From ‘Grease’ to Hallmark and Broadway: Marilu Henner on Legacy, Longevity and Living Without Regret
“The key to your life is how well you deal with Plan B. Plan A is what you hope for, Plan B is what happens… All the greatest things in my life — from my third and final husband, to having my boys when I did, to Taxi — so many of them were Plan B.”
I had the pleasure of talking with Marilu Henner. Marilu, a five-time Golden Globe nominee, has carved out a multifaceted career in entertainment spanning more than four decades. From her breakthrough role as Elaine Nardo on the sitcom Taxi to her current work across television, stage, film, and health advocacy, Henner has remained a distinctive presence in American popular culture. With over 70 film credits, dozens of television appearances, and a notable Broadway résumé, she has built a career defined by versatility, persistence, and a rare cognitive trait that sets her apart.
Born and raised in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, Henner was immersed early on in a rich tapestry of community and performance. Her family’s home functioned as a local hub. It featured a dancing school in the garage, a beauty salon in the kitchen, and an art studio upstairs. With her Polish and Greek heritage and a large extended family, Henner’s childhood was both unconventional and foundational to her later pursuits in the arts. These early experiences shaped her flair for performance and gave her an intuitive understanding of character and story, both of which became essential to her craft as an actress.
Henner’s entrance into professional acting began with the original Chicago production of Grease, where she originated the role of Marty. From there, she joined the national touring company and later performed in several Broadway productions including Chicago, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, Social Security, and Pal Joey. Her work in regional theater has continued well into recent years, with roles at Bucks County Playhouse and other venues. She has appeared in multiple performances of Noises Off, a part she first played in the 1992 film adaptation.
On screen, Henner is perhaps best known for her role on Taxi, which debuted in 1978 and became a cultural touchstone. The ensemble series featured Henner alongside a cast that included Judd Hirsch, Danny DeVito, and Tony Danza. Off-screen, their camaraderie has endured over decades. The cast has remained close, keeping in regular contact and reuniting often. The success of Taxi served as a springboard for a long career in film and television, including roles in L.A. Story, Johnny Dangerously, Evening Shade, and numerous appearances in made-for-TV movies. She has completed over 30 projects for Hallmark, including the Aurora Teagarden Mysteries series.
Henner is also one of a small group of individuals identified with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM), a rare condition that allows her to recall virtually every day of her life in vivid detail. This extraordinary memory has led to appearances on 60 Minutes and invitations to testify before Congress on issues including Alzheimer’s disease, memory function, and health policy. Her advocacy has extended to nutrition, women’s health, and end-of-life care.
Beyond acting and advocacy, Henner has authored ten books, several of which have become bestsellers. Her writing focuses on health, wellness, memory, and parenting. Titles such as Total Health Makeover and Wear Your Life Well reflect Henner’s deep commitment to holistic living. This path began after the early deaths of her parents from preventable health issues. Determined not to repeat that pattern, she educated herself in nutrition, anatomy, and health sciences. She eventually transformed her own lifestyle and influenced those of her siblings and audience members alike.
In addition to her work as an author and actor, Henner has hosted television talk shows, a syndicated radio program, and podcasts. Her current podcast, Between the Sheets, explores themes of intimacy and personal connection. She also appeared on reality programs such as Celebrity Apprentice and Dancing with the Stars, extending her reach in public life.
Henner is currently part of the rotating cast of My First Ex-Husband, a series of monologues written by Joy Behar and based on interviews with divorced women. The show is concluding its New York run and preparing for a national tour. Henner, herself on her “third and final husband,” brings both personal insight and humor to the production. She is also relocating from Los Angeles to New York in order to pursue additional theater roles and film opportunities.
Despite a schedule filled with professional demands, Henner maintains balance through strict self-care routines. These include a plant-based diet, daily exercise, and habits that support mental focus and emotional well-being. She attributes much of her health transformation to giving up dairy and embracing nutritional education. Her lifestyle philosophy includes mantras like “learn to love the food that loves you” and “motion is the lotion,” principles that have helped shape her long-standing wellness regimen.
Henner also emphasizes adaptability and resilience as guiding values. She often speaks about how many of the pivotal moments in her life stemmed from unexpected opportunities. Whether it was being cast in Taxi or becoming a bestselling author, she credits her willingness to embrace change as key to her success. Organization, emotional perspective, and self-reflection are also traits she values, all of which are informed by her upbringing and personal experiences.
Throughout her career, Henner has played a wide range of roles. She has tackled comedy, drama, stage, and screen with equal commitment. Whether portraying high-energy characters like Belinda in Noises Off or delving into emotionally complex parts such as Bobby Templeton in Carnal Knowledge, she approaches her work with the same drive and depth that have characterized her entire career.
Marilu Henner continues to be an active and dynamic figure in entertainment. From live stage performances and scripted television to books and advocacy, she remains committed to creating meaningful work and sharing insights drawn from her personal and professional journey. With new projects underway and a continued passion for storytelling, she exemplifies a career built on adaptability, focus, and purpose.
Yitzi: Marilu, it’s a delight and an honor to meet you. Before we dive in deep, our readers would love to learn about your personal origin story. Can you share the story of your childhood and how you grew up?
Marilu: Nice to meet you too, Yitzi. Oh my gosh, that’s a whole… that’s like a mini-series. I grew up in Chicago, on the Northwest Side, in Logan Square. My family was the most popular family in the neighborhood because we were kind of the cultural center. I always say we had a dancing school in our garage — 200 students between the ages of two and eighty, including the nuns who came over for stretch classes. We lived next door to a big Catholic church, St. John Berchmans.
That still wasn’t enough for my mother. We sort of had backstage passes to Catholicism. Not only did my mother teach the nuns how to stretch, but my father would drive them to different parishes on the weekends, and my mother would take them bra shopping at Vassarette. She’d come home with bras for the sisters in our family, the girls in our family.
She also ran a beauty shop out of our kitchen, with about 25 women from the neighborhood coming over for cuts and perms. The kitchen wasn’t set up like a kitchen — it looked like a hair salon. The refrigerator was in our basement, and in its place was a blue hair-drying chair.
My uncle, my mother’s younger brother, lived upstairs with 10 cats, two dogs, two birds, a skunk, 150 fish, and his boyfriend Charles. He taught art at the Catholic grammar school next door and also ran art classes upstairs after school. So we had the dancing school in the garage, the beauty shop in the kitchen, art classes going on upstairs, and my uncle was also the neighborhood astrologist. People would come over for readings. He even ran a cat hospital on the roof. There was this structure that looked like a hothouse, but it was set up with incubators for sick cats. And that’s how I grew up.
My father was Polish, my mother was Greek. They were first-generation. All my grandparents were born in Europe. So we were Polish and Greek in a very Polish, German, Irish neighborhood filled with big families. We had six kids in our family, which was kind of medium-sized. Some families had eleven or thirteen kids.
I always say the problem is the solution in disguise. I lost my parents very young. My father died when I was 17 of a heart attack. He was 52. My mother died right after I turned 26. She was 58 and died from complications of arthritis. I couldn’t let their deaths be in vain, so I became an obsessed student of health.
Because I have a good memory, I remember what I read. I was able to cross-connect information. I went to nutritionists, doctors, medical libraries, health food stores. I took human anatomy classes at UCLA. I changed my life and my brothers’ and sisters’ lives, and we’ve all outlived our parents. So yes, I couldn’t let their deaths be in vain. It was really important to me to address some of the health issues that might run in our family.
Yitzi: Tell us the next chapter. How did you start in the entertainment industry?
Marilu: Oh, well, people always ask me that, and I go, are you kidding? With the upbringing I had, show business is boring by comparison. Every day growing up was a production.
Because of the dancing school, people would call and ask for kids to be in shows. And I was always like, “Pick me, pick me!” We need twelve kids for The King and I — “Pick me!” We need two kids for South Pacific — “Pick me!” I wanted to be part of any production I could.
My oldest sister was the lead in most of her college plays, and I was the little nine-year-old girl walking around with a script, running lines with her, learning as much as I could about acting, dancing, and singing. When I was 15, I did a production at Hull House, which was a very famous community theater in Chicago. The production was The Boyfriend, and it was really well received — sold out, great reviews.
In that show was a guy ten years older than me named Jim Jacobs. He was such a character, the funniest person in the cast. Two years later, he called me and said, “Haner, I’ve written a show. It may never get off the ground. We’re going to perform it in a converted trolley barn. It’s called Grease, and I want you to be part of it.” So I was in the original production of Grease, long before it went to New York.
We showed up at the first rehearsal and there were two big stacks of paper. One was scenes — so many high school moments. “Let’s read the book report scene, the polio shot scene, the lunchroom scene, the tattoo scene, the rumble scene, the pajama party scene.” The other stack was all songs — 37 songs in the first act alone. Of course, we cut most of them, but every character had one or two. We started shaping it, tightening it, and it became this huge hit in Chicago.
People from New York came to see it, and some of us were invited to audition. I said no, because I thought, “It’s not going to be a hit.” How dumb was I? But the show went to Broadway. Later, my friend called me when the national company was being formed. I was literally a college student in the morning and an Equity actress in a national touring company in the afternoon. I auditioned and got the job.
That really started everything. I went on the road with Grease for a year, and my second show was a wild story — how I got my first Broadway role. Then I stayed in New York, started doing commercials and movies. I was brought out to Los Angeles for a screen test for a film called Blood Brothers. I got the role, stuck around, and a casting director who liked me brought me in for Taxi. I was wrong for the part, but he believed I could hold my own with the guys and that I could be seen as someone aspiring to work in the art world. So yeah, that’s what really launched everything.
Yitzi: Amazing story. You probably have some amazing stories from your very varied and successful career. Can you share with our readers one or two stories from your professional life that most stand out in your mind?
Marilu: Gosh, you’re asking the wrong person because I have this extraordinary memory. As a result, I’ve got everything at my fingertips, all kinds of stories. I’ll give you the two moments when I knew my life was going to change.
We got onto Taxi, and our first episode aired on Tuesday, September 12, 1978. That following Friday — I’ve told this story before, but it’s such a seminal moment — I happened to be in New Orleans. I was dating John Travolta at the time. We flew to New Orleans from opening Grease in Europe, and we went for the Ali-Spinks fight. All my Taxi guys were there too. The show had just premiered three days earlier, but I’m walking down the street — not with Johnny, he had gone back to the hotel — with all the Taxi guys, and people are honking their horns, shouting, “Hey Louie! Hey Nardo! Hey Tony!” We all looked at each other, and we knew our lives had changed forever.
The other moment that was so impactful: I wrote a book called Total Health Makeover while I was doing the Broadway show Chicago. I was playing Roxie Hart, the first replacement for Ann Reinking. In my spare time — because I was so revved up from all the Pilates and Fosse — I would go work on my book after the show. It was a book I’d been asked to write because I had made a lot of changes in my life. I was healthier, stronger, had lost a lot of weight, and lowered my cholesterol. Judith Regan asked me to write a health book, so I did.
I finished Chicago, and five weeks later the book came out. It was an instant hit. When I started promoting it on May 6, 1998, my friend — who travels with me and does my hair, one of my best friends — came down to meet me. There was a limo waiting, and she said, “I guess your book is on the bestseller list.”
Overnight, my entire life changed. Suddenly, I was an author with a very successful book. It sold over a million copies, and I ended up doing 276 appearances for that first book. It gave me a whole new career as an author. I’ve written 10 books and became a New York Times bestselling author, and it completely changed my life.
When I was 14 years old, I said I wanted to be an actress, an author, and the mother of two boys. I just always saw two boys in my future. And that’s exactly who I am today — an actress, an author, and a mom to two sons.
Yitzi: It’s been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Do you have a story about a funny mistake you made when you were first starting in acting, and the lesson you learned from it?
Marilu: A funny — well, it wasn’t funny at the time, but okay. I was auditioning for a movie, the one I mentioned earlier, Blood Brothers, which brought me out to LA. I met with the director — he was fantastic — and I was going to have a screen test in Los Angeles. I get to LA, I’m so excited. They send me to the makeup and hair department at Warner Brothers. The head makeup guy does my makeup in a way that didn’t look like me at all. It was odd, especially since this was for film, and he even used the two red dots they used to put in Greek theater — like old-school stage makeup.
I get on the set, and the director looks at me and says, “Go wash your face, comb your hair, and look exactly like you did at the audition. Do your own makeup.” Ever since that day, I’ve done my own makeup and hair. I’ll work with someone, but I have such trust in what I know works for me.
It’s not like I’m a diva or anything. If anything, I’m the middle child who says, “No, it’s okay, I can take care of myself.” My mother used to call me Miss Self-Sufficient. “Oh Mary, you’re so self-sufficient.” I’ve just learned to do so many things on my own because I never wanted to be in a situation again where I was at the mercy of someone making a big mistake — where I needed a director to step in and say, “Go wash your face.”
Yitzi: You have so many diverse roles, such a range. What’s been the most challenging role or project you’ve taken on and why?
Marilu: Well, it’s funny. I think the character that’s most like me — and I’ve now played her twice — is Belinda in Noises Off. It’s a tricky part, but I always felt like, oh my gosh, this is so much like me. She knows everything that’s going on, she’s trying to save the day, she’s filling in for people, she’s good at the gossip, she knows people’s lives — everything. And she’s got a lot of energy. I always saw her as having a lot of energy.
That’s always been one of my favorite parts to play, as is the part of Lee in The Allergist’s Wife, which I’ve gotten to play three times — on Broadway, at La Mirada, and at Bucks County Playhouse. I’m on the board there now. I did Noises Off last year, 32 years after I did the movie. Crazy — same part.
But the most challenging? I was talking to somebody about this the other day. I think one of the most challenging parts I ever played was Bobby Templeton in the play Carnal Knowledge. I did it opposite Gregory Harrison, and David Marshall Grant was in it as well. It was at the Pasadena Playhouse.
She’s suicidal. I sort of had the physical qualities — Ann-Margret played her brilliantly in the film — but she had this more depressed, suicidal core, which is very different from me. I brought in a lot of sense memory work, worked with a coach and everything. It was a challenging part because it was so different from how I usually respond to things.
Yitzi: You mentioned that you have an incredible memory. Can you share a story where that was like a superpower that really came in handy?
Marilu: Oh, I’ll tell you. Twice, people have thrown out lawsuits because my deposition was definitely going to help the people being sued. I remembered the details of both incidents so specifically that they ended up settling. They said, “We’re never going to be able to put her on the stand because her memory is so acute that I don’t believe my client.” So yeah, that’s happened twice.
Yitzi: Has there ever been the opposite, where having such a good memory was a drawback?
Marilu: Never. People always ask, “Is it a blessing or a curse?” I always say it’s a blessing for me — only a curse for my husbands, which is probably why I’m on my third and final. But I respect it. It’s great.
Yitzi: Thank you, that’s great. So, Marilu, you have so much impressive work. Can you share with our readers the exciting projects you’re working on right now and what you have coming up?
Marilu: Okay, so right now I work a lot with Hallmark, which is great. I’ve got two more Hallmark movies coming up. One just premiered a couple of weeks ago, and one is coming in June. It’s the Aurora Teagarden series. I’ve done 21 of those, and I’ve done 31 Hallmark projects total, which is so much fun.
Right now, I’m appearing in My First Ex-Husband, written by Joy Behar. I’m working with Marsha Mason, Julia Sweeney, and Ben J. K. Thomas, and we’re having a blast on Broadway. We close May 18th. There’s going to be a touring company — I might do some of the cities, I don’t know yet, but I’m working on that. It’s at the MMAC Theater in New York on 60th Street.
I’m also working on a podcast called Between the Sheets, and it’s all about sex and intimacy, which is a blast. There’s a movie I can’t talk about yet that I’ll be filming this summer. And I’ve got a Hallmark Christmas movie waiting in the wings. So yeah, it’s all good.
Yitzi: You’ve been in more than a hundred episodes of Taxi. Taxi still has a close following. What do you think it was about the show that captured people’s hearts and minds?
Marilu: I think it was extremely well written, extremely well cast. We all love each other so much. Judd and Carol came to my show on Sunday, Tony came last Friday. We’re all super close. We’ve done 23 Zooms since the pandemic started. We’re completely current with each other.
We have a Taxi text chain that we’re on every day, sharing information and keeping up with each other. When you have that kind of love, those kinds of characters, and that kind of writing, you end up with magic. That’s why it’s so special and why it still endures.
Yitzi: Great. You were also in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, another very beloved show. How would you compare and contrast your personal character, Mary Lou, with the character you played, Vivian?
Marilu: Well, it’s funny because they asked me to come on and play a character, and it was only supposed to be one episode. But Joe Lo Truglio and I had such great chemistry. In the very first episode, we have this smash cut — big kiss in a coat closet. We’re making out during this party, and I said, “Joe, let’s go for it.” We went for it. We actually passed a cheese soufflé from one mouth to the other. This was pre-COVID, by the way.
And the producers went, “Oh my gosh, can you come do five episodes with us?” So that’s what I did, and it was great. It’s single-camera, so it’s very different from how Taxi was, which was four-camera. On Taxi, the cameras moved around, and you rehearsed it like a play, then shot it on Friday nights.
Vivian was well-educated, and… look, I’ve had my share of boyfriends, and I like kissing in closets — what can I tell you? She was a little more domineering. She had to be, with Charles’s character.
Yitzi: Okay, this is our signature question. You’ve been blessed with a lot of success, and you’ve been in this industry for a very long time — which is, frankly, rare. Can you share five things that you’ve learned now that you wish you knew when you first started acting?
Marilu: Well, I have different credos that I’ve developed.
- Okay, first, because I’m so health-oriented and did a lot of studying about nutrition, I always say, “Learn to love the food that loves you.” When I started, I was not a healthy person. My mother had just died, and I decided to get healthy after that. But when I think about all the years before Taxi — she died right before Taxi — I struggled with my weight. I was a yo-yo dieter, constantly up and down. Studying health and nutrition as much as I did, I came up with that phrase: “Learn to love the food that loves you.” Now I know dairy doesn’t love me. Gluten, meat, sugar — they don’t work for me either. I can’t drink wine or champagne, maybe a little sake once in a while, but that’s it. And dairy — I was addicted to it, and it was the worst thing for me. So that’s definitely one big lesson.
- Second: “Motion is the lotion.” You have to move every single day. Your cat stretches, you walk your dog, you get a hamster wheel for your hamster — we are these beautiful human animals, and we need to move.
- Third: “The key to your life is how well you deal with Plan B.” Plan A is what you hope for, Plan B is what happens. You can go kicking and screaming into Plan B, or you can say, “Huh, what’s around that corner that might be more interesting for me?” All the greatest things in my life — from my third and final husband, to having my boys when I did, to Taxi — so many of them were Plan B at the moment. But I learned to embrace them.
- Fourth: Don’t take everything as a narcissistic injury. Don’t take things personally. You’ve got to develop a little coat of Teflon so things bounce off of you. That person might just be having a bad day. Especially in show business, you often don’t get the job and you may never know why. But if you crumble every time that happens, you’re not going to last. I auditioned for 40 commercials before I booked one, and then I figured it out and booked a bunch in a row. You just have to hang in there. Don’t get wounded, don’t get offended. You can feel sorry for yourself for a bit, but then go do something nice for someone else — that’ll pull you out of it.
- And fifth: Organization is key. You’ve got to be organized. I’ve always loved being organized, but now I’ve taken it to the next level. I move too quickly through life to be constantly looking for things. Have a place for everything, and return it to its place. My mother used to say, “Never leave a room empty-handed.” We had a small house, but there were eight of us, and if we didn’t constantly move things back to where they belonged, it would’ve been total chaos.
Yitzi: Unbelievable. You touched on this a little bit, but let’s elaborate. Can you share with our readers the self-care routines that you do to help your body, mind, and heart to thrive?
Marilu: Okay, well, first of all, I eat very well. I move every single day. I always say, break a sweat for at least 10 minutes today. You’re going to warm up to those 10 minutes, then cool down — that’s a half-hour right there. I’m always looking for ways to multitask my health. I’ll say, “Hey, want me to run to the store?” and I’ll walk there, especially when I’m in New York. I’ll take the longer route, or I’ll park my car in a way that forces me to walk more.
I also make use of small windows of time. While I’m brushing my teeth with my electric toothbrush — which runs exactly two minutes — I do leg lifts on both legs. I do that twice a day. I’m always blending tasks and looking for shortcuts that boost my well-being.
And like I mentioned, I don’t eat meat, chicken, poultry, dairy, gluten, or sugar. I also found out I’m allergic to bell peppers and eggplant, so I stay away from nightshades as much as possible, especially because my mother died from arthritis complications.
Beyond physical health, I always ask myself what my responsibility is in any situation. I never want to play the victim. If I have a bad experience, I ask myself, “What could I have done differently?” I’m always trying to grow from that.
Being a good listener is another big one. That’s essential in acting, but even more important in life and in relationships. And honestly, I just try to keep a good attitude.
I remember reading once that Kitty Carlisle used to wake up every morning, look in the mirror, and say, “I forgive you.” I love that. Whatever happened the day before, you forgive yourself and move on.
And here’s something big I’ve learned, kind of ties into the last question too: there’s no such thing as cheating. Every day, you’re in the laboratory of your life. Every day is an experiment. Some experiments work better than others.
So don’t beat yourself up if you had a bad day. You’re just collecting data. Maybe what you ate, drank, thought, or argued about didn’t work — so now you know. You judge by the results, see how you feel, and just chalk it up to experience. You’re experimenting, learning, and moving forward.
Yitzi: Amazing answer. You started out on Taxi in the 70s, and now you’ve been in more modern comedies like Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Neighborhood. How have you seen comedy and sitcoms evolve from when you started to now?
Marilu: I wish there were more four-camera shows because that’s so much fun. That was one of the things I loved about doing The Neighborhood recently. I hope they come back more and more because people really enjoy them. And honestly, good writing is good writing. Chuck Lorre is a friend, Jim Brooks is a friend — they write brilliant things. Phil Rosenthal too. Good people write well, plain and simple.
Yitzi: This is our final aspirational question. Marilu, because of your great work and the platform you’ve built, you’re a person of enormous influence. If you could put out an idea or inspire a movement that would bring the most good to the most people, what would that be?
Marilu: Give up dairy products. It is life-changing. It changed everything about me. I consider it my health birthday — the day I gave it up was August 15th, 1979. It was a Wednesday. Every single thing in my life changed. My body changed, my breathing changed, my singing, how often I got sick — it all changed.
You’re not a baby calf. Dairy is designed to turn a 50-pound calf into a 300-pound cow in six months. So if those are your aspirations, knock yourself out. We have 27 or 28 feet of intestines and one stomach. A baby calf has 9 feet of intestines and four stomachs. We can’t break it down. Most people in the world don’t eat dairy. It’s just a big industry here.
If I could have a movement, it would be animal-oriented. We shouldn’t be killing or eating as many animals, and we shouldn’t even be drinking milk.
Yitzi: Beautiful, beautiful. So, Marilu, how can our readers continue to follow your work? How do they watch your latest films?
Marilu: I’m on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You can find me at @TheRealMaryLou. My assistant came up with that a long time ago — great guy — I don’t have him anymore, but I kept the handle. It’s MARILU.
Yitzi: Marilu, it’s so delightful to meet you. I wish you continued success and good health, and I hope I can do this again next year.
Marilu: You got it. You got it.
From ‘Grease’ to Hallmark and Broadway: Marilu Henner on Legacy, Longevity and Living Without… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.