Annette O'Toole

Actress

Birthday April 1, 1952

Birth Sign Aries

Birthplace Houston, Texas, U.S.

Age 71 years old

Nationality United States

#7619 Most Popular

1952

Annette O'Toole (born Annette Toole; April 1, 1952) is an American actress.

1967

O'Toole's first television appearance was in 1967 on The Danny Kaye Show, followed over the next few years with guest appearances in shows such as My Three Sons, The Virginian, Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-O, and The Partridge Family.

1975

Her first major film role was as a jaded beauty pageant contestant in the 1975 satire 'Smile'; she got the role after doing an impression of a "dead cockroach" at the audition.

1977

She also appeared as the tutor and girlfriend of Robby Benson's character in the college basketball story 'One on One' in 1977.

1980

She co-starred opposite Gary Busey in the 1980 film Foolin' Around.

1981

In 1981, she starred in the HBO onstage production of Vanities, as well as in the TV movie Stand By Your Man, which detailed the life of country music legend Tammy Wynette.

1982

Later on in 1982, she appeared briefly as Nick Nolte's girlfriend in 48 Hrs. That same year, she played Alice Perrin in Cat People, and then in 1983 she played Lana Lang (love interest to Clark Kent/Superman), and single mother of Ricky in Superman III.

1983

O'Toole married actor Bill Geisslinger on April 8, 1983; they divorced in 1993.

The couple had two daughters.

1985

In 1985, she co-starred with Barry Manilow in the CBS television movie Copacabana playing Lola La Mar to Manilow's Tony Starr.

Also in 1985, she had a starring role as Ms. Edmunds in the original Bridge to Terabithia, and appeared in the TV adaptation of Strong Medicine the following year.

1987

In 1987's Cross My Heart, a romantic comedy, O'Toole had a leading role opposite Martin Short.

1990

She is known for portraying Lisa Bridges in the television series Nash Bridges, adult Beverly Marsh in the 1990 television mini-series adaptation of Stephen King's epic horror novel It, Lana Lang in Superman III, Kathy in the romantic-comedy film Cross My Heart, and Martha Kent (the adoptive mother of Clark Kent) on the television series Smallville.

O'Toole was born in Houston, the daughter of Dorothy Geraldine (née Niland) and William West Toole Jr. Her mother taught dance, which O'Toole herself began learning at the age of three.

She started taking acting lessons after her family moved to Los Angeles when she was 13.

In 1990, O'Toole had roles in two ABC television mini-series.

She played the adult Beverly Marsh in the television mini-series adaptation of Stephen King's epic horror novel It and also portrayed Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy in The Kennedys of Massachusetts, a role that earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress.

1992

She next starred in the 1992 NBC mini-series Jewels, based on the Danielle Steel novel of the same name.

1993

In 1993, O'Toole starred in Desperate Justice as Ellen Wells.

1995

In 1995, she starred as Cheryl Keeton in the 1995 Lifetime television film based on Ann Rule's true crime novel Dead by Sunset.

1996

She had a recurring role on the television show Nash Bridges (1996) and starred in her own series The Huntress (2000) as a female bounty hunter.

1997

In 1997 O'Toole starred in the TV movie Keeping the Promise.

1999

O'Toole married Michael McKean on the 20th of March 1999 becoming the stepmother to his two sons from a previous marriage.

She and McKean share a musical career.

2001

In 2001, 18 years after portraying Lana Lang in Superman III, O'Toole returned to the Superman mythos in the role of Martha Kent, Superman's adoptive mother, in the television series Smallville.

She remained part of the show's main cast, though at times in the background, until the end of its sixth season.

O'Toole can date the beginning of her songwriting career to events during a car ride after the September 11 attacks; as her husband Michael McKean describes it, "On September 11, 2001, Annette found herself without an airline to carry her back down to Los Angeles from Vancouver, where she films Smallville. So she drove a rental car down. The two of us drove it back up together, and on the long drive up there, somewhere between Portland and Seattle, she told me she had a tune in her head."

The "tune in her head" became "Potato's in the Paddy Wagon", one of three songs the couple wrote for A Mighty Wind, including the Oscar-nominated song "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow."

2004

O'Toole sang "What Could Be Better?"—a song she and her husband co-wrote – for the 2004 Disney children's album A World of Happiness.

2005

In 2005, the couple did a cabaret act for "Feinstein's at the Regency" in New York City.

2007

In 2007, O'Toole appeared as a backing singer for her husband's fictional band Spinal Tap at the London leg of the Live Earth concerts.

2009

She has also performed on the band's 2009 Unwigged and Unplugged tour, and contributed lyrics to "Short and Sweet" on the 2009 Spinal Tap album Back from the Dead.

2010

On January 19, 2010, it was announced that O'Toole would be returning to Smallville for at least one episode.

In 2010, O'Toole played the role of Veronica, a middle-aged woman with a severe case of Alzheimer's, in season 3 episode 7 of the TV series Lie to Me.

2011

In 2011 she starred in CAP21's production of the new musical Southern Comfort, based on the Sundance award-winning documentary, by Dan Collins and Julianne Wick Davis.

2013

In 2013 she appeared in Grey's Anatomy as a school teacher who finds out, after surgery, that she will die from cancer.

O'Toole portrayed Susan Emerson in six episodes of the first two seasons of Halt and Catch Fire.

2016

In 2016, O'Toole returned to the Stephen King realm as boarding house owner Edna Price in 'The Kill Floor' episode of the King miniseries 11.22.63. O'Toole filled the role of Hope McCrea in the Netflix series Virgin River.