Biography
Marlo Thomas earned lasting recognition through her lead performance in the beloved television series That Girl, while also issuing multiple children’s albums drawn from the celebrated Free to Be… projects. Born on November 21, 1937, in Deerfield, Michigan, to comedian Danny Thomas, she initially trained for a teaching career and entered acting only after completing college. Early television appearances on programs such as The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and 77 Sunset Strip led to her first starring part in the 1961 sitcom The Joey Bishop Show; she departed after one season and resumed guest roles on series including Bonanza and McHale’s Navy. Her feature-film bow came in 1965 with an uncredited turn in Richard Lester’s The Knack… and How to Get It.
The following year she took the title role in That Girl, a pioneering sitcom that offered the first realistic depiction of an unmarried, self-reliant young woman; the part established Thomas as both a star and a lasting feminist symbol. Following the show’s conclusion in 1971, she devoted greater energy to social and political causes, then starred in and co-produced the Emmy-winning 1974 children’s special Free to Be… You and Me. Although a soundtrack album bearing that title had appeared two years earlier and would later be reissued by Arista in 2006, she issued a new soundtrack recording; a follow-up special, Free to Be… A Family, arrived in 1988 and likewise generated a soundtrack. Her acting work remained limited during this period as she married talk-show host Phil Donahue and pursued projects in film and on Broadway; in 1996 she returned to television for a guest appearance as Rachel’s mother on the hit series Friends.
The following year she took the title role in That Girl, a pioneering sitcom that offered the first realistic depiction of an unmarried, self-reliant young woman; the part established Thomas as both a star and a lasting feminist symbol. Following the show’s conclusion in 1971, she devoted greater energy to social and political causes, then starred in and co-produced the Emmy-winning 1974 children’s special Free to Be… You and Me. Although a soundtrack album bearing that title had appeared two years earlier and would later be reissued by Arista in 2006, she issued a new soundtrack recording; a follow-up special, Free to Be… A Family, arrived in 1988 and likewise generated a soundtrack. Her acting work remained limited during this period as she married talk-show host Phil Donahue and pursued projects in film and on Broadway; in 1996 she returned to television for a guest appearance as Rachel’s mother on the hit series Friends.