Lily Tomlin is receiving a special honor on Hollywood Boulevard. The openly lesbian 80-year-old actress will leave her hand and footprints on the walk, immortalizing her decades of legendary work.
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) announced the news with a press release on Thursday. The ceremony will take place at the world-famous TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX in Hollywood during the 11th TCM Classic Film Festival on April 17th.
Tomlin has had a “remarkable career starting in the 1960s,” TCM says. She has won eight Emmys, a Grammy, a Tony, and two Peabody Awards. She’s also a long-time LGBTQ+ activist.
“Lily Tomlin’s talent has endured for fifty years because she knows who she is,” explains Ben Mankiewicz, TCM primetime anchor and official host of the TCM Classic Film Festival. “Not long ago, Tomlin told The New York Times, ‘I wanted people to see the characters as human beings. And see themselves in them, too.'”
Mankiewicz adds: “The humanity she finds in the women she plays has enabled her to transition, seemingly with ease, from groundbreaking work on ‘Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In’ to four Emmy nominations for ‘Grace and Frankie’, where she co-stars alongside another seminal artist, Jane Fonda. There’s a consistent richness to her work, in comedy and drama, as well as on stage in her innovative one-woman show, ‘The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe’, and on the big screen.”
Citing Tomlin’s seemingly endless resume of work, from “9 to 5” to “I Heart Huckabees,” Mankiewicz says that “you know all of those pictures were made more memorable because Lily Tomlin was among the cast.”
“It’s hard to imagine a more deserving artist to have her hand and footprints cemented outside Hollywood’s signature classic movie house,” he says.
The hand and footprint ceremony will be free and open to the public, though the time has yet to be announced.
This is TCM’s 11th time hosting the ceremony. Tomlin’s co-star Jane Fonda received the honor in 2013.
