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Born Margaret Thomas in Deerfield, Michigan (that's near Detroit) on
November 21, 1937 (some sources say 1934 or 1938), this perky actress was raised
in Hollywood as the daughter of show-business big shot Danny Thomas, and mother,
Rosie. She has one brother - Tony, and one sister - Terre. They have always
been a close knit family (see photo at bottom of page) and the death of
her father, Danny Thomas (who made 2 appearances on "That Girl"), was
very hard on Marlo. Although she was surrounded by a high-profile world of theatricality in her youth, she did not begin acting until after graduation from college, and in fact became a teacher first. At that point, in the early 1960s, she began making appearances on such TV series as "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," "Zane Grey Theater" and "Thriller." Her first major break came when she was cast as Stella Barnes, Joey Bishop's sister and an aspiring actress on the 1961 sitcom "The Joey Bishop Show." After one season, that series was re-tooled to a new format and moved to a new slot and Marlo resumed making guest shots on various programs like "Bonanza," "McHale's Navy," "The Donna Reed Show" and "Ben Casey." In 1966, Marlo became a household name playing Ann Marie on the hit show "That Girl" (the first TV series to center around the exploits of a single and independent woman). After that sitcom left the airwaves in 1971, Marlo was seen only sporadically on TV movies and specials. In 1974, she received an Emmy Award as star and producer of the children's special "Free to Be...You and Me." She followed that with an Emmy in 1981 as Best Performer in a Children's Program for "The Body Human: Facts for Girls," and an Emmy in 1986 as Best Actress in a Special for "Nobody's Child." In 1977, Marlo starred in an ABC Holiday movie called "It Happened One Christmas" (a sort of a female version of Jimmy Stewart's character in "It's a Wonderful Life") with Orson Welles, Wayne Rogers, and Cloris Leachman. (see photos below). In 1974 she made her Broadway debut in the Herb Gardner play "Thieves," and repeated that role in the 1977 film version. In 1986, she made a splash in Mike Nichols' production of "Social Security" with Ron Silver.
Today, Marlo is married to talk-show legend Phil Donahue, still appears on TV
(recently as Rachel's mom on "Friends"), and in the tradition of her late
father, performs considerable charitable work for St. Jude's Children's
Hospital. |
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Here is a complete filmography for Marlo Thomas:
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