Marilu Henner Talks ‘Aurora Teagarden,’ ‘Taxi’ Zoom Calls and Staying Busy at 72 (EXCLUSIVE)
Plus, learn how she overcame a recent tragedy and found strength in her family and her work
If you’re wondering what Marilu Henner, the beloved star of sitcoms like Taxi and Evening Shade and Hallmark’s Aurora Teagarden Mysteries has been up to lately, the answer is just about everything. The veteran actress has been keeping busy darting from movie sets to the stage, writing scripts and developing a new podcast and documentary.
Marilu Henner recently returned to the screen in the two latest Aurora Teagarden TV movies, A Lesson in Murder and Death at the Diner, and the multitalented star sat down with Woman’s World to talk about her rise to stardom and the secret to her success
Woman’s World: The Aurora Teagarden movies are pretty suspenseful. Do you immediately flip to the end after you get the script?
Marilu Henner: Never! I want to take the ride by trying to figure it out. I’m always surprised when I find out whodunit in these films. A Lesson in Murder has a really clever ending. It was a shocker, and I never saw it coming.
WW: You’ve been playing Aida, Aurora’s mom for nearly a decade. What draws you to the character?
MH: In this version, Aida is relatable because she’s in a vulnerable time in her life. She went through a divorce from Aurora’s father and lost her footing, and now she’s trying to find her way. While Aida is busy reinventing herself in her post-divorce life, her daughter Aurora comes back to live with her at the house while she attends grad school. I love the positive message it sends about the mother-daughter bond and Aida’s evolution
WW: You’ve been working with Hallmark for a long time, and now you’re developing a script for the network. Can you share anything about that?
MH: I can talk a little bit about it without giving too much away. It will be based on my own family. There were six of us and I was the middle child. The script is a cornucopia of stories that involve so many people and kids. I cherry-picked the best characters to help tell these stories that center on the now and my childhood.
WW: You also just finished acting in three plays in a row—The Journals of Adam and Eve in New York City; Noises Off at the Bucks County Playhouse; and your first play in London, Madwomen of the West. What was it like doing all these plays and making your debut across the pond?
MH: The audience in London was very sophisticated and understood satire, so our show was a big hit there. I’ve played so many diverse roles and I am so grateful for all of them. I love being on stage, and I love being in front of a live audience. What can I say, I like whatever I’m in the middle of.
WW: You’ll always be loved for playing Elaine on Taxi. Do you consider that your breakthrough?
MH: It’s a funny story. I had a contract to do a pilot for CBS, and I was on vacation in Rio with John Travolta, who I was dating at the time, when they asked me to do the pilot for Paper Chase in 1977. I didn’t want to leave Rio, so I said I would do it as a guest star. Reluctantly I left Rio and shot it.
A month later, I shot another pilot to honor my contract. Six months after that, Paper Chase was picked up, but I was already auditioning for Taxi. The casting director for Taxi kept bringing me back to read for Elaine and noted how I could hold my own with Judd Hirsch. Long story short, but after realizing how I can also work well with the guys…you know the rest!
WW: Taxi premiered in 1978, and your character was a female cab driver and a single mom, which was not a common storyline back then. Where did you find inspiration for Elaine?
MH: It was a very different time for a female character like that. I based Elaine on my older sister, JoAnn, who was a divorced mom of two and aspired to be a photographer.
WW: Do you keep in touch with your Taxi costars?
MH: We’ve done 23 Zoom calls since the pandemic and have made it a habit to do one every two months. It’s me, Tony Danza, Judd Hirsch, Christopher Lloyd, Danny DeVito, Jim Brooks and Carol Kane. It’s always the seven of us. I’m all about family and these people are my family.
WW: You also starred in Evening Shade with Burt Reynolds. What was it like working with him?
MH: Those were four incredible years of my life. When I did that show it was the fifth time I worked with Burt Reynolds. The first time was when we did the film The Man Who Loves Women. Burt was the most generous, loving and funny person I ever met. I still think about him every day.
WW: You’re also working on a new podcast about living your best life after 50. What has your experience of aging in the entertainment industry been like?
MH: Putting Taxi aside, because I was 25 years old when I started on that show, so many milestones occurred after I turned 40. I had my two children, I married my third and final husband, I was doing Broadway, wrote books, starred in 31 Hallmark movies, performed in London, did Dancing with the Stars, and starred as Roxie in Chicago.
Since the pandemic, I’ve done 16 movies and performed my one-woman show, Music & Memories, 41 times around the country. I’ve also done 20 Netflix dubbing projects and starred in five different plays. My job has taken me to Los Angeles, New York, Bucks County and London. Now, I’m working on a documentary about my memory [Henner has highly superior autobiographical memory, a rare condition that allows her to remember every day of her life in great detail] and a brand-new Podcast that will premiere in early 2025. So yeah, it does keep getting better with age.
WW: What motivates you to keep this pace and have an upbeat attitude?
MH: My dad was 52 when he died of a heart attack and my mom suffered from rheumatoid arthritis. I watched her whole body change and she was only 58 when she passed away. I remember saying to myself that my parents’ deaths would not be in vain.
WW: Is that why you follow a healthy diet and maintain a clean lifestyle?
MH: I was a teenage yo-yo dieter. After my dad died, I ate my feelings and put on a lot of weight. I lost my mom on May 13, 1978, and one month later I got Taxi. I knew I had to get healthy, and I did that by learning about the human body and changing my life.
WW: You touched upon your family. Your two boys, Nicholas and Joseph Liberman took a cue from you and their dad [director Robert Liberman] and following and are now doing creative things themselves. What has it been like seeing their accomplishments?
MH: I am so proud of them. My boys grew up on sets and they were always surrounded by the industry. My older son, Nick, went to Columbia and wrote and directed the movie Theater Camp. Now he’s involved with four different film projects and is a wonderful director. My younger son, Joey, performs with an improv troupe, and he’s an international bridge player and is working with NBC Sports and the Olympics.
WW: Your husband, Robert, sadly passed away last year. How have you been coping?
MH: I lost Robert, who was my second husband, on July 1, 2023, and my first husband, Frederic Forrest, on June 23, 2023. They died eight days apart, and that was a sad time for everyone. My third husband, Michael Brown, is healthy and robust. He had cancer early on in our relationship so that was rough, but he is doing great and is cancer-free.
Robert was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2018 and went through all kinds of stuff. Then he went into remission. There was a period when there were a lot of positive reports from the doctors, which was great, but then it came back with a vengeance and the last year was rough. I have to say he was a real trooper. Robert even made an end-of-life playlist that was a beautiful representation of everyone that was close to him and constantly played it while he was in hospice.
WW: With the holidays on the horizon, you’ll be honoring your family and spending time with loved ones. How do you usually celebrate?
MH: For Christmas, I do an annual Christmas survey, which I used to handwrite and now do electronically. This year we are celebrating our 42nd survey. It has all sorts of questions—What do you want from your Secret Santa? What are your favorite books, podcasts, TV shows and movies of the year? What were your highlights and lowlights of the year? They’re so much fun to do and read out loud when the family gets together.
Conversation
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