Lily Tomlin to Receive AARP The Magazine’s Movies for Grownups® Awards Career Achievement Honor
2021’s Best Movies and TV for Grownups to be Honored During the 20th Anniversary Special on March 18 from Great Performances on PBS
WASHINGTON—AARP The Magazine announced today that Lily Tomlin will receive this year’s Movies for Grownups® Career Achievement Award. Tomlin — a critically acclaimed actress and comedian across TV, film and theater, and recipient of eight Emmy Awards®, two Tony Awards®, a Grammy Award®, among many others — will be honored at the 20th Anniversary Special of the annual Movies for Grownups® (MFG) Awards, broadcast on Friday, March 18, 2022, at 9 p.m. ET, by Great Performances on PBS.
“We are thrilled to honor Lily Tomlin, a trailblazer whose six-decade career as an actress, comedian, writer and advocate continues to break through boundaries today,” said AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins. “She’s an icon across mediums – as fresh, innovative, and influential today as when she revolutionized TV on Laugh-In in the ‘60s. In her current role on Grace and Frankie, in which she portrays issues of aging with respect, originality and hilarity, she continues to dismantle outdated stereotypes, demonstrating why she remains at the leading edge of pop culture.”
For two decades, AARP’s Movies for Grownups program has championed movies for grownups, by grownups, by advocating for the 50-plus audience, fighting industry ageism and encouraging films — and now TV shows — that resonate with older viewers.
Ms. Tomlin said, “I am honored to receive this award from AARP. There are so few grownups in the world. I am happy to be one. I feel I am not only a grownup, but I am mature for my age and that’s the truthhhhh!”
Tomlin will receive Movies for Grownups’ highest honor at the virtual awards ceremony, which will also include recognition for 2021’s best films and television series, including best actor, best actress, best director, best picture/best movie for grownups, best series, best TV movie/limited series, and more.
She joins a prestigious list of previous AARP Movies for Grownups Career Achievement honorees, including George Clooney, Annette Bening, Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Shirley MacLaine, Helen Mirren, Robert Redford, Susan Sarandon and Sharon Stone.
Lily Tomlin, one of America’s foremost actresses, has conquered a wide range of media, starring in television, theater, motion pictures, animation, video and social media. Throughout her extraordinary career, Tomlin has received numerous awards, including: eight Emmys, with 25 Primetime and five Daytime nominations over 50 years; a Tony for her one-woman Broadway show, Appearing Nitely; a second Tony for best actress, a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award for her one-woman performance in Jane Wagner’s The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe; a CableACE Award for executive producing the film adaptation of The Search; a Grammy for her comedy album, This is a Recording, and nominations for her albums Modern Scream, And That’s the Truth, and On Stage; and two Peabody Awards, for Edith Ann’s Christmas (Just Say Noël), and The Celluloid Closet. She earned a 1976 Oscar nomination for Nashville, plus the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2003. In 2014, she received the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, DC., followed by a SAG Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.
Tomlin is critically acclaimed for her work across television (The West Wing, Malibu Country, Grace and Frankie, Web Therapy), stage (Appearing Nitely, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, The Search), as well as film (Nashville, 9 to 5, The Incredible Shrinking Woman, Big Business, Shadows and Fog, Short Cuts, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Kid, The Walker, Pink Panther II, Admission, Grandma, among others).
Upcoming, Tomlin will star alongside her Grace and Frankie and 9 to 5 co-star Jane Fonda in Moving On. Reuniting with her Grandma and Admission director, Paul Weitz, Tomlin and Fonda play two old friends who reconnect at a funeral and decide to get revenge on the widower who wronged them decades before.
Tomlin is well-known for supporting philanthropic organizations, particularly those focused on animal welfare, civil rights, health care, protection of elephants, women’s issues, AIDS-related organizations, environmental concerns, overcoming homelessness and supporting the LGBTQ community in all aspects of life.
The virtual ceremony will be hosted by Alan Cumming and will be broadcast by Great Performances on Friday, March 18, 2022, at 9 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings), pbs.org/moviesforgrownups, and the PBS Video app as part of #PBSForTheArts, a multiplatform campaign that celebrates the arts in America.
Special thanks to our funders, Barclays and RRD, for their generous support of the 2022 Movies for Grownups Awards.
