Jane Wagner & Lily Tomlin

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Jane Wagner (born February 26, 1935) is an American writer, director and producer. Wagner is best known as Lily Tomlin's comedy writer, collaborator and life partner. They married on New Year's Eve 2013 after 42 years together.

She is the author of The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, The Incredible Shrinking Woman and other Tomlin vehicles.

Wagner was born and raised in Morristown, Tennessee, where she quickly developed a penchant for writing. She attended Morristown High School, where she wrote for the school newspaper. At 17, she left the hills of East Tennessee to pursue an acting career in New York City, where she also studied painting and sculpture at the School of Visual Arts and piano.

Early in her life she toured with the Barter Theatre of Abingdon, Virginia, and later became a designer for such firms as Kimberly-Clark and Fieldcrest.

She made her writing debut with the CBS afternoon special J.T. (1969), for which she won the Peabody Award – and drew the attention of Tomlin, who was looking for someone to help develop the Laugh-In character Edith Ann. It was the beginning of a collaboration that continues to this day.

Wagner has been nominated for Grammy Awards, with Tomlin, for the comic’s recorded albums, and has won three Emmy Awards and a Writers Guild of America award, also with Tomlin, for the comic’s television specials.


Lily Tomlin (born September 1, 1939) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and producer. Jane Wagner (born February 26, 1935) is an American writer, director and producer. Wagner is best known as Lily Tomlin's comedy writer, collaborator and life partner. Tomlin met her partner Jane Wagner in March 1971. After watching an after school special written by Wagner, Tomlin invited her to Los Angeles to collaborate on a comedy album. They married on New Year's Eve 2013 after 42 years together.

She also wrote and directed Moment by Moment, starring Tomlin and John Travolta, and wrote The Incredible Shrinking Woman, which starred Tomlin.

The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe won Wagner a Special Award from the New York Drama Critics’ Circle and a New York Drama Desk Award. The film adaptation of the play brought Wagner a Cable ACE Award.

Wagner also won a second Peabody for the ABC special, Edith Ann’s Christmas: Just Say Noel (1996).

On 16 March 2012 Wagner and Tomlin received the 345th star on the Walk of Stars in Palm Springs, California. Senator Barbara Boxer and Palm Springs residents and fellow star recipients, Carol Channing, actor Dane Andrew & Rascal The World's Ugliest Dog were among the attendees at the dedication ceremony.

Since its launch in 2008, Jane Wagner has been a contributor for wowOwow.com, a new website for women to talk culture, politics and gossip.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Wagner

Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin (born September 1, 1939) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960s when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in. Her career has spanned television, comedy recordings, Broadway, and motion pictures, enjoying acclaimed success in each medium. She has starred in such films as Nashville, 9 to 5, All of Me, The Beverly Hillbillies, Orange County, and I Heart Huckabees. Her notable television roles include Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In as a cast member from 1970–73, Ms. Frizzle on The Magic School Bus, Kay Carter-Shepley on Murphy Brown, Deborah Fiderer on The West Wing, Lillie Mae MacKenzie on Malibu Country.

Tomlin met her partner Jane Wagner in March 1971. After watching an after school special written by Wagner, Tomlin invited her to Los Angeles to collaborate on a comedy album. Although Tomlin officially came out to the press in 2001, her sexual orientation had not really been a secret. In interviews she would often refer to Jane Wagner as her partner. As Tomlin herself stated in 2008, in an interview for Just Out magazine, "Everybody in the industry was certainly aware of my sexuality and of Jane...in interviews I always reference Jane and talk about Jane, but they don't always write about it."

Tomlin has been involved in a number of feminist and gay-friendly film productions, and on her 1975 album Modern Scream she poked fun at straight actors who make a point of distancing themselves from their gay and lesbian characters—answering the pseudo-interview question, she replied: "How did it feel to play a heterosexual? I've seen these women all my life, I know how they walk, I know how they talk ..."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_Tomlin

Further Readings:

My Life, So Far: By Edith Ann
Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Hyperion; 1st edition (October 20, 1994)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0786861207
ISBN-13: 978-0786861200
Amazon: My Life, So Far: By Edith Ann

From the much-loved Laugh-In to her upcoming series of animated television specials, Lily Tomlin's six-something alter ego, Edith Ann, has been dishing up enough provocative sandbox philosophy to fill several books. This volume collects the very best of it in a wise, witty, and clever counterpart to bestsellers such as All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. 15 halftones; 25 line drawings

The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe by Jane Wagner 
Paperback: 240 pages 
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Revised edition (February 27, 1991) 
Language: English 
ISBN-10: 0060920718 
Amazon: The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe

Jane Wagner's masterpiece--The first play in more than 20 years to become a national bestseller--is now a motion picture.

More Real Life Romances at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Real Life Romance