Film & TV / Civil rights & activism
Marlo Thomas
born 1937 · actress, producer, author, activist
That Girl star and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital champion, born in Detroit while her father Danny Thomas was a struggling local radio and club entertainer.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 88- Birth name
- Margaret Julia Thomas
- Detroit years
- 1937–late 1930s
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Marlo Thomas was born Margaret Julia Thomas in Detroit on November 21, 1937, the first child of Rose Marie Cassaniti and the comedian Danny Thomas. Her father was then still a struggling performer: he had started on Detroit radio in 1932 on WMBC's The Happy Hour Club, married Rose Marie in 1936, and worked the local club circuit. Shortly before Marlo's birth, as a 'starving actor', he vowed to build a shrine to St. Jude if he ever succeeded, a promise that grew into St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. The family soon moved on to Chicago and then Beverly Hills, where Marlo grew up. She became a television pioneer as Ann Marie, an independent young woman in the sitcom That Girl (1966–1971), created the landmark children's project Free to Be... You and Me, and today leads outreach for St. Jude.
Highlights
- Starred in and produced That Girl (1966–1971)
- Created Free to Be... You and Me (1972), with Emmy and Peabody honors
- Four Emmy Awards overall and a Golden Globe
- Presidential Medal of Freedom (2014)
- National outreach director of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital