Lily Tomlin is one of the greatest actresses of our time. A comedic titan and prolific stage performer, Tomlin parlayed her success in theater into a film career in the 1970s with Robert Altman’s Nashville. Before that, she was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In where she thrilled audiences with her quick wit and memorable characters. Throughout her Hollywood career, Tomlin also went on to star in several hit films including All of Me, Big Business, Flirting with Disaster, and Tea with Mussolini, along with many others.



Having won a slew of Emmys over the years, a Tony award for The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, and a Grammy for her comedy album This is a Recording, Tomlin is just an Oscar away from being part of the renowned EGOT club — which is certainly not out of the realm of possibility since she’s been nominated for an Academy Award before. A true star in the entertainment industry, here are Lily Tomlin’s best performances, ranked.

Related: Jennifer Hudson Joins Exclusive EGOT Winners’ Circle With Tony Win

9 The Magic School Bus (1994-1997)

While probably not the first performance that comes to mind when thinking about Lily Tomlin’s incredible, the 1990s classic children’s animated series The Magic School Bus is one of her most successful roles. The program followed a red-headed science teacher named Miss Frizzle who took her students on exciting adventures on their magic school bus. Whether it was taking the bus inside one of their classmates to learn about how the body works or traveling back to the Cretaceous Period to examine fossils, kids all over the world were entertained and educated by the hilarious Miss Frizzle.

Lily Tomlin voiced the character of Miss Frizzle for the show’s entire four-season run. In 1996, she received a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program. The show was such a hit that Netflix decided to launch a reboot in 2017 called The Magic School Bus Rides Again. Tomlin returned to play the role of Miss Valerie Frizzle (now a professor) and comedic talent Kate McKinnon was cast in the role of her younger sister, Miss Fiona Frizzle, who took over her teaching position.

8 The West Wing (1999-2005)

The West Wing is a beloved political drama created by Aaron Sorkin that premiered in 1999 and ran for seven seasons. The show focused on a fictitious administration of President Josiah Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen. In Season Four Lily Tomlin joined the cast as Deborah “Debbie” Fiderer, who was hired as the President’s executive secretary. Although The West Wing boasted an ensemble cast of fascinating characters, Tomlin’s take-no-nonsense portrayal of Debbie and her perfect comedic timing became beloved by fans. She was even considered the show’s “unsung hero” by Bustle. In 2003, she was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series for her work.

7 The Late Show (1977)

The Late Show is a 1977 neo-noir dramatic comedy directed by Robert Benton that follows a down-on-his-luck detective named Ira Wells (Art Carney) who is attempting to solve the murder of his partner. He’s then saddled with an unwanted client, a musician’s agent and weed dealer Margo Sperling, played by Lily Tomlin, who wants to hire Ira to find her missing cat. After the unlikely pair get to know each other, Ira agrees to take Margo on as his new partner.

The film was celebrated by critics and was added to the list of Best Movies You’ve Never Heard of by the World Cinema Paradise, and was called “a unique, one-of-a-kind film that lived up to its advertising tagline ‘The nicest, warmest, funniest, and most touching movie you’ll ever see about blackmail, mystery, and murder.’” The Late Show received several awards including the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Tomlin, specifically, was nominated for both a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for her work. She also won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 27th Berlin International Film Awards.

6 The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (1991)

The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe was a one-woman stage show written by Jane Wagner starring Lily Tomlin. The show hit stages in 1985 was Tomlin’s second Broadway billing as a solo performer, following her 1977 Broadway debut with Appearing Nitely, which was also co-written with Wagner, Tomlin’s longtime life partner. This project highlights Tomlin’s incredible ability to embody any role as she performs as twelve different characters, all while wearing only black pants and a white blouse. Tomlin’s performance earned her a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award. The film version was directed by John Bailey and earned Tomlin an additional trophy for Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture at the American Comedy Awards.

Related: Here’s Every Aunt May Performance of All the Spider-Man Franchises, Ranked

5 Grandma (2015)

Grandma is an independent dramedy that was directed by Paul Weitz and released in 2015. Lily Tomlin plays Elle, a recently widowed lesbian poet whose teenage granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner) comes to her to ask for money for an abortion. Over the course of a day, the two visit people from Elle’s past to call in favors to get enough cash for the procedure. Grandma was praised by critics for its sensitive, yet humorous, tackling of a difficult subject. Weitz was quoted as saying, “I was really interested in this idea that somebody in their 70s can be more transgressive and have a more passionate voice than this person who is 18.”

The cast of Grandma included several actors that Weitz and Tomlin had worked alongside previously, including Marcia Gay Harden, Judy Greer, Laverne Cox, and Sam Elliott. The independent project was filmed in just 19 days in Los Angeles with a budget of less than $600k. Nearly every review written about Grandma touts Tomlin’s incredible performance at length, and both she and the film itself were nominated for nearly a dozen awards. It was also named one of the Top Ten Independent Films of 2015 by the National Board of Review.

4 9 to 5 (1980)

9 to 5 is a classic comedy film from Colin Higgins that is most recognized for country singer Dolly Parton’s role and the inclusion of her hit song of the same name. The film was such a success that it spawned a sitcom in 1982 that ran for five seasons, and a musical play that included additional songs penned by Parton that opened on Broadway in 2009.

The plot follows a reserved housewife named Judy Bernly, played by the formidable Jane Fonda, who goes to work as a secretary at Consolidated Companies. Lily Tomlin plays spitfire single mother named Violet, who is tasked with training the newbie. 9 to 5 resides at number 74 on the American Film Institute’s list of 100 Funniest Movies and has become an iconic representation of feminism in pop culture in the decades since its release.

3 A Prairie Home Companion (2006)

A Prairie Home Companion is a musical comedy, and the final film directed by Robert Altman before his death. The film is a fictional representation of the behind-the-scenes activities of the long-running public radio show of the same name. It was filmed at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul Minnesota, the radio show’s usual venue. It boasts an ensemble cast that includes stars such as Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Garrison Keillor, Kevin Kline, Lindsay Lohan, Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly, Maya Rudolph, Meryl Streep, and of course Lily Tomlin.

Tomlin plays one of the radio show’s cast members Rhonda Johnson, sister to Streep’s Yolanda, and mother to Lohan’s Lola, and the trio performed together throughout. Esteemed critic Roger Ebert gave the film four stars out of four, writing “What a lovely film this is, so gentle and whimsical, so simple and profound. He also added it to his list of “great movies.”

2 Grace & Frankie (2015-2022)

Grace & Frankie is a comedy television series created by Marta Kauffman and Howard J. Morris. The show stars Jane Fonda as the high society businesswoman Grace Hanson and Lily Tomlin as the hippie artist Frankie Bergstein. The two extremely different women are forced to live together when their husbands Robert and Sol, longtime divorce attorneys, leave them for each other. The two women form an unlikely friendship based on a delicate balance of mutual annoyance and sincere affection.

The series has been widely praised by critics for its touching and hilarious portrayal of older life and for conveying to its audiences how one doesn’t cease to exist past the age of 40 or 50 or 60. Fonda and Tomlin have amassed a whopping 19 award nominations between them over the course of the show. After Grace & Frankie’s premiere, it was publicly revealed that Tomlin and Fonda were being paid the same as their male counterparts, despite the fact that the women’s roles were significantly larger. Their co-stars Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston supported their petition for higher pay.

Related: How Netflix’s Grace and Frankie Speaks to a Generation

1 Nashville (1975)

Before Robert Altman’s success with A Prairie Home Companion, he previously directed Lily Tomlin in the satirical ensemble musical comedy-drama Nashville in 1975. The film follows a group of people in the country and gospel music businesses in Nashville over a five-day period as they prepare for a gala concert for a populist outsider running for President on the “Replacement Party” ticket. Often praised for its scope, Nashville includes 24 main characters, including Elliott Gould, Henry Gibson, Keth Carradine, Ronee Blakley, and several others. Tomlin plays Linnea Reese, a gospel singer and wife of Delbert Reese (Ned Beatty), a campaign organizer with a wandering eye. Many of the stars composed their own songs featured in the film, and Tomlin co-wrote “Yes, I Do” with Richard Baskin, which she performs in the film.

At the time of its release, Nashville was controversial in the country music community as many performers felt the film was mean-spirited and ridiculing, though it’s been more appreciated in the industry in recent years. Nashville received a record number of Golden Globe nominations for a single film (eleven) and is widely considered one of the greatest films of all time. It was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”