Because that’s all I ever really wanted to do.”
Marlo Thomas’ performance work via Wikipedia:
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 |
Television
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 Theater | Laurie Dubro | Episode: “Honor Bright” |
1961 | Thriller | Susan Baker | Episode: “The Ordeal of Dr. Cordell” |
1961–1962 | The Joey Bishop Show | Stella | 10 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 | 137 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) | TV movie |
1973 | The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie | Anne Marie (voice) | Episode: “That Girl in Wonderland” |
1973 | Acts of Love and Other Comedies | Various | TV movie |
1976 | The Practice | Judy Sinclair | Episode: “Judy Sinclair” |
1977 | It Happened One Christmas | Mary Bailey Hatch | TV movie; also produced |
1984 | The Lost Honor of Kathryn Beck | Kathryn Beck | TV movie; also produced |
1985 | Consenting Adult | Tess Lynd | TV movie Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film |
1986 | Nobody’s Child | Marie Balter | TV movie 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 | TV movie; also produced |
1994 | Ultimate Betrayal | Adult Sharon Rodgers | TV movie |
1994 | Reunion | Jessie Yates | TV movie; also produced |
1996 | Roseanne | Tina Beige | Episode: “Satan, Darling” |
1996, 2002 | Friends | Sandra Green | Episode: “The One with the Lesbian Wedding” Episode: “The One with the Two Parties” Episode: “The One with the Baby Shower” Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series (1996) |
1999 | Frasier | Sophie (voice) | 3 episodes |
2000 | Ally McBeal | Lynnie Bishop | Episode: “Tis the Season” Episode: “Love on Holiday” |
2002 | Two Against Time | Julie Portman | TV movie |
2004 | Deceit | Ellen McCarthy | TV movie; also produced |
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 | Episode: “Ends” | |
2017 | Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later | Vivian |
The ideas expressed here are solely the opinions of the author and are not researched or verified by AGEIST LLC, or anyone associated with AGEIST LLC. This material should not be construed as medical advice or recommendation, it is for informational use only. We encourage all readers to discuss with your qualified practitioners the relevance of the application of any of these ideas to your life. The recommendations contained herein are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. You should always consult your physician or other qualified health provider before starting any new treatment or stopping any treatment that has been prescribed for you by your physician or other qualified health provider. Please call your doctor or 911 immediately if you think you may have a medical or psychiatric emergency.