Dorothy Lyman

Dorothy Lyman is an American actress, director, and producer born on April 18, 1947, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Violet E. (née Brightwell) and Hector H. Lyman, a stockbroker. She attended Washburn High School in Minneapolis, where her classmate was Jill Larson, who would later succeed her in the role of Opal on All My Children.

Lyman began her television career in 1971 with a role as flower child Julie Stark on the soap opera A World Apart. She subsequently appeared as Elly Jo Jamison on The Edge of Night from 1972 to 1973, and then as architect Gwen Parrish Frame on Another World from 1976 to 1980, returning to the role in 1989. Her most recognized soap opera work came on All My Children, where she originated the role of Opal Sue Gardner from 1981 to 1983. That performance earned her two Daytime Emmy Awards: Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role in a Daytime Drama Series in 1982, and Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama Series in 1983. She later portrayed Rebecca Whitmore on Generations from 1990 to 1991, and Bonnie Roberts on The Bold and the Beautiful from 1991 to 1992.

In 1983, Lyman took on the role of Naomi Harper in the sitcom Mama's Family, a part she held for all six seasons of the series. During the early period of that production, she continued performing on All My Children simultaneously, commuting weekly between New York City and Los Angeles. Mama's Family concluded its run in 1990. Lyman's off-Broadway producing and directing career began in 1981 with A Couple White Chicks Sitting Around Talking.

Her Broadway credits include the role of Jan Morrison in Dancing in the End Zone in 1985. That same year she appeared in the Tales from the Darkside episode "In the Cards." In 1988, she played Ralphie's mother in Jean Shepherd's Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss, appeared as Maura Norris in the ALF episode "Tequila," and in 1989 portrayed Sgt. Carol James Meyers in the Hunter episode "The Pit."

Following the end of Mama's Family, Lyman transitioned primarily to producing and directing, overseeing 75 episodes of The Nanny, encompassing all episodes of the third and fourth seasons and all but four episodes of the fifth. She also made a guest appearance on that series and held a recurring role on Bob, Bob Newhart's third television series. Her film appearances include a cameo in I Love Trouble, starring Nick Nolte and Julia Roberts, a cameo in the 2001 film Blow starring Johnny Depp, and roles in both World Trade Center and The Departed in 2006. In 2007, she guest-starred in the third season of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica as Starbuck's mother and made a guest appearance on Reba as the titular character's mother. She later appeared in the season-six episode "The Pawnbrokers" of The Blacklist.

Lyman performed the one-woman show My Kitchen Wars in Hollywood and New York, based on the book by Betty Fussell, and wrote and performed in A Rage in Tenure at the Geo Theater in Hollywood in 1995. In 2010, she produced, directed, and served as cinematographer on the feature-length documentary Janet's Class, centered on veteran actress and acting teacher Janet Sarno. The film was scored by Grammy-winning arranger Bill Cunliffe and featured Sarno alongside students ranging in age from 50 to 92. As of December 2025, the documentary had not secured a commercial distributor, though it received a public screening in February 2011 at the Andes Hotel in Andes, New York, where Lyman lived from 2001 through 2018.

From 1971 to 1983, Lyman was married to director and actor John Tillinger. Their children include daughter Emma Tillinger Koskoff, an Academy Awards-nominated producer, and son Sebastian Tillinger, an actor. From her second marriage to French film producer Vincent Malle, she has a son. Lyman is a registered Democrat and resides in Washington Depot, Connecticut.