Concetta Tomei

Concetta Tomei is an American actress born on December 30, 1945, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, whose career has spanned Broadway, television, and film across several decades. She earned a degree in education from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and spent four years working as a teacher before committing to a career in theatre. Her formal dramatic training began at the Sunset Playhouse in the Milwaukee area under Alan Furlan, and she later pursued a BFA at the Goodman School of Drama at the Art Institute of Chicago, now affiliated with DePaul University. Following her graduation, she spent two years working with the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas, before relocating to New York City.

Tomei's New York stage career took shape through a series of significant Off-Broadway productions, including Caryl Churchill's Cloud Nine and Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, both considered pioneering works in their respective eras. Her performance opposite Kevin Kline in the New York Shakespeare Festival's production of Richard III earned her New York's Bayfield Shakespearean Award. Her Broadway career, which extended from 1979 to 2007, included productions of Goodbye Fidel, Noises Off, and The Elephant Man, in which she appeared alongside David Bowie. She subsequently continued in the national tour of The Elephant Man. In 2007, she returned to Broadway opposite Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner in Cyrano de Bergerac, a production later recorded and broadcast on PBS's Great Performances in 2009.

Between her Broadway engagements, Tomei maintained an active presence in regional theatre after relocating to California in the 1980s, performing at venues including the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Oregon Contemporary Theatre, and the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. In 2006, she returned to Off-Broadway in Sarah Ruhl's The Clean House.

On television, Tomei is perhaps best recognized for two long-running series roles. She played Major Lila Garreau on the ABC drama China Beach from 1988 to 1991, and portrayed Lynda Hansen across 63 episodes of the NBC medical drama Providence from 1999 to 2002. Additional television credits include recurring appearances on L.A. Law, Falcon Crest, Picket Fences, Max Headroom, and Judging Amy, as well as guest roles on 7th Heaven, Touched by an Angel, The King of Queens, Weeds, Numb3rs, The Closer, Cold Case, Ghost Whisperer, Nip/Tuck, Rubicon, Necessary Roughness, and Kitchen Confidential. She appeared in two episodes of Wings in 1991 and 1994, playing the former wife of Roy Biggins in both installments. She was also a cast member on the short-lived series Madman of the People during the 1994–95 season, and in 1997 portrayed Minister Odala in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Distant Origin." In 2017, she appeared in two episodes of The Mick, "The Grandparents" and "The Matriarch," as Tippy Pemberton, the grandmother of Sabrina, Chip, and Ben. She also starred in the 1992 miniseries The Burden of Proof.

Tomei's film work includes the role of Mrs. Crandell in the 1991 cult film Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, as well as appearances in Murder in Three Acts (1986), The Betty Ford Story (1987), and In Love and War (1987).