Background and career
Marilu Henner (born April 6, 1952) is an American actress, singer, dancer, television host, and author. She began her career appearing in the original production of the musical Grease in 1971, before making her screen debut in the 1977 comedy-drama film Between the Lines. In 1978, Henner was cast in her breakthrough role as Elaine O'Connor Nardo in the ABC/NBC sitcom Taxi, a role she played until 1983 and for which she received five Golden Globe Award nominations. Henner later had co-starring roles in films such as Hammett (1982), The Man Who Loved Women (1983), Cannonball Run II (1984), Johnny Dangerously (1984), Rustlers' Rhapsody (1985), Ladykillers (1988), L.A. Story (1991), and Noises Off (1992). She returned to television with a starring role in the CBS sitcom Evening Shade (1990–1994), and had leading roles in many television films. Henner's memory is one of fewer than 100 known cases of Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory. Henner has the ability to remember the details of every day of her life.
Marilu Henner was born on April 6, 1952, in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Loretta Callis and Joseph Henner. Henner's birth name is Mary Lucy Denise Pudlowski. She was the middle child of six siblings, including JoAnn, Melody, Marilu, Tommy, Christal, and Lorin Henner. She is of Greek and Polish descent. Her father, born Joseph Pudlowski, died of a heart attack at age 52, when Henner was 17, and her mother, born Nikoleta Kalogeropoulos, died of complications from arthritis at age 58, when Henner was 26. Henner attended Madonna High School in Chicago, an all-girls, Catholic school. She had a great interest in the theatre. Henner had good grades, and she was named Outstanding Teenager of Illinois in 1970. She had four scholarships for college. In 1970, Henner began attending the University of Chicago in Hyde Park, in the class of 1974. In 1971, Henner was in the original Chicago production of Grease at the Kingston Mines Theatre Company in the role of Marty. She left the University in 1972.
When Grease in Chicago was discovered and a new production of it began on Broadway in New York in 1972, Henner was asked to reprise the role of Marty. She was in the national touring company alongside John Travolta, who played Doody. The role ended her college career and began her acting career. Additional Broadway credits for Henner include Over Here! (1974) with Travolta, revivals of Pal Joey (1976), Chicago (1996), Social Security (1986), and The Tale of the Allergist's Wife (2000). In 2026, Henner appeared in The Ask, a two-person off-Broadway play co-starring Shannon Purser. The Ask officially opened October 15, and runs through November 22.
Her first film appearance was in the 1977 sleeper-hit Between the Lines, co-starring then-unknowns Jeff Goldblum, Lindsay Crouse, John Heard, and Jill Eikenberry. Her second role was opposite Richard Gere in the 1978 film Bloodbrothers. She was the leading lady in the 1982 film Hammett directed by Wim Wenders, produced by Francis Ford Coppola and starring her first husband Frederic Forrest. In 1983, Henner starred opposite Burt Reynolds in The Man Who Loved Women, directed by Blake Edwards. Reynolds then asked Henner to join the cast of Cannonball Run II later that year along with Shirley MacLaine and Dom DeLuise. She was the leading lady in the 1984 film Johnny Dangerously, playing the love interest to Michael Keaton. In 1985, she once again appeared alongside John Travolta in Perfect. In 1991, she appeared opposite Steve Martin in L.A. Story as Trudi, a role for which she received a nomination for an American Comedy Award as the Funniest Supporting Female in a Motion Picture. She also appeared in Noises Off (1992) and in Man on the Moon (1999), a film about her Taxi co-star Andy Kaufman. Henner played herself (as well as herself playing her Taxi character).
In 1978 Henner came to prominence with the role of Elaine Nardo in the situation comedy Taxi. She portrayed a single mother working as a cabbie who aspired to work at an art gallery. A breakthrough role for Henner, she played Nardo until 1983, receiving five Golden Globe Award nominations. The show was a critical and commercial success and is widely regarded as one of the greatest television shows of all time.
Henner guested on Match Game and Hollywood Squares. From 1990 through 1994, she appeared opposite Burt Reynolds in the situation comedy Evening Shade, which also starred Ossie Davis and Hal Holbrook. In 1994, she hosted her own daytime talk show, Marilu, for 165 episodes. In 2006 and 2007, she was the host of the television series America's Ballroom Challenge. Henner said on an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, in early 2008, that she had never actually danced ballroom and would like to go on a season of Dancing with the Stars. This would later come true in 2016 for season 23 of that show. She later hosted FitTV and The Discovery Channel's Shape Up Your Life, which is based on her books. Henner was a contestant on NBC's first The Celebrity Apprentice, in 2008. She was fired by Donald Trump in the eighth episode but was brought back to help fellow contestant Trace Adkins in the final task of the show.
